Ignorance is bliss

I worry that we are becoming a nation of blind people. By blind I don’t mean that we are unable to see, but rather that we lack the ability, and especially the knowledge, to see. The knowledge I fear that has been lost to us is common sense and critical thinking.

Let’s start with public schools. I know that they are failing our children (who are the future of our country) because of something that happened to a friend of mine. He supervises a small staff of warehouse workers, many in their early 20’s. His employees know that he reads a lot (he generally reads a book during lunch), and one day one of the young men there asked him “What are stars?” This young man has a high school education and doesn’t know what a star is (and I’m not talking about the ones in Hollywood)! Another friend of mine got a job teaching at a brand new high school. He told me about his ‘adventures’ there: no books for students (generally there is just a set in the classroom for the students to look at during class), no homework given to students (he was told “they don’t do it anyway, so why assign it to them”), unruly students and limits placed on what teachers can do to discipline them, and that’s just some of what he’s told me.

Humans are not born with the ability to think rationally, it has to be learned. Unfortunately with a steady diet of video games (generally violent), commercial television (look at how families are portrayed), and movies (a co-worker once told me that if stuff wasn’t blowing up in the first 30 seconds that the movie was no good), I have little faith in the future of our society.

Ignorance is a dangerous thing. And things are not being helped by the fact that most television news programs and newspapers are now owed by mega-corporations. Have you ever noticed how no matter what nightly news show you turn to they are all showing the same thing – at the same time? Heck, they even have commercials at the same time! By using a “cookie-cutter” approach it makes it easy for the owners to produce the shows. Unfortunately it also makes it easy to control what information is made available to the public, and what real and vital information is withheld from the public. I did a post on January 1, 2008, about New Years Resolutions, take a look at my fourth suggestion for a list of alternative sources for information.

We as a nation have to do better. We are failing our children. Our educational ranking, as compared to other nations, has been slipping for some time. There is an organization called the National Education Association, they have some interesting things to say about public schools and education. Lastly, because of the Federal No Child Left Behind program, teachers are just teaching students how to pass a test, not the things they need to know to survive in the real world

Wish I could end this on a better note. Parents have a lot on their plates and so many work multiple jobs just to make ends meet which gives them little quality time to spend with their kids. Families are scattered and often don’t have the support of grandparents, aunts, or uncles to help with raising the next generation. There are some volunteer organizations out there, maybe that’s a start.