I've raised a son, and seen the listlessness and cynicism among students when eager teachers enthusiastically shed their beneficence as they discuss oppression. I've seen how well-versed college students are in race theory, but ignorant of verbs and nouns.

While high school graduates know about the history of American slavery, they are woefully ignorant of the history of slavery and its current practice. Slavery, indeed, has been an institution that has affected nearly all peoples, including my own, the Slavs. My cousin in Slovenia, who because of poverty could not attend school beyond eighth grade, described how she longed to be reading while she stooped over a hoe under a hot sun. And I've done my fair share of manual work in fields, houses, and restaurants. There is nothing like a stint in one of those areas to give a student an appreciation for work and studying.

Not that all want to or should go to college. The lower-tier universities are full of young people who have been given the lie that they should go to college; they could care less about learning. With vocational training and practical work experience, these youth would have a skill for the job market. Talk to any builder or owner of a business and he will tell you that it is difficult to find skilled craftspeople. With the unemployment rate currently at a low 4.4 percent, the demand for workers is high. A training program would incline employers to hire young vocational school graduates, instead of illegal Mexican immigrants who have a reputation for a strong work ethic.

But the consultants who milk and bilk corporations and government institutions with the "Post-Traumatic Slave Disorder" that an actual slave, Booker T. Washington, did not seem to have will continue to rip off taxpayers and consumers. They exploit the memory of unfortunate victims of real slavery and brainwash the youth.

Washington wrote about the psychological effects of slavery and racism and correctly conveyed the idea that the bigot is the one hurt by his bigotry. Now the "experts" would continue to promote the idea of victimhood more than 150 years after the end of slavery.

But Washington understood the value of work and reading and the independence that comes from self-improvement. Conversely, those who promote "slave disorder" are the new slave masters of the mind.