RIP American Education, RIP American Democracy
In 2008, a woman by the name of Susan Jacoby published a book, “The Age of American Unreason: Dumbing Down and the Future of Democracy” which I just finished reading. I highly recommend you read it yourself, especially if you like history, are a Democrat or anyone seeking answers in these uncertain political times. Once you finish, you’ll begin to realise why Betsy Devos’ confirmation as Education Secretary is yet another nail in the coffin of American democracy.
Hey, Betsy’s a rich businesswoman, she’s not so bad, you might be tempted to say. But a woman expected to decide how education works in a country plagiarised answers and is openly opposed by 251 education and civil rights groups! Perhaps worse still, that woman has no background in education, holds archaic and unproven beliefs which include for-profit charters (despite little evidence they work but carry an insane cost). Devos, who would have oversight of Title IX has, “refused to positively commit to upholding a Title IX directive which …prohibits sexual discrimination on college campuses while establishing school procedures for claims of sexual assault or harassment.” Not like sexual assault or harassment on campuses is a big deal or anything! She does however believe in conversion therapy which has been rejected by all major medical organisations. Scary stuff:
“The DeVos family also has a long record of donating to anti-LGBTQ causes and organizations, including giving more than $6.7 million to the anti-LGBTQ group Focus on the Family since 1998. Focus on the Family promotes the harmful and discredited practice of so-called “ex-gay” conversion therapy and has accused anti-bullying programs in schools of “promoting homosexuality.”
As I read the Jacoby’s book the real problem with American democracy became quite clear — knowledge is power and too few have access to it in the United States. And by access — I don’t me free, I mean a decent education which prepares them for the world, period. While other first world nations have universal education standards, Jacoby has done an excellent job of conveying exactly how Devos could be considered for such a role or how a man like Trump can win or precisely why he’s poised to win reelection in 2020.
While Bernie screams about the white working class and Democrats (myself included) shout about all the distractions we faced in 2016, we’ve all missed an underlying truth: America is not as bright as we think she is. Sure, there are outliers, everyone thinks about Silicon Valley or the rich ivies but America is in denial about its education problem. As Jacoby puts it, “there is a unique gap between America’s image of itself as the world’s leader in science and technology and the reality of a nation in which more students are spending more years in school while falling behind the most developed nations of Europe and Asia.”
America is the only first world country which does not accept evolution as fact, “A survey of 32 European countries, the US and Japan has revealed that only Turkey is less willing than the US to accept evolution as fact” while “religious fundamentalism, bitter partisan politics and poor science education have all contributed to this denial.”
Jacoby paints a picture of how the US got to this point: the bitter divide in the education system — evolution vs. creationism — perhaps the onset of alternative facts? Students who fail to properly learn science, history and math. Junk science which replaces real science and infotainment which replaces information. It’s all very dire when you step back to see the big picture.
A few key passages worth sharing:
As both dumbness and smartness are defined downward — among intellectuals and nonintellectuals alike — it becomes much easier to convince people of the validity of extreme positions. Not only basic knowledge but the ability to think critically are required to understand the factual errors (as distinct from differences of opinion) that generally provide the foundation for policies at the far ends of the political spectrum.
Two thirds of Americans cannot name the three branches of government or come up with the name of a single Court justice. … Americans who get their news primarily from television rather than newspapers know much less about the judicial system than newspaper readers. Two thirds of newspaper readers, but only 40 percent of television watchers know that the primary mission of the Supreme Court is to interpret the Constitution.
Surveys conducted by the National Constitution Center show that while Americans hold the Constitution in high esteem, they know relatively little about the nation’s founding document. … 42% think the Constitution explicitly states that “the first language of the United States is English”; and 25% believe that Christianity was established by the Constitution as the official government religion.”
“The young are even more ignorant than their parents and grandparents. About half of adults — but just 41 percent of teenagers — can name the three branches of government. Only four in ten adults — but just two in ten teenagers — know that there are one hundred US senators. The vast majority of both adults and teens have no idea of when or by whom the Constitution was written. Among the teenagers, nearly 98% cannot name the Chief Justice of the United States. This is our civic present and, if nothing is done to stem the rising tide of ignorance among the young, our even more disturbing civic future.”
Indeed. With this context, it should not be surprising then to learn that 49% of adults support Trump’s (unconstitutional) immigration ban or that few people batted an eyelash as the judicial branch of government disappeared from the White House website.
Jacoby places as much blame on the left as she does on the right in this sustained downward spiral. From a political standpoint:
“Out-of-power (in Washington) liberal intellectuals also have a good deal to answer for, and one of their most serious failures of vision has been a reluctance to acknowledge the political significance of public ignorance. Liberals have tended to define the Bush administration as the problem and the source of all that has gone wrong during the past eight years and see an outraged citizenry, ready to throw the bums out, as the solution. While an angry public may be the short-term solution, an ignorant public is the long-term problem in American public life.”
As I open emails from Democrats which claim a Supreme Court justice nomination has been “stolen” and think back to Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump’s signature line that everything is “rigged,” I can’t help but see Democrats’ complicity in this simplified language around politics. Politics sadly is not black and white, there are shades of grey but in today’s world heavily reliant on purity politics, I imagine we’re past the point of reversing those arguments. It’s much easier to say a nomination was stolen than it is to fully explain the Republicans’ obstruction in confirming Obama’s nomination.
This underlying education problem must be resolved and until it is, don’t expect to change any hearts or minds. This is a generational issue. I used to laugh, thinking of all the kids who attended Trump rallies until the reality struck me, not all, but some of them will be voting age in 2020. The joke is over.
If there are 90 million registered voters who sat out the 2016 election, it might be time to reach out and usher those folks into the fold. Education will be key. When you wonder how it could come to pass that Donald Trump filed reelection paperwork for 2020 on the day he was being sworn into office, think about the American knowledge gap and the optics his base is seeing.
They don’t find the immigration ban unconstitutional because they don’t understand the Constitution. They don’t see Trump signing executive order after executive order — they just see a man delivering on his campaign promises. Thomas Jefferson once said, “An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy” without it, you’re pretty much fucked (you can quote me on that last bit).
I’m not alone in this thought, a non-profit Generation Citizen seems to think so as well. Yes, let’s have sustained rage and protest Trump at every turn, but lets also work on fixing the underlying problem: education and knowledge. With Betsy Devos on her way to Washington, thing are only bound to get worse.
