Did my Scot ancestors have a word for our American Educational system: feckless? The dictionary translates this as "weak, thoughtless, careless, ineffective."

I'll dramatize it for you. Imagine a feathermerchant sinking in a bog, surrounded by many helping hands, but saying, "No! I'll do it my way!"

I'll show you that rich resources for EDUCATION and ADMINISTRATION exist -- some of the resources available for over 2000 years -- but ignored!

Truthfully, I don't think all of those educators are feckless. A lot of them are cynics. I've been in Military Service and taught many Service students. I've worked in business and taught many business students. And I've worked for and with many politicians. Seems to me that the highest level of cycnicism I've encountered has been in the Academic World. Many years ago, this inspired a quatrain:

				Those who know seldom CARE.
				Those who CARE rarely KNOW.
				When KNOW meets CARE and teams with DARE
				Then Mt. Constipation will blow!

Being a mathematician and former math prof, I'll "build my case" primarily with "mathematical tools", for two reasons.

Firstly, MATHEMATICS GAVE US CIVILIZATION. MATH RESCUED US FROM THE COLD AND DARKNESS OF THE CAVE; FROM THE SAVAGERY AND SUPERSTITIOUS FEAR HAUNTING PREHISTORIC LIFE; FROM THE BARE SUBSISTENCE OF A HUNTING-GATHERING ECONOMY.

Another opinion from science writer, Ian Stewart, in his excellent Nature's Numbers (p. 28): "If mathematics, including everything that rests on it, were suddenly to be withdrawn from our world, human society would collapse in an instant. And if mathematics were to be frozen, so that it never went a single step farther, our civilization would start to go backward." (A further opiniom.)

Secondly, that neglected field of mathematics -- COMBINATORICS -- needed to support THE AMERICAN CITIZEN-CONSUMER -- can transform any MATHEMATICAL STRATEGY or TACTICS into any other non-mathematical one, as desired.

Is there a paragon for our Educational System in some lines I wrote many years ago about a colleague? My name for him derived from Dicken's "Pecksniff". The last lines were inspired by President Woodrow Wilson's 1916 electioneering promise not to take America into World War I, saying, "We are too proud to fight!" I embed this in a twist from Browning.

				Teachsniff stifflegs it
				Like a dog in a fight.
				In Teachsniff's classroom
				He's always right.
				Mention student's rights,
				And Teachsniff sniffs.
				His colleagues are wary
				Of Teachsniff's miffs.
				A man's grasp
				May exceed his reach:
				Teachsniff is
				Too proud to teach!

Is the American Educator too proud to educate?

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But I must describe as FECKLESS what THE EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT and its traditions have done to what I consider the most important tool of DISCOVERY and EXPLANATION we possess: HOMOLOGY. In subsequent files, you'll hear my complaints. And why variants of HOMOLOGY played a big role in creating CIVILIZATION.