Next term, I will be going off to college, and here’s what I expect the class of ’09 to be like. There is one dominating desire shared by many of the students I know: They want to make money. College-bound students aren’t necessarily more mercenary than they used to be, but today’s high-school teaching has sunk so low that it discourages students from thinking about anything but money.

You would imagine that a new college student would be eager to dive into the world of higher education – maybe even have an idea of what type of job he wants. But when I discuss this issue with friends, I am often surprised: One friend told me, in all seriousness, that he didn’t care what kind of job he gets, as long as he makes lots of money. I’ve heard the same thing many times from many seniors.

It was recently announced, following an agreement at the Paris Air Show, that Japan and France were going to build a new supersonic passenger airplane. What has a new Concorde got to do with our high schools?

America has long been the world’s technology leader. We put a man on the moon; we invented the Laser, the transistor, the semiconductor chip, the microprocessor – not to mention the zipper. We refused to take a back seat in any field. Now, when the world decides it’s going to take another whack at supersonic transportation, Boeing is silent, and NASA is too busy trying to keep the decrepit space shuttle from blowing up. Has America lost interest in competition?

High school seniors will have a chance to keep America at the top of every field in the 21st century. But looking across a school full of money-mad teenagers, we seem terribly unimaginative, and the high school itself must accept part of the responsibility.

Heroism has no place in English and history classes – it has been kicked out. Heroic writers, thinkers, statesmen – not to mention heroic soldiers – are unworthy of discussion, because the heroic character itself is a thing most teachers can’t understand. At my public high school, heroism was never a topic for class discussion. (I once wrote a paper on courage, but my teacher didn’t like it – she didn’t want to read an entire Medal of Honor citation.)

Not only do we not discuss American heroism, we dwell on (supposed) American acts of brutality and cruelty. Many of my teachers seemed eager to believe that Americans were guilty of atrocities on the battlefield. One teacher based her belief in these claims, which she inappropriately advertised in the classroom, on an anti-Vietnam War novel.

A politically correct school can’t avoid teaching topics that have all the character sucked out of them. Patriotism – which inspires young people to fight for their country – has vanished. English texts used to contain essays on liberty, good morals, strength of character, and patriotism. Our modern readers replace these pieces with essays such as “How to Poison the Earth.” (This particular piece was written by an environmentalist student and was included, like many of the other pieces in the text, for its political message rather than its literary merit.)

Once you’ve removed the desire to see America succeed, made the English texts childish, and the history texts bland and sometimes wrong, there’s not much left to capture the imagination.

So instead of wanting to cure cancer, send a man back to the moon, or invent the next supersonic passenger jet, today’s incoming college student only wants to get rich.

Of course, I know students who do have an idea of what they want to do. I know a few future engineers, a couple of computer science guys, and a fellow who may become a great biologist. But these are not areas in which their uninspiring classroom time led them to take an interest. We can’t expect high schools to help every student find his passion, but one thing they can do is teach us to be proud of our country. That is the least we should expect and demand from our schools.

Mr. Gelernter will be a freshman at Yale University next year, class of 2009. He writes the Republican Dan weekly blog http://republicandan.blogspot.com.