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The Un-Education of a Nation: Where We Went Wrong

This article is more than 10 years old.

With tomorrow being Independence Day, many will rightly celebrate the leadership, courage, and passion of the men who gave birth to this nation.  Our Founding Fathers were truly great men, but it was more than just their courage and passion that made them great leaders – it was their unyielding conviction to their values, beliefs and ideals. These men were not only some of history’s greatest statesmen, soldiers, activists, and revolutionaries - they were also some of history’s greatest thinkers.

Much has happened in the 236 years since men like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Paine, Jay, and Henry signed the Declaration of Independence, framed the Constitution, and formed a nation. And yet, with all the advances in technology and academia, why is it today’s leaders are more “educated” but so obviously less literate than our Founding Fathers? The answer is the intellect of our Founding Fathers were formed by, and highly developed as a result of something most of our leaders today don’t have – a classical education.

Nations rise and fall with the quality of their leaders, and their leaders succeed and fail based upon who they are at their core – what they believe, how they think, and what they do. Nothing shapes a leader or a society like their education or lack thereof. Let me be clear: when I refer to an education, I’m not referencing earning a degree, I’m talking about developing a rich intellect – they are not always one and the same.

As we celebrate our independence, I’ve reflected on how far we’ve come as a nation, and yet how much we have to learn from our predecessors. Why do we suddenly think we know better? We’ve lost the tools of learning that have been commonly accepted for thousands of years. We’ve lowered our standards, and expected too little from our children.

How is it that colonists in the 1770s, many of whom had little formal schooling, had higher levels of literacy, more expansive vocabularies and a better command and mastery of a wide variety of subjects, than the average student today? We are spending more money per student, awarding more degrees, and spending more time in school than ever before.  Yet one could make the case that most modern Americans are not as well read as the “graduates” of the one-room schoolhouses that equipped early Americans.

During the revolutionary period, many pamphlets widely circulated, like Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, were read and understood by a large percentage of colonists- the common man, the average teenager. Yet, the average adult today would have difficulty reading Common Sense, let alone understanding the arguments, and articulating the basic premise. If we are to be true patriots who understand what it really means to celebrate Independence Day, it would be helpful to be able to comprehend the Declaration of Independence. And yet, studies indicate that many of today’s Americans are largely unfamiliar with the contents of our founding documents. Why? Because many simply cannot understand them. Our Founding Fathers had expansive vocabularies... vocabularies beyond the reach of many today.

Many who hold modern era post-graduate degrees are unable to read and comprehend the great authors even of the recent past. Levels of literacy have declined, contrary to the popular myth that they have improved. We focus on creativity before mechanics, self esteem before achievement - being someone instead of doing something.  The following quote by Leigh A. Bortins sums up the crossroads we currently face as a nation:

“...the current culture of education has displaced parents as the primary instructors of children in favor of professionals who try their best to recreate the home environment at school; has the federal government rather than the community determining the structure of equal educational opportunity; has deserted the idea that memorization trains the brain; has fostered a loss of literacy by replacing the study of original writings with abridged textbooks; and has created a populace unable to engage in reasonable discourse. We have rejected the historically successful model of rigorous, classical education in favor of entertainment and job training.

Studying grammar is no longer fashionable. Memorizing historical events and multiplication tables is outdated. Reading original sources is too difficult, so we read pre-digested textbooks. We spend more time in front of our televisions than frequenting our local libraries. We’ve believed that the easier way is the better way. It’s difficult to put in the hard work of reading a great work of literature, when we spend our time writing in 140 characters. We now believe that school should be primarily fun and entertaining. That education is the job of professionals, and that by putting children on the assembly line of our modern system of compulsory education, we will somehow churn out well-educated citizens.

The statistics don’t lie. Our modern educational system is not working. Our failure to demand of our students what they are capable of is resulting in our failure to compete in the global economy. We are less literate, and less educated than many of our global competitors. It was C.S. Lewis who said, and with whom I agree, “We all want progress, but if you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road.”

The only way for our nation to survive the trying times of the present, and what will likely be the difficult times ahead, is to replace the commoditization of education with a passion for developing our greatest national treasure – the rich intellect of our people.

Thoughts?

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