Sir: I was walking past the St. Aloysius parish school this morning, and I noticed that they had a banner up: “Training Tomorrow’s Leaders.”

Well, I thought, that’s nice. Tomorrow’s leaders have to come from somewhere, and it might as well be St. Al’s as anywhere else.

But later this morning I passed the Ninth Ward Public School, and they also had a banner about “leadership.”

I started looking around. When I passed the Remnant Christian Academy, they had a big sign out front: “Educating Godly Leaders.”

The Hillel School was “Preparing Children for a Lifetime of Leadership.”

The Allegheny Catholic Girls’ School was “Building Up Leaders for a New Generation.”

Blandville Elementary School was “Teaching Today’s Scholars to Be Tomorrow’s Leaders.”

We are heading for the edge of a cliff here, and no one seems to be doing anything about it. We are raising a generation of leaders, and there will be no one to follow them.

When we have brought up an army of generals, where will they find their infantry? While they sit behind the lines drinking port and playing whist, who will be at the front? Who will fight the war? Who will carry the packs? Who will fill the generals’ boots with mashed potatoes? In a world with no regular soldiers, none of the essential tasks will get done!

It will soon be too late, so immediate action is called for. A new school year is beginning, and children entering school should be tested for their natural followership aptitude. Those who demonstrate a talent for following should be sent to specialized academies where they can learn to be tomorrow’s followers. We will separate out the children of below-average intelligence, the ones who have trouble finishing a simple task, the ones who are prone to behavioral problems, the ones who have no patience for accurate knowledge, the ones with sociopathic tendencies, and they, having already demonstrated their qualifications, can be trained to be the leaders. The rest of our children must be taught to follow, and they must learn to do it well.

Sincerely,
Admiral Hagsworth W. Foremost (retired)
Avalon Heights