When I was in high school (1968-72), I played for the JV football team and the JV lacrosse team. I ran fast and well enough to letter in Varsity track. On my best days, however, I could never dribble towards a basketball hoop, jump, and stuff a basketball. Back then and now, I admire people who can. I do not want the keepers of basketball to lower the rim sufficiently for me to be able to stuff a hoop because that would make the process less awesome.

In sports, fans want to see excellence. That was once true in education, but the goal of excellence has been pushed aside by “the no child left behind” mentality. Some writers call this the “dumbing down” of educational expectations. One of the reasons given for this change is that educators do not want less academically adept students to feel bad when others are recognized and rewarded for excellence. Some school systems, for example, have discontinued the practice of identifying a valedictorian at high school graduations to avoid making the other graduates feel bad.

Image by Grok.

For me, Making America Great Again calls for us to celebrate excellence again. As a taxpayer and a believer in education, I want my local Board of Education to aim for excellence, nothing but excellence. God help me get good grades.

In America, we have a love affair with the idea of equality. We believe that “all men are created equal.” We believe that we should be treated equally politically and before the law.

Our equality does not extend to wealth. We have poor people in America, and we have people like Elon Musk. Abraham Lincoln, who was born very poor, rose due to his own efforts to become our greatest President. He wanted others to do as he did and “Rise as high as talent and effort” would take him.

We have Americans who reject our history and want a socialistic or communistic framework for our government. They prefer equity to equality. Some see traces of these systems in the “dumbing down” of our education.

People still long to come to America because of the American Dream. The American Dream says something that can be achieved by anyone in the U.S. especially by working hard and becoming successful. Freedom and Equality, not equity, is the mixture that makes the American Dream work.

I may not be able to dunk a basketball, but God has given me other gifts that I can develop and use to support my family. Excellence needs to be applauded in America, not deemed obsolete.

Ned Cosby, a frequent contributor to American Thinker, is a former pastor, veteran Coast Guard officer, and a retired English high school teacher. His novel OUTCRY is a love story exposing the refusal of Christian leaders to report and discipline clergy who sexually abuse our young people. This work of fiction addresses crimes that are all too real. Cosby has also written RECOLLECTIONS FROM MY FATHER’S HOUSE, tracing his own odyssey from 1954 to the present. For more info, visit Ned Cosby.