Education. It's one of the most important and valuable things that a parent can give to a child. Especially in a world as complex and technologically advanced as ours is today. It is also one of the things America's founders thought was vital to the nation's future. That is true today, more than ever before.
And that isn't just a matter of pragmatism. We're not talking just about making sure a kid can read, write, operate a PC and understand basic math. It is also a necessary component of a free, democratic society. A person can learn all those things and still not be able to function effectively as a member of a democratic society. None of those skills give a person the tools that are needed to make a democracy actually work.
I know this because I see it at work every day. All of those skills are present in my co-workers, yet there are several who actually think that Fox News is unbiased. I've even had a supervisor who believes that the universe is something less than 10,000 years old. Obviously, there are some problems with an educational system where these lapses are possible.
It all comes down to indoctrination. Every child, in the process of growing up, has to be taught the ways of society. There's no way around it, regardless of what George Carlin and the Libertarians might say on the matter. The only way a government or society that is intended or designed to be run by "the people" can successfully operate is for said people to be taught the basic means of running it.
It should be obvious that when a democracy (rule by the people) is created, if the effort is serious, there is an intention that people make decisions independantly of authority. In the philosophy of the Enlightenment, the main idea is for the people to *be* that authority. The considered opinion of all the people ideally should have precedence. But what if the people who are supposed to be taking the time to understand an issue from all sides in order to render a verdict fail in that responsibility? What if people decide an issue based on lies that they can't detect because they are unable (or even unwilling) to think critically?
How can a democracy, even a representative one like ours, function properly if the people who have the authority make bad decisions because they are ignorant of the basics of critical thinking? Without critical thinking, decisions are made based on emotional responses, or on inadequate information. Critical questions are not asked. People who know how to evoke strong emotional responses get elected, while the brightest and the best sit in the shadows, unable to get a fair hearing. Referenda are approved or not, more because one group was able to use more effective advertising than another. The very idea of everyone taking the time to search out the details of a situation is anathema.
Over a century ago, one of the best presidents we ever had said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Apparently, he missed a vital point here. In America, all one needs to do is fool just over 50% of the people who vote. In some elections, only 40% of eligible voters bother to show up, so all one needs to do is fool the largest number of this population... quite often, a mere 21% of registered voters. For some people, this is a dead easy cinch.
Americans ought to be ashamed of themselves. If any company hired its executives based exclusively on the best dog-and-pony show brought into the interview process, hardly any company would be able to exist for as long as five years. Yet this is how Americans go about choosing their congressmen, governors, presidents. Put on a good show, use a lot of slogans repeatedly, say whatever it takes to make people afraid of your opponent, and you get to be one of the most important human beings on the face of the Earth.
No wonder we've had such a string of disappointments in the White House. An actor with the beginnings of Alzheimers disease, who was only good for delivering pre-set lines, his bland, thoughtless sidekick, a womanizer from Arkansas and the worthless, idiot son of the bland, thoughtless sidekick mentioned earlier. I believe that Belize could have come up with more effective, worthy leaders.
But in the end, the people of America have only themselves to blame. They (the majority, at any rate) have made no effort to learn how to think critically. They haven't been interested in participating in the process, and they don't bother with voting. And the ones who do vote by and large vote without actually thinking through what they are told and shown during the campaigns. No wonder we haven't been able to improve on the Plutocracy we started with.
Since critical thought isn't a vital part of the education process, either in public school or the vast majority of private ones, things aren't likely to change. But at least learning how to think critically isn't all that difficult. Learn for your self. And think about whether it's worth your while to participate in the politics of the democracy you live in.