✦ AUGHTY ✦ Wakalixes 25 AUGHTY I love the USA. I should say that first. I come from Germany. The Europeans I left behind will tell you America has no culture and bad schools. I want to tell you what I have actually seen. EDUCATION. German education is nearly free. On paper, it is superior. I am a triple college drop-out. So this is not about cost. Richard Feynman 1918 — 1988 · physicist He sat on the California Board of Education. He was asked to review every new textbook. He read them all. He was appalled. Here is one of his examples. FIRST GRADE. PAGE 12. a dog a wind-up toy a pocket watch Question: What makes them move? Required answer: ENERGY. — Sample question, California State elementary science textbook — Replace "Energy" with "Wakalixes." Replace it with "God." The answer means exactly as much. The word secures the score. The word explains nothing. First grade. WHAT YOU CAN DO. GERMANY You cannot build a house. You need a licensed electrician. A plumber. A carpenter. A title for each. You hire them. You do not learn it yourself. The credential is the permission. USA You can build the house. You can learn the trade. You can do it badly first. You can do it well, eventually. The trying is the permission. One way is safer. The other way is alive. CULTURE. Europeans say America has no culture. A Baptist pastor in North Carolina wrote The Five Love Languages. It changed millions of marriages. My son went to college here. He already knew the book. My wife and I had to learn about it. It changed our lives. That is American culture — not that the book exists, but that caring this much is already common knowledge. Americans vote at every level — as often as the Swiss. Your community wants your involvement. Germany has largely lost this. Most of Europe has. Americans often do not know how good they have it. And it is good that way. There is no reason to know what freedom is gone elsewhere. Build the house. Take it for granted. Why whine about shortfalls you have never had to live with? I came here on purpose. I stayed on purpose. Both decisions hold up better than the textbook answer.