Junior history

Martha Olene Phipps Armstrong, my junior year history teacher, passed away on Thursday, Oct. 15, at the age of 98. I had regrettably lost touch with Mrs. Armstrong and her life over the past few years. She was one of those wonderful teachers we all remember that had a real impact on our lives.

Martha's passing helped to remind me that I needed to write something about education in my column. This is especially true since we are going to have a vital vote this coming Tuesday at the polls. This vote has real meaning for our community.

Mrs. Armstrong was a no-frills teacher. She came from that generation that accepted no nonsense in a classroom. Her lessons were straight forward, and you had a lot of homework. She was never worried about whether she was popular, or if her students were having a good time in her class. She was there to teach them history, period.

Two of my classmates from that time were really good students, especially in history which was my best subject. Brent Mendenhall (of George Bush look alike fame), and Jim Cox (Brent and I both thought he was the smartest person we knew back then), were also students in Martha's class.

We often got into some challenging arguments with Martha Armstrong. We were young and thought we were ever so smart. How she must have been amazed at how naive we really were. This was a woman who had a master's degree in education. She taught for 41 years. She had witnessed two world wars and the Great Depression, and we thought we knew more than she did!

Mrs. Armstrong would likely have some thoughts for the patrons of the Nevada R-5 School District. She would likely give us some history lessons about our schools in this country. She would probably teach us that education is as fundamental to our society and democracy as anything we know about our history. There are thousands of you out there who received your education in our local schools. Each of you had teachers like Martha Armstrong. Well, that type of education is in danger.

Even before this current recession began, our schools were strapped for the funding they needed to continue to provide the same traditional education for today's kids. Within the last decade, our school district's voters have refused to pass new tax levies that would ensure the continuation of the good schools we need.

I understand that taxes are not popular, regardless of the programs they are levied to operate. This current vote is not for a new tax, however. On the contrary, it is merely a vote to continue a current tax that will shortly lapse after its designated time allowance.

This vote will not increase your taxes at all. It will just keep the tax levels that we are paying to run our school district at the same level as they are now. To make any other vote at this time is dangerous for the future of our schools and our kids.

Martha was one of the teachers that taught me quite a bit about our country's history and in particular our education history. From the very beginning, all of our "Founding Fathers" were proponents of a new concept called "universal education."

Many of our ancestors had come to this country without even the ability to read and write. In Europe, the education of the lower working classes was forbidden. They didn't believe in giving them the opportunity to get an education and move upward in society. They wanted to keep people ignorant and in their proper place.

Leaders like Thomas Jefferson felt that in order for our new, young country to survive, we would have to raise a new generation of noble leaders every few years. This new nobility would not gain their place in society because of what family they were born into, but rather because they were the new, recently publicly educated, "cream of the crop."

That is what has separated us as a nation for so many years from everyone else in the world. The next senator, doctor, or even the next history teacher is in a classroom in Nevada and towns like it all over this country. It matters not if they are from a poor or broken home, they can get an education and a chance to succeed in their future lives.

So, you voters have a choice on Tuesday. You can be one of the "againers" of which there are legions right here in our area. You know, those who are against everything. Or you can be part of the continuing story of American education history.

Our schools are the best things we as a community and as a country, have ever produced. There is no excuse for not supporting this ballot issue. We owe our future children the same chance at a good education that we were afforded as young people ourselves.

Martha Armstrong and all the other teachers from our past gave us the kind of education that allows us to make informed decisions where voting is concerned. Do you have the right to stand in the way of today's kids and their education. I know what my answer is, and I am quite sure that Martha and all those other wonderful educators from my youth would tell you exactly the same thing.

They would tell you two things. First of all, go vote. It is your right and your duty. Second, they would tell you to support the Nevada R-5 schools by voting to continue to supporthem. It is the right and only thing to do.