Up & Coming Weekly

OPINION Sputnik and 9/11: An Education Wake-Up Call by COL. DAVE MAXWELL AND COL. PAUL BURTON When the Russians launched Sputnik, our nation’s leaders knew the United States was behind in the space race. That event galvanized our leadership and more importantly it turned our educational institutions’ focus to science and mathematics, allowing the U.S. to gain and maintain the technological edge that allowed us to put a man on the moon, win the space race, and ultimately by 1989, win the Cold War. More importantly, the space race inspired the imagination of a generation of young Americans who would dominate the world of ideas for more than 40 years, crossing the space victory and moving into industry strengthening one of the nation’s instruments of national power: our economy. When the tragedy of 9/11 occurred, and with the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it has been recognized that although the United States is a global power, it also has a global deficiency in a globalized world: a lack of language and cultural skills in our government and in our military. Our nation is now at war, a war that is different from the Cold War. Winning the current wars requires that we change our focus again. We must focus on building a force, both civilian and military, that is capable of living, working, understanding and communicating with people in other cultures. Gen. George W. Casey, the Chief of Staff of the Army, recently noted that while we do a good job of training selected soldiers, such as Special Forces, in language skills, the Army requires more culturally savvy soldiers. He says it is key to building an Army that can cope in the 21st century “era of persistent confl ict.” Unfortunately, unlike Sputnik, 9/11 did not serve as a wake-up call for the nation’s education system and immediately drive a focus Fun in the 14th Century by PITT DICKEY To take my mind off current events, I have been reading about the 14th century. What a toddling time that was. The 14th century produced the beginning of the Little Ice Age, the Great Famine of 1315 and that all around favorite, the Black Plague, which visited Europe in 1348. As a Swiss historian once said, “The 14th century was a bad time for humanity.” But it certainly makes me feel better about the 21st century. What a difference 700 years can make. If you can make it through this column you’ll feel better about the here and now, but probably will never look at a marmot the same way again. Today’s current events feature all kinds of goofy stuff going on: the undead BP oil leak coupled with the beginning of hurricane season, the Israeli attack on the Turkish ship stirring up the Middle East, the report that Iran now has enough fuel for two nuclear bombs, and most frighteningly of all, the release of Sex and the City Two onto an unsuspecting American public. But I digress, let us return to those thrilling days of yesteryear in the 14th century. The year 1315 began two years of torrential rains and fl oods in Europe causing massive crop failures. People ate moldy wheat which produced really unpleasant neurological symptoms called Saint Anthony’s Fire. Famine stalked the land as people starved. Cannibalism turned parents against children. Graveyards were harvested for protein. It was pretty grim. Sanitation didn’t exist in the cities. The law required city dwellers above the fi rst fl oor to yell out three times “look out below” before dumping their chamber pots out their windows onto the muddy streets. Cooties abounded. The Black Plague started in the 1300s somewhere out on the windswept steppes of Asia. For reasons known only to bacteriologists, the plague cootie Y. Pestis likes living in fl eas that infest rats and absolutely loves the fl eas that live on marmots. Marmots are weasel-like critters residing in colonies along trade routes in Asia. Marmot fl eas jumped onto caravans and cruised across Asia spreading fear and loathing. Unlike the present day, folks didn’t get along so well in the 14th century. Genoa, Italy, had a major trading post in a town called Caffa on the coast of Crimea. The Genoans got into a ruckus with the Mongols who ruled most of WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Asia. The Mongols laid siege to Caffa in 1343. Sieges tend to be drawn out. The Mongols settled in for a long winter’s nap trying to starve out the Genoans. Suddenly what to the Mongols’ wondering eyes should appear, but the Black Plague coming up from the rear. The Mongols started dropping like fl ies. At fi rst the Genoans thought this was pretty cool. God was smiting the infi dels. The Mongols decided to share the wealth. They loaded dead plague victims into catapults and heaved them over the walls into Caffa where they spread peace, love and plague all over the city. After a few years, the plague had pretty much depleted the Mongols and the Genoans. The Mongols withdrew. The Genoans high tailed it out of Caffa in 1348 on their fl eet of plague ships stopping at various ports along the way sewing new crops of plague outbreaks across the Mediterranean. Things didn’t turn out so well from this modest plague beginning. People who claim to know such things allege that of the 75 million people living in Europe in 1348, 25 million died in about three years of the plague. The plague came in three fl avors: bubonic plague spread by fl ea bites that caused blackened tumors called buboes to erupt near lymph glands; pneumonic plague spread by air which resulted in bloody coughing and death; and septicemic plague which infected the blood and typically caused death in about 14 hours. Medical science was a bit weak in the 14th century. The prevailing medical theory was that bad air spread the plague. Plague could be prevented by carrying fl owers to breathe through to fi lter the yucky air. A children’s nursery rhyme summarizes the 14th century plague. “Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies/Ashes, ashes/We all fall down.” The rosie was the plague hemorrhage under the skin. You breathed posies to avoid the plague. The bodies of plague victims were burned because there were too many to bury. We all fall down because we are dead. PITT DICKEY, Contributing Now, don’t you feel better about the 21st century? Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. JUNE 9-15, 2010 UCW 5 on language and cultural education for America’s youth. While the government, particularly the Department of Defense, has worked hard to develop language and culture within the ranks, educators will tell you that it is extremely diffi cult for most adults to gain and maintain foreign- language profi ciency. The U.S. government, military and economy need the American educational system to make language education a high priority. There are positive indications that the sleeping giant of the American education system is waking up. Some states have placed an increased effort on preparing America’s youth to speak a second language, understand country or regional history and communicate across cultures. Successful programs will focus on K-12, select academically disciplined students and suffi ciently resource teaching and infrastructure requirements. Language education requires time, iterative growth, dedication and study; success will not be measured on a standardized test. Success will be judged by the effective use of socio-linguistic skills that enable U.S. employees and their respective organizations to favorably compete in the global economy. Disciplined academic language education is a long-term investment that America cannot afford not to make. America needs creative, innovative, culturally savvy individuals who possess the critical skills needed to contribute to America, either through government or military service or as business leaders, helping the U.S. remain the leader in the global economy. Col. David Maxwell is the director of Strategic Iniatives at the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and Col. Paul Burton is the director of the Directorate of Regional Studies and Education at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

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