What I try to do on my radio every day is to give ammunition to people that agree with me but may not have had the time or the inclination that I have had to formulate these ideas quite as succinctly and clearly. If I can give you some ammunition in the intellectual arena, then I will have served a good purpose tonight.

Tonight I am going to talk with you about the Ten Nos that we have in education.

My father was raised in a home that spoke no English. They spoke Yiddish, which is a European Jewish/German mélange. It's a judaized German that is written in Hebrew letters--just as there was a Spanish Jewish language that was a combination of Spanish and Hebrew called Ladino.

Why do I tell you about my father? I asked him on the air, "Dad, you speak perfect English. I'm just curious: If you would have had a bilingual education growing up in Brooklyn, New York, do you think you would speak this well?"

"No," he responded. "And not only that--you wouldn't be a talk show host."

Which is, of course, exactly right. As I then said on the air, "Thank God there was no bilingual education for my parents. Thank God. I could not do what I'm doing if I had been raised in a home with parents who had never mastered English, let alone if I had been the second generation to have a bilingual education. It is such a terrible idea. Do its proponents really believe in it? When I speak to people on the left, I often ask myself whether they believe what they're saying.

Which leads me to the Ten Nos that exists in too many of America's schools. I list them in no order of importance. They are all important.

1. No God
The first No is, there is no God. And that's tragic. Because even atheists' children should be exposed to this basic tenet of American culture. After all, God does make an appearance in the Declaration of Independence. So the atheist's child should become aware of what the founders had in mind when they spoke about our being "endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights". Only a Creator can endow human beings with rights. You can't be endowed with rights by nature and natural evolution.

Our children are raised with no God at school. That has tremendous consequences. For example, I am convinced that a major reason for the chaos of behavior in our schools, whether it is sexual, or the degraded language, or any of the other anarchic behavior that is so prevalent, can be dated to the day prayer in schools was banned. I think it could be logically shown, certainly chronologically shown.

Do you know what the prayer was that was banned by the Supreme Court? It was the New York State Regents prayer: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country." That was it. The Supreme Court ruled that those 22 words, voluntarily stated, violated the Constitution of the United States. No mention of Christ, or Jesus, or Christianity, or Judaism, or anything specific to any religion.

And let's say some student who didn't believe in God heard these words. Is this a trauma?  What exactly is the injury to the kid who doesn't think God should bless their teacher? Frankly, I might have choked on the prayer, since I couldn't stand half my teachers. But please. What are we talking about? Who's traumatized by it? What difference does it make? If you don't believe in it, you keep your mouth shut, you blink, and it's over.

I went to Columbia University. I mention this only because it's relevant to this particular story. When I was a stamp collector as a boy I learned, looking at the postage stamp honoring Columbia's 300th anniversary, that when Columbia was founded there were four subjects taught. One of them was theology.

From before America was founded, it was assumed that studying about God even if you were an atheist was necessary in order to obtain wisdom. That's why people studied Latin and Greek and that is why people learned Hebrew. Until 1800, Hebrew was required at Harvard University. You could not graduate Harvard if you didn't learn Hebrew because, after all, how could you read the Old Testament?

Imagine how far we have traveled since then--that now you can't even say "God bless my teachers" in a school.

2. No Wisdom
There is no wisdom in our teaching today. Teaching is relegated to a series of (often ideologically driven) facts because of the confusion of knowledge with wisdom. My computer has more knowledge than anyone in this room, but it has no wisdom. That is what has happened at the university, at the high school, at the elementary school. Wisdom is neither sought nor taught.

Now let me tell you about the connection between the first two Nos. Again, back to Columbia. As I wrote a few years ago in a column titled "How I discovered God at Columbia", I was perplexed while at Columbia. As a graduate student there I was perplexed by the amount of nonsense very intelligent professors were teaching me.

For example, I was told that boys and girls are basically the same, men and women are basically the same. That the reason we act differently is due to sexist upbringings. Girls are given dolls and teacups and boys are given trucks and guns, and that is why we have what we call masculine and feminine, not because of anything built-in.

Now I didn't even have a sister, but I knew this was nonsense. This was very serious nonsense that has caused chaos in our world. Yet, the idea that men and women are basically the same except for a sexist upbringing was a given. Every professor who discussed it said that to us. "You have been fooled, students. Men and women only differ physically."

The president of Harvard was recently forced to resign because he suggested that men's brains are different from women's brains. Lawrence Summers, a liberal in the Cabinet of President Clinton, was kicked out because he said at one conference that perhaps one reason we have fewer women in engineering and math is that male brain and female brain are different.

And a woman professor from MIT said she had to leave the room because she was about to throw up. Can you imagine a man saying that about an idea that he didn't like? Ironically, this MIT female professor reinforced most stereotypes about male-female differences, that men can take it and women can't; that men think rationally and women emote. Here was a woman denying that men and women are different while acting exactly to stereotype about a male-female difference. And he was kicked out because apparently at Harvard you can't say that men and women are basically different.

What else did I learn? That the Cold War was equally caused by the US and the USSR, if not primarily by America. That there were two economic systems competing: capitalism and communism, as if that were the Cold War battle rather than between freedom and communism. The left always characterized the war as between "capitalism" and communism, not "freedom" and communism.

This is what I learned. I learned nonsense almost every day I was at Columbia.

Then one day as I was walking around the center of the campus (I remember this vividly), all of a sudden a Hebrew phrase from the Psalms that I had said in the Jewish school that I attended as a child, came back to me. In kindergarten we would say this phrase every day: "Wisdom begins with awe (or reverence or fear) of God." My life changed. It was an epiphany. No God, no wisdom.

In a nutshell, I am convinced that is a major reason the left has so little wisdom. There are many nice people on the left, many sincere people; and we have some bad people on our side. I never assume that just because someone has leftist views, he is bad. They assume that about us. They assume that if you are conservative, you're bad and selfish and so on. I only assume they're foolish regarding specific issues of life. But that's hardly the same as bad. And I came to realize that the lack of wisdom that permeates secular leftist life is because of this insight from the Psalms: no God, no wisdom.

3. No Identity
We do not raise students to be Americans in our schools. It used to be that the public school was the vehicle by which society affirmed young people's Americanness. It is now often the opposite.

Most schools are now vehicles to affirming every identity except American. Let us honor your Mexicanness. Let us honor your Africanness. Let's devote the day to Guatemala. Now I believe that we should all study about Guatemala. I went to Guatemala, which happens to be one of my favorite countries. But I expect Guatemalan schools to raise Guatemalan students. And I expect American schools to raise American students. And that is not done.

We are already suffering because a lack of identity is a curse for a human being. It is not enough to be what the left feels it is and wants all of us to feel: that we first identify as citizens of the world rather than as citizens of any given country. That is the biggest single cause of leftist anger against America on campuses: America believes that it has an exceptional national identity. When America says we don't care about what the UN thinks or what world opinion thinks, it is a major sin to the left. They worship at the shrine of world opinion, because world is their citizenship, not America. They happen to live in America, but their identity is world, human.

They may be right, they may be wrong. All I ask is that we all understand this battle in our schools. For most of American history, schools accepted the American motto E Pluribus Unum, "from many one". So they sought to make kids from every background into Americans. This never meant abandoning all other identities. My family never abandoned our Jewish identity. I am the child of someone who knows how much America accepts and even respects Jews being Jewish. That it is in my blood, as it were, from the stories that I got from my father from the Navy where all he received as Jewish officer on board his naval vessel in World War II was respect.

That is America. We have no problem with Armenian-Americans sending their kids to Armenian schools to learn Armenian culture and Armenian language. We honor it. But we are all one. That you have an additional identity is lovely. It has never been an issue to Americans. But we are Americans and that is not what is taught. You are citizens of the world and what you are ethnically.

Ironically, the left, which speaks against racism, venerates race. And while citizens of the world, venerates ethnicity. It is so much part of our thinking that your ethnicity makes you who you are. Yet, America is the least ethnic country on earth. We don't care about your ethnicity. It's one of the great American revolutions. And the left has now embraced ethnicity.

One Flag Day a high school in the San Fernando Valley told students to bring the flags from the countries their parents were from. On the very day that was made to honor the American flag, you saw 30 different national flags at the school.

4. No logic
I see this whenever I talk to kids at universities and when I have talked to leading intellectual leftists. Howard Zinn is the radical author of A People's History of the United States. Zinn says the world would be better if the United States were never founded. I even then asked him if he regretted the fact that Europeans ever came to North America, if the world would be better if American Indians were the only inhabitants of North America. Yes, it would be better, he responded.

There is no logic because feelings have been substituted for rational thought (not to mention for moral standards). That is why you don't say to a young person that something is right or wrong, but rather "How do you feel about it?"

I have taught high school, I have taught college. I remember speaking at an elite girl's high school in Los Angeles. During the question and answer period after my speech, sometimes I would answer a student, "Well, you're wrong." It was as if I had spoken in tongues. They seemed to have never heard the expression. What do I mean "wrong?"

Feelings trump logic. I see it particularly when I talk to people who are among the elite of the left. Leftist ideas are overwhelmingly feelings-based rather than reason-based. Is "War is not the answer" a logical thought or a feeling? Is the view that men and women are essentially the same logical or emotional? Is support for bi-lingual education rooted in logic or feeling (compassion for immigrant children)?

Overwhelmingly it is people on the left--and remember it is the left that controls the educational system--who say "I'm offended" instead of "I disagree" when they hear something they disagree with. Why? Because their views are predicated on feelings and therefore their feelings are hurt when they hear something they differ with. Just recall the MIT professor who felt nauseous after hearing former Harvard President Summers offer the thought that men's and women's brains may differ.

5. No Standards
Excellence
"Standards" is today a conservative word. After all, as soon as there are standards, you are likely to feel bad if you don't meet them--and all of us fail to meet some standards at some time. And feeling bad about oneself is not a liberal ideal. That's why many teachers no longer mark student papers with red pencils. Red makes the child think that he did something wrong--like when a student writes "I went to the zoo tomorrow." The teacher won't cross out "went" and write "will go" with a red pencil. She (I say "she" because there are almost no male teachers--which actually constitutes another "No") will do it with a blue pencil, because red makes the student feel that it was wrong and blue is more cheerful.

The lack of standards and the primacy of feelings largely explain the Ebonics movement. If a black kid does not speak English properly, liberal educators do not want to acknowledge that he is not speaking English properly, so they argue that he is speaking a dialect called Ebonics.

Among other things, this is contemptuous of blacks. It is, in fact, an example of liberal racism, which I believe to be the most destructive form of racism today. I have never encountered on the right the contempt for blacks that the left often displays. Ebonics is a fine example. Nobody on the right would even consider saying to a black who was speaking English incorrectly, "There's nothing wrong with your English--you are simply speaking another dialect." You have to be on the left to say such a thing to an African-American child. You have to be on the left to announce that you expect less from a black child while believing that you're helping him.

Behavior
In many schools, students cannot be kicked out of class, let alone suspended or expelled for violating what were once behavioral norms. They can curse the teacher and yell expletives at one another without sanctions. Among other reasons is that sanctioning behavior at school may alienate a parent, and perhaps even provoke a lawsuit.

Truth
In addition to a lack of standards of excellence, there are--and this is even more dangerous--lowered standards of truth in the education world. Many history textbooks are no longer written in order to convey historical truths. They are written with the goal of making various groups--ethnic, cultural, sexual, and racial--feel good. American history texts are written to make gays, blacks, Latinos, people in wheelchairs, Bulgarian transsexuals, and other select minorities feel good.

Even sports standards have been attacked. In Massachusetts, you can't win in certain sports because the losers will feel bad. And, as you know, in our state and just about everywhere else you get awards just for playing. My son was on the losing team. It's a Prager tradition to be on the worst team in any given sport.

But even when on the worst teams, they all got the same awards--real statues. If they were honest, the award inscription would read "to David Prager" or "to Aaron Prager--for breathing." If you breathed, you got a statue. So even sports has lost standards.

6. No Morality
Teachers often take umbrage when I cite the lack of moral guidance. "What do you mean?" teachers ask me all the time. "I teach morality in my own classroom," they tell me.

Now I do not doubt that some teachers do so. But by and large, schools do not teach right from wrong. They do not teach character development. Rather they often teach social activism. They thereby teach that a good person is not defined by his or her character, honor, integrity, truth telling, strength, ability to say no to temptation. They are not even issues. A good person is one who walks Ten kilometers for breast cancer. Now, of course that's a good thing to do. Any kid who walks to raise funds for a disease has done a good deed. But it is much easier to walk TenK than it is to walk over to the heavy girl and try to get her involved in social activities; and it is far harder to resist cheating on a test. That's character. Walking TenK for breast cancer is a good deed, but it's not a character developer.

We don't have character development in school. I suspect that if I said to most kids, "Do you work on your character?" they would think I'm talking about a character in a play or on a TV show.

7. No Men
There are almost no men in the lives of our children in schools. They are taught almost only by women. Even the principal of the school is increasingly likely to be a woman. Most kids don't meet a man except their father--and many don't see him much since many fathers work long hours and many are divorced. This is a tragedy for both sexes, but it is a calamity for boys.

Boys don't want to take orders from females. Boys desperately need male role models. And few women understand male nature as well as men understand it.

Because women run schools many schools have eliminated aggressive contact sports from recess play; and normal boy behavior has been stigmatized or even criminalized--like the infamous Oregon case where two seventh-graders participating in girl-boy "slap butt day" were sent to jail, strip searched, put in shackles and charged with crimes by an out-of-control district attorney.

There really is a "war on boys" and a major reason is the absence of men in the education system.

9. No Dress Code
This is astonishing. Astonishingly stupid. Every school that has a strict dress code found that it had less crime, less truancy and higher grades. When you dress respectably, you respect yourself. It is as simple as that. Apparently you have to be on the left to take issue with that. You have to have lost wisdom to deny how significant it is how you dress.

I went to a parochial school and had to wear a white shirt, dark pants and a tie every day. Opponents of a dress code hear that and argue "Where was your individuality?" I'll tell you where it was. It was everywhere except in clothing.

In other words, I had to develop me. And this notion that individuality when you are in high school must be expressed through clothing is so absurd. One should learn to express their individuality by singing, by reading poetry, by being silly even. By being funny, by having a personality. Something, but not by eliminating appropriate dress codes in school.

10. No Choice
This may well be the ultimate proof that teachers unions, not to mention the civil rights movement and the Democratic Party leadership, do not place children's welfare first.

To understand this, you must answer one question: In what area of life is excellence ever attained without competition?

The answer is, of course, none. If the public could ride only General Motors cars for free, how good would GM cars be? If the public can only send its children to state run public schools for free, how good would they be?

When you know that no matter how poorly you do, no matter how much you fail at what you are supposed to do, you will nevertheless still have a monopoly, you will have no reason to improve your product. It is human nature. A child understands this. Only if you have to compete will you get better.

Yet, teachers unions and virtually all liberal organizations and media oppose school choice in the form of school vouchers. They oppose the opportunity of poorer people to do exactly what richer people do--choose what school their child will attend.

This is particularly remarkable in light of the left's passionate support for choice when it comes to something of infinitely greater significance than school. We must fight for a woman's right to choose to take the life of a nascent human being at any stage of pregnancy, for any reason whatsoever--and for society to provide the funds for that choice. But no one should have the choice to use public funds to choose to send their child to a different school.

So that's the state of education today. There are some wonderful teachers, there are some wonderful principals. But they're not dominant in the world of education. Rather it is these Ten Nos that dominate the life of a child in an American school today. This is very sad.

Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host whose daily three-hour show is heard in Los Angeles on 870 KRLA from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. He has written four books, all of which have remained in print and continue to influence lives. His next book is an explanation of male sexual nature. Mr. Prager is also a Jewish theologian who has been teaching the Torah verse by verse for 20 years; and he periodically conducts regional orchestras, introducing the public to classical music. His websites are www.pragerradio.com and www.dennisprager.com