While I think the ignorance in our country is a bit more complex than an education problem, no doubt, school is a huge site of social reproduction. In fact, the common school, which we now know as public school, was created to train children to be factory workers, hence the repetitious, seemingly meaningless drills and exercises, and the 45 minute periods. Perhaps it is surprising, but schools have not changed much from this factory model. Why aren't students taught to think critically in schools? Think about it's purpose: why would you want your mass labor base to be smart enough to realize they are getting short changed? Ignorance is the cheapest tool for the rich to protect their privilege. While we are no longer factory workers for the most part in this service economy, our mass ignorance is still a powerful tool for those in power, as you so clearly articulated and bemoaned. School is not meant to educate, but to maintain the status quo and make it look justified.

Kelly,
I find myself nodding through all of your blogs. You really speak the truth. Keep it up!

Oh, and West Wing on DVD= my heaven.

The correct sentence would be There are three girls who like me. There's implies There is, and is is only applicable when used in implying a singular object. Are, on the other hand, implies plural. You could attempt to create the contraction there're but it would sound rediculous, and I am pretty sure not a word recognized in the English language. Not that any of this really matters. Because language is just a medium in which to communicate ideas, therefore is subjective. In the end, all that really matters is what you are trying to convey and whether others are able to understand it.

"John McCain suspends campaigning to work on economy, requests postponing Friday debate; asks Obama do the same."

This is what happens when you're tanking in the polls and your "game-changer" is bleeding out your independent voters.

Obama should make a counter offer:
There's not enough time to move back the presidential debates so let's flip flop the presidential and vice presidential debates, instead. Is Sarah busy this Friday night?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/24/campaign.wrap/index.html

Your friend,
Rusty
Check out my Obama / Biden 2008 Blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“People deserve the government they get, and they deserve to get it good and hard.” ~ H.L. Mencken

I can't explain it better than Al Gore. The Assault on Reason is probably one of the best books on this topic. Here's a few quotes from Al promoting the book.

"Reasoned, focused discourse is vital to our democracy to ensure a well-informed citizenry. But this is difficult in an environment in which we are experiencing a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time--from the O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson trials to Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith."
http://www.amazon.com/Assault-Reason-Al-Gore/dp/1594201226

"The point of this book is that our nation is so shockingly vulnerable to such crass manipulation. And it's happening over and over again – the censorship of scientific warnings about the climate crisis; the warrantless mass eavesdropping on American citizens; the overturning of a prohibition against torture that was laid down by General George Washington; and the fact that there is so little protest or outcry points to the much deeper problem not of just the culpability of those in the White House at the present moment, but at the fact that we are so vulnerable to these mistakes and that we allow them to occur with hardly any impressive outcry of resistance or protest."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10440121

Your friend,
Rusty
Check out my Obama / Biden 2008 Blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“People deserve the government they get, and they deserve to get it good and hard.” ~ H.L. Mencken

I agree with some of your post but; lets get real. You can be completely uneducated or self educated and be dumb or smart. How well you speak or write has nothing to do with anything.

I persoanally base intellegence on the ability to learn and use that knowledge. I have over the years worked with a bunch of little boy geniuses that can't board an airplane without an escort, dress themselves or do basic ordinary tasks - this is no shit. These guys were given unbelivable deference because they were so "smart", while the rest of us thought they were idiots.

I've said this before and I believe it. The dumbing down of America is well orchestrated by the gov, the military industrial complex and the new global corporate America.

Smart(how ever that is defined), well informed, involved people serve no purpose to this gang. Except for the small sub-set that will continue to be the leaders(owners of wealth) while the masses are trained to serve.

The go along and get along, don't make waves, be a team player bullshit serves them well. The constant fear tactics of gloom and doom(there's always an enemy out to get us), people hate us because we're free crap and oh yeah all the other mind numbing insanity that WORKS.

Schools may attempt to teach kids to read and write(with limited funds, under paid teachers and uninvolved parents) but; as far as I can see no attempt is made to teach them how to think. How to process information, how to seek knowledge and even less energy is spent on problem solving. School has almost become a place that rewards getting out alive above all else.

To me America is like the drunk with "a low bottom", things have got to get really, really bad before there's even an acknowledgment that a probem exists. Even then some never try to change...

btfan2

Have you seen Idiocracy? The world becomes so dumb in the future (smart people hem and haw over having a child, while dumb jock procreates like a rabbit and this continues for many many generations) that they pick the president based on who has the highest IQ. I'm really beginning to believe that can happen.