Modern education demeaning war heroes.

My four-year-old son, Jonathan, admires super heroes such as Darth Vader. Guns, swords, and things that detonate fascinate him. He talks of one day becoming a soldier because, as he brags, he "can aim good."

Jonathan starts public school this fall, and that scares me. It scares me because I worry that the political correctness of our public education system will rob him of, or rebuke him for, his boyish imagination.

Today's public schools teach that a true hero cannot be a man who sheds blood to achieve his purpose, even if that purpose is the protection of his country, or family.

Several schools have gone as far as to rename the classic children's game from Tug-o-War, to Tug-o-Peace. Instead of trying to pull the other team to your side, you try to help to them to other side.

It is supposedly too oafish and uncivilized to teach children that a warrior is someone to be praised and honored. That thinking is considered much too primitive for the twenty first century. In part, this is the reason behind the decline of classic literature in modern public schools. Classic literature is rampant with attitudes about the world that will send the post-modern intellectual running in disgust.

Because the concept of heroism asserts one man as better and stronger than another man, promotes military combat, and espouses the inevitable casualty of some men, modern liberal intellectuals snub the notion.

However, the truth of the matter is that sometimes words alone are not enough, and war heroes deserve our utmost respect. Dying in battle is noble, even when that death is caused by the mistake of your own side. The death of some is necessary for the security and freedom of many.

Modern day schools should be teaching children to understand such truths, and should encourage a young boy's virtuous dream of becoming a warrior.

After all, as George Washington understood, "There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy."