Worldwide Ace

Today, I began reading Michael Moore’s Dude, Where’s My Country? I’m just over a chapter in and already I’m filled with anger and disbelief. This anger and disbelief is not aimed, as the book seems to intend, at the Bush administration. Nor is it aimed at Michael Moore, for his cries and questions are not nearly as far to left or outlandish as I’ve heard republicans say. No, my anger is aimed at the American public and the American education system.

Day in day out, we, as students, are taught to analyze things, to understand them, and to be able to use this analysis to learn. At least that’s what we’re supposed to be taught. Instead, we’re taught “facts,” “truths,” and ways to repeat them back in order to gain praise and recognition via good grades. There’s no analysis happening. There’s no understanding or recognition of importance.

One of my teachers once said that critical thinking isn’t taught anymore. Science, having hands on and procedures taught, is as close as it gets. I wish I remembered that teacher’s name, because I’ve found a greater level of respect for the man, a man who’s name I can’t remember, thanks to the lack of thought in our society.

People claim that the American public is stupid. We’re not stupid. We’re ignorant. We’re disinterested. We’re unknowledgeable. What the American public lacks is not knowledge but an ability to think, analyze and understand. It doesn’t matter if the argument for learning is based off the fact that we’re losing out on jobs to the Japanese or that we think highly of ourselves because we don’t understand or that we let our government tromp on our rights because of their lies. The justification doesn’t matter.

Yesterday, I would’ve moved to Canada or another country to escape the stupidity of the American public. Today, I want to fight and teach and change the United States. All it would take is a little critical thinking.