John Whitehead's Commentary
Censored Speaker Teaches Students Life and Death Lessons
"Use your life for something that will outlast itself. And let your reach go beyond your grasp. You can quit school and do many things outside of school. But if you stay in school and get that education, you become what you want to be and sooner or later, you are going to have the dreams of your life come true if only you make good choices in school now. It happens and it can happen to you." --Jaroy Carpenter
One person can make a difference. Sometimes one person can make all the difference in a young person's life-if he or she is allowed to do so.
Take Jaroy Carpenter, a former public school teacher who travels to schools across the country, leading assemblies and talking about things young people need to hear and don't hear enough of-things like respecting themselves and each other, why they shouldn't do drugs, the importance of fair play.
Carpenter seems to understand what it takes to get a young person to sit up and listen. And he knows exactly what questions to ask to get the kids to respond. "How many of you, if you could change something in life, would change something about yourself? How many of you would change something about somebody else's life?" he asks middle and high school students. "How many of you have ever done anything stupid in your life that you wish you could change? How many know in life that what goes around comes around?"
Amazingly, the kids respond-almost every time. Carpenter alternates his words of wisdom with goofball antics. He encourages them to hop on one foot and raise their hands in the air. He makes them laugh. But most of all, he does what few teachers, parents or school officials are able to do. In a world of many distractions-video games, MTV, portable CD players, DVDs and raging hormones-he does what seems impossible at times: Carpenter gets their attention.
During these assemblies, Carpenter uses slapstick humor and offbeat anecdotes to work an auditorium full of kids. And by the end of the assembly, he gets his message across loud and clear: actions have consequences; what goes around, comes around; the choice to make or break your life is up to you.
What's not to like about Carpenter's message? That's what he and a group of attorneys at The Rutherford Institute wanted to know after school officials withdrew their invitation to have him address an assembly of middle school students in Dillon, Montana.
Concerned residents of Dillon had approached the Dawson McAllister Association for advice on how to reach out to Dillon youth after a string of teen suicides and automobile deaths. McAllister is a nationally recognized youth speaker who hosts a Christian radio program and conducts Christian youth rallies across the country. He suggested that local middle schools and high schools stage a three-day, city-wide youth rally, as well as non-religious school assemblies focusing on respect for self and others, responsibility and making the right choices. And the McAllister Association recommended Jaroy Carpenter as a motivational speaker for the assemblies.
After reviewing the proposal for a secular in-school assembly, school officials and community members from the Dillon Elementary School District agreed to invite Carpenter to present a strictly secular speech, in keeping with his regular public school presentations, to students at Dillon Middle School. But after one particularly "concerned" school board member, among others, pointed out that Carpenter is a Christian and affiliated with an evangelical Christian ministry, common sense ended and chaos began.
Spooked by the board member's dire warnings that Carpenter's faith and affiliation with a Christian ministry might put the school at risk of violating the so-called "separation of church and state," the school board rescinded its invitation. Other area schools that had agreed to hold assemblies withdrew their offers as well. They couldn't risk the possibility that Carpenter might address religious matters during his speech and subject the district to a lawsuit, they reasoned. Conveniently, they ignored the fact that Carpenter has made more than 200 secular presentations at school assemblies around the country and has never addressed religion or sought to proselytize those in attendance.
Carpenter, however, decided the issue was too important to let it die. He subsequently filed a lawsuit, and now a federal judge will decide whether students in Montana can hear what Carpenter has to say.
Motivational speakers like Jaroy Carpenter may not have all the answers, but they do have some good, honest wisdom to share--and they know how to make young people sit up and listen, something too many of our school teachers and parents have never learned.
As Carpenter says, "There are winners in life and there are losers in life." It might be difficult to name the winners, if any, in this farce that is playing out in Dillon, but there can be no doubt about the losers. It is a tragedy beyond description that, once again, those who will suffer most are the very young people who are so desperately in need of guidance and who will someday be required to steer this nation through the challenges that await it.
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
One person can make a difference. Sometimes one person can make all the difference in a young person's life-if he or she is allowed to do so.
Take Jaroy Carpenter, a former public school teacher who travels to schools across the country, leading assemblies and talking about things young people need to hear and don't hear enough of-things like respecting themselves and each other, why they shouldn't do drugs, the importance of fair play.
Carpenter seems to understand what it takes to get a young person to sit up and listen. And he knows exactly what questions to ask to get the kids to respond. "How many of you, if you could change something in life, would change something about yourself? How many of you would change something about somebody else's life?" he asks middle and high school students. "How many of you have ever done anything stupid in your life that you wish you could change? How many know in life that what goes around comes around?"
Amazingly, the kids respond-almost every time. Carpenter alternates his words of wisdom with goofball antics. He encourages them to hop on one foot and raise their hands in the air. He makes them laugh. But most of all, he does what few teachers, parents or school officials are able to do. In a world of many distractions-video games, MTV, portable CD players, DVDs and raging hormones-he does what seems impossible at times: Carpenter gets their attention.
During these assemblies, Carpenter uses slapstick humor and offbeat anecdotes to work an auditorium full of kids. And by the end of the assembly, he gets his message across loud and clear: actions have consequences; what goes around, comes around; the choice to make or break your life is up to you.
What's not to like about Carpenter's message? That's what he and a group of attorneys at The Rutherford Institute wanted to know after school officials withdrew their invitation to have him address an assembly of middle school students in Dillon, Montana.
Concerned residents of Dillon had approached the Dawson McAllister Association for advice on how to reach out to Dillon youth after a string of teen suicides and automobile deaths. McAllister is a nationally recognized youth speaker who hosts a Christian radio program and conducts Christian youth rallies across the country. He suggested that local middle schools and high schools stage a three-day, city-wide youth rally, as well as non-religious school assemblies focusing on respect for self and others, responsibility and making the right choices. And the McAllister Association recommended Jaroy Carpenter as a motivational speaker for the assemblies.
After reviewing the proposal for a secular in-school assembly, school officials and community members from the Dillon Elementary School District agreed to invite Carpenter to present a strictly secular speech, in keeping with his regular public school presentations, to students at Dillon Middle School. But after one particularly "concerned" school board member, among others, pointed out that Carpenter is a Christian and affiliated with an evangelical Christian ministry, common sense ended and chaos began.
Spooked by the board member's dire warnings that Carpenter's faith and affiliation with a Christian ministry might put the school at risk of violating the so-called "separation of church and state," the school board rescinded its invitation. Other area schools that had agreed to hold assemblies withdrew their offers as well. They couldn't risk the possibility that Carpenter might address religious matters during his speech and subject the district to a lawsuit, they reasoned. Conveniently, they ignored the fact that Carpenter has made more than 200 secular presentations at school assemblies around the country and has never addressed religion or sought to proselytize those in attendance.
Carpenter, however, decided the issue was too important to let it die. He subsequently filed a lawsuit, and now a federal judge will decide whether students in Montana can hear what Carpenter has to say.
Motivational speakers like Jaroy Carpenter may not have all the answers, but they do have some good, honest wisdom to share--and they know how to make young people sit up and listen, something too many of our school teachers and parents have never learned.
As Carpenter says, "There are winners in life and there are losers in life." It might be difficult to name the winners, if any, in this farce that is playing out in Dillon, but there can be no doubt about the losers. It is a tragedy beyond description that, once again, those who will suffer most are the very young people who are so desperately in need of guidance and who will someday be required to steer this nation through the challenges that await it.
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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