The Natural Law Party and its independent coalition are fielding four candidates in Indiana -- John Hagelin and Nat Goldhaber at the presidential and vice presidential levels, and myself and Richard A. Crawford for governor and lieutenant governor. You can vote for all four by requesting a paper ballot at your polling site. \nBecause "all politics is local," this installment is written from a local perspective. Hagelin's platform reflects these same principles at the national level, particularly proven solutions and prevention-oriented government.\nIndiana government is full of flat tires, especially with schools and the environment. Seventeen percent of our high school seniors cannot pass basic ninth grade math and English tests after repeated attempts. More than 80 tons of fish rot in a landfill as a result of ammonia poisoning in the White River. I could be like every other well-intentioned candidate and tell you I will fix each. But our problems, be they environmental, educational, criminal, health-related, social and so on, are all human problems. Most of us use a tiny fraction of our God-given potential, as a result of education that has failed to develop the whole brain. It is like playing the piano with one finger. \nAs our society has grown, so has our government. Both locally and nationally, the government can barely keep up with the problems caused by shortcomings in human behavior. We get the government we deserve. Any government that fails to elevate human behavior beyond life lived in constant mistakes does not deserve to be called a government. It is a reciprocal responsibility.\nThe other candidates advocate conventional outside-in solutions, many of which are so obviously right that they generally share them. I do too. What I seek to add to the discussion is inside-out approaches that develop human consciousness so we become more self-governing. This focus-on-root cause can reduce the size and cost of Indiana government responsibly and can make it more effective.\nAs a sample of my entire platform, available by request, let us look at education.
Education\nI agree with other candidates who support:\n• a tougher curriculum.\n• an earlier kindergarten enrollment date.\n• charter schools that can field test innovations that school boards might want to adopt elsewhere.\n• limited vouchers for low-income and rural students that would give them the option of attending their choice of public or private schools in their district that meet state standards.\n• achievement tests that track each student each year.\n• competitive pay for teachers.\n• phonics.\n• college scholarships for students performing well in high school.
New Knowledge for Education\nEducation is for enlightenment -- the full development of mind, body and behavior. I promote proven educational programs that directly increase intelligence and creativity and improve moral reasoning, self-reliance and mental and physical health and well-being. These programs include sound educational approaches to nutrition; natural, preventive health measures; effective drug prevention programs; and innovative curriculum development, including programs such as the transcendental meditation technique to develop integrated brain functioning. Individual school boards and parents will choose which of these options are best suited to their local schools.\nWhile focusing on dissemination of knowledge, current approaches to education ignore the most fundamental component of learning -- consciousness or intelligence, the basis of gaining knowledge. Today's educational approaches provide no knowledge of consciousness and no proven technology to develop it. These approaches do not comprehensively develop the brain physiology, allowing incomplete cognitive and emotional development and less-than-comprehensive thinking. This fundamental failure is the ultimate source of the problems afflicting education today. \nCurrent proposals to improve education often focus on information technologies, such as access to the Internet, that offer larger and larger volumes of data. But without an educational approach that can develop more than 5-10 percent of a student's full mental potential, no amount of information will ever produce truly educated, ideal citizens. \nI also support better use of school hours and increasing the number of required subjects in high schools, as recommended by the 1984 National Commission on Excellence in Education. \nWe should increase the nutritional value of school lunches, a simple but essential change that has been shown to improve educational outcomes in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. To further improve children's health, we should establish community centers of knowledge where parents can receive the latest understanding of health and nutrition for their children.\nNext week, we will consider the environment.\nIf you would like to join our e-mail list or begin a student Natural Law Party at IU, call (317) 632-VOTE,e-mail wilsonforgovernor@lesiglator.com or visit www.paulwilson.org.
