United States of Ignorance
By: J. Lee Graves
Tags: Education Reform, United States, Ignorance, Politics, Policy

What Made the U.S. So Ignorant?

This is an opinion; not news, not a solution, and not the blame game. There is no specific group to point a finger at; liberals, conservatives, parents, politicians, extremism, people in general; name a group and there is likely blame to go around. No, this is not the blame game because everyone is essentially to blame. Collective blame on common ground.

Common ground is there for the common good. I do not know who said that, maybe I am the first, but I believe for an intelligent society the size of the United States to succeed this philosophy is a must. Extremism can drive progress but there must be a common ground or divisiveness is inevitable. The common ground seems rarely walked these past few decades.

People in General: People in general are too selfish and that is something I cannot figure the origins of. My needs, my wants, my rights! I am all for individual rights so long as it does not interfere with someone else’s individual rights.

Remember when McDonald’s Kids Meals offered caramel with apples? A small group decided for everyone that caramel needed to be removed. Fries? Oh, they are ok but caramel is the devil’s candy. As a parent, if you are worried about your kids health how about telling your kid no and NOT taking them to McDonalds in the first place.

My generation may have been raised by the television but I at least knew (even as a latch-key kid) if I stepped out of line my parents would handle it. Many parents today have happily given over their parental authority and responsibilities entirely as well as any sense of accountability. Yet parents do not allow teachers to discipline students. Something is dreadfully wrong.

People in general are accountable. Parents are not solely to blame as politicians enable many extreme views on parenting, beliefs, and often answer issues through ill-conceived blanket policies such as standardized education.

Education Changes: Let me be clear early — I do NOT blame teachers, I blame politicians and parents. Lazy parents and politicians trying to answer a problem with wide sweeping policy. People learn differently (hands-on, taking notes, listening, combination) so, HEY, let’s standardize it! As a result our nation’s ability to think critically, to do research, has atrophied.

Teachers once had the ability to actually teach. They still run classrooms but everything is so standardized it makes teaching difficult. They have also been stripped of their ability to discipline disruptive children. Gone are the days when a teacher can send a child off to a corner for being disruptive. Had that happened to me my parents would have asked what I did wrong. Today’s parent (on average) says how dare the teacher. Handcuffed teachers do their best but I have heard the horror stories of disruptive kids and I have seen the frustration from other kids as well as teachers first hand.

Standardization has removed a teachers ability to truly teach critical thinking skills and formulate lesson plans that make children think versus simply take notes to pass a test. My kids would come home with an F on their report, get a B on the standard test, and pass the class but leave the class with out understanding or retaining the subject matter.

I am willing to bet this is a common scenario. Why do I think that? Because as a military family my kids went to school in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida and it was the same everywhere. Disruptive unpunished children and teachers relegated to simply talking about the material, not allowed to teach an understanding of the material. That is the definition of standardization.

Social media has also contributed to this by making information so readily available, too readily available. I am guilty of it, we all are at some point, but ask someone a question and chances are they will not go past the first few links on Google and won’t even verify the source. Ever heard of Google Scholar? It is astounding how few have.

Social Media: There was a time when you could trust sites with .org or .gov but no longer. Anyone with an opinion or conspiracy can create a web site and spread disinformation. Form an organization and you can get a .org, and we all know the disinformation that our government can spread via .gov.

News sources are the worst. Many times media sources have released information without verifying the information which needed to be pulled, opened the door for competitive news sources to discredit the other, and over time this erodes public trust. Throw in a news outlets particular ‘spin’ (spin — I will get into that idiotic concept in a minute) and news becomes more opinion than fact. Choose your sides and pick you ‘facts.’ Ridiculous.

News Media: News in the United States is a joke. I am sure it is bad all over the world but I cannot worry about the world. One should be able to change the channel and see the same facts represented equally because they are FACTS. What you do with the facts, well…that is what should separate the outlets. There is so much competition for consumers news outlets have turned to Spin. A news source should only be allowed to spin facts in sections clearly identified as Opinion. I understand the fight for viewers but every journalist should be unified in their effort to relay facts not their version of the facts.

There is no place in news media for the word ‘Spin’ as related to news. Opinion? Sure but news is supposed to be based on fact. Facts are facts not opinion and there is no spinning facts. Coverage of a protest is a perfect example; the reason for the protest can be discussed in the Opinion section of outlets but the why behind the protest, numbers on both sides, violence or no violence…these are facts.

Public trust needs to be rebuilt in all media, not just the source you agree with.

Accountability: Politicians are not held accountable for lying or pushing personal agendas. Too often they are forgiven or forgotten and debates are filled with mud-slinging instead of true policy debate. It seems as though many on both sides of the aisle have forgotten they are servants of the people. Their constituents, all of them; not just the loud or the wealthy, or Republican or Democrat, are who they work for. The greater good. The common good.

Law enforcement is not held accountable for unnecessary and often brutal tactics. Public trust is lost in people elected or hired to protect citizens of our nation.

Law enforcement in general is doing the best they can and it truly is a few bad police but those bad police are like those loud policy makers. Bad policing does not serve the common good and far too often they go unpunished or rehired elsewhere. Law enforcement should be offered certain protections, better training, but held to a higher standard and accountable for their crimes.

Population: There are approximately 328 million people in the United States and the Court of Public Opinion has too much power as critical thinking is in short supply. With so many people controlling truth is difficult when so few follow up to learn the validity of said truth, opinion is fact when one chooses to believe it.

People still believe humans eat eight spiders in their sleep despite those who released that tidbit on the internet admit to it being a hoax. Why do people still believe it? Because people do not verify what they hear or read, especially on the internet. It is amazing what people will and will not believe on the internet. Scientific facts? Nope. Some crazy pig farmer in the Philippines? Sure.

Freedom of Speech: I love freedom of speech and the 1st Amendment does not need to be altered in any way but our nations founders did not foresee all of the above. When combined with a poorly educated, massive population, who distrust leaders, and are given social media sites to share various opinions, alongside unregulated news media it becomes a recipe for disaster.

The Freedom of Speech should never be taken away but just like you cannot yell fire in a theater false statements should be punishable if not intended as parody or clearly stated as opinion.

What to do: That is a good question and there is no easy answer or quick fix. A quick fix got us into this mess, a long solution is needed to get us out.

I am not an expert. I am not a doctor, or professor, or politician. I am a retired Air Force intelligence analyst, with an associates degree, concerned about our future but something must be done.

Teachers and law enforcement professionals should be paid better for starters. We need people to want those jobs so much the hiring process can afford to be more rigorous.

News should never combine fact with opinion outside clearly identified Opinion sections of their media. We as a nation have lost the ability to differentiate between the two and no longer have the intellectual curiosity to follow-up with our own research. Why should we? Most of the country does not know how to think for themselves so their opinion is fed to them in fifteen second sound bites.

The center of the aisle needs to speak out more. It is hard to be passionate about the center but people need to be. I am! I love the 2nd Amendment but I should not be able to buy a handgun as easily as buying a chocolate bar and I am a combat veteran.

The center is a great place for society to reside, to get along because the further you get out on the wing the weaker the foundation, that is where baseless ignorance lives.