April 2024
Dear Friend of Golden View Classical Academy,
I want to tell you about the best class I ever taught, which happened to be on the USS George Washington, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier stationed in Yokosuka, Japan. I was a civilian teaching an American government class in 2010, and we had just gotten to a Supreme Court case called Texas v. Johnson. If you aren’t familiar, the question from the case is this: does the First Amendment protect your right to burn an American flag?
So, the context of this class matters. About one week prior to the class, we were stationed ashore, minding our own business. Class was continuing as normal, but everything was basically still. Then, North Korea made the choice to lob some explosives over the border to South Korea, a decision which was, as they say, stupid. It became an international incident, and there was a question abroad: who would be the first show of force to North Korea to remind them that throwing explosives is frowned upon? Turns out - it was the crew of the USS George Washington. So in about a day, all the sailors on land got back on the ship and headed out, to tuck up in the Yellow Sea just off the coast of North Korea, to engage in joint exercises with the Japanese air force. Side note - at one point I was in the weight room on a treadmill, which is a crazy experience on a ship that is rocking left/right, forward/backward, and up/down. I had my headphones in, listening to Metallica (the Black Album probably), and the ship turned so that I knew I was looking out on the ocean, and beyond it to North Korea, the worst country on the planet. So you have to imagine this - me running, listening to Metallica, looking at hell on earth, and the US and Japanese air forces launching jet after jet, over and over, off the deck. It was intense - there was more firepower in that joint exercise than most nations can muster altogether.
At any rate, class was continuing despite all of this, and we had this question - does the First Amendment protect your right to burn the flag? I was expecting a 100% “no” response, and I was wrong. It was 50/50, almost exactly. This was the most diverse group of students I have ever taught - some officers and some enlisted sailors, some from the south and some from the north, rich and poor, every race, and some who had just earned their citizenship. And here they were, in their downtime doing chemical-weapons training exercises to prepare for an attack on the ship from a dictator who seemed crazy, and then in class debating this question about civilian rights. Some of them were there so that they could protect people’s right to protest, even if their ideas were ugly. Others were there so that they could defend a flag that meant so much to them. The conversation was civil, intense, and fascinating.
It’s this kind of conversation we hope to cultivate at Golden View Classical Academy. It’s hard to get there, admittedly, just because the military draws from all of the country in a way no school could. But it is aspirational - to strive to disagree civilly, and still jointly oppose evil when it comes down to it, just like our sailors and soldiers did in that class.
And it’s also a reminder that while America is a foundation and a basis, it is also an aspiration, something that has to be renewed and achieved again and again each generation. I’m proud of the work we are doing at Golden View to do our part in that project.
Sincerely,
Dr. Garrow
Principal, Golden View Classical Academy
