Article #5
Consequence of Abysmal
Education for the Individual >>>>> An Earthly Sojourn
Lived in Abject Ignorance
The typical individual lives out
her or his one earthly sojourn in abject ignorance.
The beauty and intricacy of
mathematics remains a mystery. With foundations ill-established by
math-phobic K-5 teachers, for many people fractions remain perceptibly higher
mathematics, decimals are dimly comprehended, percentages are vaguely grasped,
and long division is a lost art. Ill-prepared for advance even to algebra
or geometry, the typical individual never enters the splendor of higher order
reasoning developed through experience with advanced statistics, trigonometry,
calculus, differential equations, and beyond. The typical individual
makes all manner of ill-considered decisions in the course of a lifetime left
ignorant as to mathematical probability and higher order reasoning.
The typical individual has
little understanding of biology, chemistry, or physics. She or he has the
barest grasp of human anatomy, physiology, diet, nutrition, and physical
training. The typical individual has little sense of the age of the universe,
evolution of life, the nature of the cosmos, the scientific principles that
undergird existence. Such an individual proceeds on the basis of
supposition and superstition, a world of ignorant conjecture rather than
factual analysis.
An individual going forth from
wretched K-12 education has no comprehension of the sequence of world and
American events over time; any detailed knowledge of political theory or
practical governance; the geographical fundamentals of the globe on which she
or he dwells; international economic systems, macro and micro economics,
monetary and fiscal policy, the Federal Reserve or World Bank or International
Monetary Fund; the psychological principles that predict, determine, and
as ongoing reality govern the individual life.
The typical person reads at a
grade 7 level, has little knowledge of musical composition, dim appreciation
for musical genres, no ability to play a musical instrument, is bereft of
knowledge and appreciation for the literature, painting, and sculpture
produced in magnificent diversity across civilizations.
The individual of most common
encounter is inept at manual tasks and the fundamentals of skills practiced in
vocational trades, unable even to ask intelligent questions or to follow
rudimentary explanations.
The typical person knows little
of any language not of her or his nativity, more likely to resent or fear an
unfamiliar language than to assuage her or his ignorance.
The typical individual is more
likely to cling to crude, ego-aggrandizing forms of religion and to live
without a consistent moral code than to grasp the transcendent concepts and
ethical precepts of world religious and humanistic traditions.
......................................................................................
Such an individual lives out her
or his one earthly sojourn bereft of knowledge, skill, analytical reasoning,
higher culture, and morality. Such a person is ever susceptible
to manipulation by demagogues and to her or his own irrationality and
immorality.
And because such individuals
dominate the earth, we bear the consequences--- despite the presence of
counterexample in the lives and achievement of those who have ascended to
intellectual and cultural heights--- of the resulting violence,
cruelty, and debased avocations observable across a world in which most people
go to their graves never remotely aware of the ascendant potential of the great
gift of
Life.
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