Why Johnny Can't Read

by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2015, all rights reserved.

Chapter 1

We are graduating young people from high school in the U.S. who can't read well, nor write well, and who are not good at mathematics.  

Do employers need people like that? 

Well, if it's for a Janitorial position, maybe. 

If it's just for restocking grocery store shelves, maybe.  But the candidate has to be able to look at boxes of product and distinguish correctly between corn flakes, and laundry detergent, or he can't do the job.  

If the schools held the graduates back to repeat courses, that could double and maybe triple the population of the school.  The Seniors have to be put out to make room for the 11th graders, etc.  

I was living at a place in the Chicago area, and one of my neighbors was a Teacher.  I think he was a Substitute Teacher, so he would get around to lots of different classes.  

He spoke about rowdiness in the schools, and he said, "And the girls are worse than the boys."  

If the teacher is trying to teach English or Math or any subject, the teacher needs the attention of the students.

I remember one high school Science Teacher.  We would come to class, and when the starting bell rang, he would start his lecture.  If he saw that not many were taking notes, he would say, "Capture," and make writing movements with his hand.  He wanted us to be taking notes in our notebooks.

And so we did.  

But to take notes on the Teacher's lecture, one must be paying attention to the Teacher and listening.  

But in many classrooms, the students are not paying attention to the Teacher.  Perhaps they're kidding around with each other, or throwing balls of crumpled paper.  

If the teacher says, "Stop that," a student might answer, "Get lost," or some other disrespectful answer.

And I think, in many cases, the Teacher can't do much about it.  

I think that's a reason why we're losing good teachers.  

Why should someone have the headaches of being a Teacher when they could just as easily be an Accountant, or Technical Writer, or Researcher?

But when I was coming up through High School, our nation was one of the best in education.  But now, our nation is toward the bottom of the list.  

What happened?

Here's what happened.  THEY TOOK THE DISCIPLINE OUT OF THE SCHOOLS.  

When I joined the U.S. Navy, first thing is they send you to Boot Camp.  

In Boot Camp, in case you hadn't learned to do laundry, you'll be taught.  And taught how to fold your clothes the Navy way.  You'll learn to march with your boot camp company.

But the main thing they teach in Boot Camp is discipline.  You learn to obey orders.

And if you can't learn to obey orders, you're out of the Navy.  And it's like that in the other branches of the military.  

When I attended Junior High School (Middle School), if a male student misbehaved, he was sent to the Boy's Vice Principle, where that official applied a paddle to the bottom of the misbehaving student.  

And you know what?  The students graduated knowing how to read and write and do math.  

But then some "genius" came along and said, "No, you can't spank the students."  And our nation went toward the bottom of the list for the knowledge level of high school graduates.  

That so-called genius was not a genius, but an idiot, and an enemy of the nation.  

Chapter 2

There is a saying, "Spare the rod and spoil the child."  

That's not exactly a scripture, but the Bible says something like it, 

"He that spares his rod hates his son: but he that loves him chastens him at times." (Prov 13:24)

Do you get it?  If you won't spank your son when he does wrong, it's because you hate him.  If someone told you otherwise, they lied to you.  

"Don't withhold correction from the child, for if you beat him with the rod, he won't die.  You shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell." (Prov 23:13,14)

Now if you're a parent. let me ask you a question.  Do you want your child to wind up in a beautiful place called heaven, or in a very nasty place called hell, where Jesus said they have crying and gnashing of teeth, and where their worms don't die, and the fire is never quenched?

Prov chapt 23, in the passage above, says spank the child so that the child won't go to hell.  

But Jesus taught that you must be born again to go to heaven. (John chapt 3)

Proverbs is a book from the Old Testament.  Those Jews were waiting for the Messiah to come.  The Good news is that the Messiah (the Savior) has come.  His name is Jesus, and he taught us to get born again in the books of the New Testament.  

But your child is far less likely to get born again if you wouldn't spank him when he needed it.  

I had a job in California where a co-worker of mine was having a problem with one of his children at school.  The officials told him that if he spanked the child, they would come and arrest him.  

I don't know if it's still like that in California, but if it is, and if you're a California parent with a child or more, then I suggest, MOVE OUT OF THAT STATE.  

My Dad used to preach to us boys just a little.  Not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  No, Dad was not a Christian, and later died and went to hell.  But I remember him sitting in his TV chair and watching TV.  A commercial would come on TV, and he would turn to us and say, "Education is the key to success."  

I believe he thought he was helping us.  I believe it was his intention, by saying that, to help us.  

He said, "I see it all the time, these young guys come in with their degrees and are promoted over men who've been employees for much longer."  

But I believe Dad got it a little wrong.  Instead of saying, "Education is the key to success," I believe he should have said, "A College Degree is the key to success."  

Now, we're talking here about financial success.  Success in the world.  Earning a good living, and providing well for your family.

But there's something far more important, and that's a right relationship with God.  

Jesus said, "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matt 16:26) 

You lose your soul if you go to hell.

Is Bill Gates still the richest man in the world?  But not even the richest man in the world could buy his way into heaven.  No, you have to be born again, Jesus said. (John chapt 3)  

You get born again by obeying Romans 10:9,10--

"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you're saved.  For with the heart man believes for righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made for salvation."

But a good Christian does want to earn a good living and provide for his family.  But if the Lord calls you to be a Missionary, then financial success is not a high priority.  Even so, I believe God wants his Missionaries to prosper and be in health. (3 John 2)

But the reason I believe Dad should have said, "A College Degree is the key to success," (rather than education), is that I have education.  

I'm a high school graduate with a year of college, and in the Education section of my resumes I would say, "and two years of Military Technical Schools."  

That would be in the Navy and in the Army.

So I would set forth myself to prospective employers as having the equivalent of an AA degree.  I think some of them bought it, and some did not.  

I consider myself to be educated.  To a large extent, I'm self-educated.  By reading books, I learned digital electronics and Computer Programming.  

And I've worked as both a Digital Circuit Design Engineer and a Computer Programmer.

But employers that will hire you for a position like that without a college degree are not at all abundant.

During about a one month period, in the Silicon Valley area of California, I sent out about 300 resumes, for Programming positions, with hardly any response, even though those resumes clearly showed two positions I'd held as Computer Programmer.

Why? 

Because when you send your resume to an employer, it goes to the Personnel Department.  The Personnel Department does not include the Head of Engineering at that company.  

It is usually staffed by young women who've been told that for positions like Computer Programmer, the candidate should have a four year college degree, which I didn't have.  

I didn't lack the education, and I was an experienced Programmer, but I didn't have the four year college degree.  


___James chapter 1
 1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are dispersed around, greetings.
 2 My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations,
 3 Knowing this, that the testing of your faith works patience.
 4 But let patience have its perfect work, so you'll be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God for it, who gives to all men liberally, and won't find fault, and it shall be given to him.
 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.  For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.
 7 For let that man not think that he'll receive anything from the Lord.
 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
 9 Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted,
 10 But the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he'll pass away.
 11 For the sun has no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower of it falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
 12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation, for after he's been tested, he'll receive the crown of life, that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any man,
 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.
 15 Then when lust has conceived, it produces sin, and sin when it's finished, produces death.
 16 Do not err, my beloved brothers.
 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.
 18 He chose to father us with the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
 19 So, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger,
 20 For the anger of man doesn't accomplish the righteousness of God.
 21 So, lay apart all filthiness and the unnecessary naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man seeing his natural face in a mirror,
 24 For he sees himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
 25 But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
 26 If any man among you seems to be religious, and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is for nothing.
 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

___James chapter 2
 1 My brothers, don't have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
 2 For if a man with a gold ring comes to your assembly in fancy clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes comes in also,
 3 And you have respect to him that wears the fancy clothes, and say to him, "Sit here in a good place," and say to the poor, "Stand there, or sit here under my footstool,"
 4 Aren't you then partial in yourselves, and have become judges with evil thoughts?
 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, hasn't God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
 6 But you have despised the poor.  Don't rich men oppress you, and bring you before the judgment seats?
 7 Don't they blaspheme that worthy name by which you're called?
 8 If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor like yourself," you do well,
 9 But if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as sinners.
 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
 11 For he that said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not kill."  Now if you don't commit adultery, yet if you kill, you've become a breaker of the law.
 12 Speak in such a way, and do, as those who'll be judged by the law of liberty.
 13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that has shown no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment.
 14 What does it profit, my brothers, though a man says he has faith, and doesn't have works?  Can faith save him?
 15 If a brother or sister needs clothes, and lacks daily food,
 16 And one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you don't give them the things that are needed for the body, what good is that?
 17 Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead, being alone.
 18 Yes, a man could say, "You have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works."
 19 You believe that there is one God, you do well, the devils also believe, and tremble.
 20 But don't you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
 21 Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son on the altar?
 22 Do you see how faith worked with his deeds, and by works faith was made perfect?
 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God."
 24 You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
 25 Likewise also wasn't Rahab the prostitute justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
 26 For like the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

___James chapter 3
 1 My brothers, don't be many masters, knowing that we'll receive the greater condemnation.
 2 For in many things we offend all.  If any man doesn't offend in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
 3 See, we put bits in the horses' mouths, so they'll obey us, and we turn around their whole bodies.
 4 Look also at the ships, which though they're so large, and are driven by fierce winds, yet they're turned around by a very small helm, wherever the captain wants.
 5 Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things.  See how great a matter a little fire kindles!
 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of sin, so is the tongue among our members that it makes dirty the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell.
 7 For every kind of animals, and of birds, and of snakes, and of things in the sea, gets tamed, and has been tamed by mankind,
 8 But no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
 9 With it we bless God, the Father, and with it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God.
 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be.
 11 Does a fountain send out at the same place sweet water and bitter?
 12 Can the fig tree, my brothers, produce olive berries?  Or a vine, figs?  So no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh.
 13 Who is a wise man, possessing knowledge among you?  Let him show out of a good lifestyle his works with meekness of wisdom.
 14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, don't glory, and don't lie against the truth.
 15 This wisdom doesn't descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be reasoned with, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
 18 And the fruit of righteousness is planted in peace by those who make peace.

___James chapter 4
 1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from?  Don't they come from your lusts that war in your members?
 2 You lust, and don't have, you kill, and desire to have, and can't obtain, you fight and war, yet you don't have, because you don't ask.
 3 You ask, and don't receive, because you ask wrongly, so you can consume it on your lusts.
 4 You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.
 5 Do you think that the scripture says for nothing, "The spirit that lives in us lusts to envy?"
 6 But he gives more grace.  So he says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he'll run away from you.
 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.
 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and cry, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift you up.
 11 Don't speak evil about each other, brothers.  He that speaks evil about his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil about the law, and judges the law, but if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge.
 12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy, who are you that judges someone else?
 13 Go on now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we'll go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and make a profit,"
 14 Actually, you don't know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is a puff of steam, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
 15 For you ought to say, "Lord willing, we'll live, and do this, or that."
 16 But now you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil.
 17 Therefore to him that knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.

___James chapter 5
 1 Go on now, you rich men, cry and howl for your miseries that shall come on you.
 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your clothes are moth eaten.
 3 Your gold and silver are rusted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire.  You've heaped treasure together for the last days.
 4 See, the wages of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which you've kept back by fraud, shouts, and the shouts of those who've reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.
 5 You've lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, you've nourished your hearts, like in a day of slaughter.
 6 You've condemned and killed the just, and he doesn't resist you.
 7 Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.  See, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receives the early and latter rain.
 8 You also be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is getting near.
 9 Don't grudge against each other, brothers, so you won't be condemned, see, the judge stands at the door.
 10 Take, my brothers, the prophets, who've spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
 11 See, we count them happy that endure.  You've heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
 12 But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, not by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, so that you don't fall into condemnation.
 13 Is anyone among you afflicted?  Let him pray.  Is anyone merry?  Let him sing psalms.
 14 Is anyone sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,
 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he'll be forgiven.
 16 Confess your faults to each other, and pray for each other so you'll be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man is does a lot of good.
 17 Elijah was a man subject to the same kind of passions that we are, and he prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months.
 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
 19 Brothers, if any of you strays from the truth, and someone converts him,
 20 Let him know, that he that converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.