I posted this comment on his op-ed. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/01/24/why-red-blue-america-cant-hear-each-other-anymore/?arc404=true)
A critical factor, one not missed by Thomas Jefferson, is left out of this analysis. All I have space to do here is quote Jefferson – and point out that of the 26 least educated states (See wallethub.com/edu/e/most-educated-states/31075/) all but Nevada and New Mexico went for Trump. Here is Jefferson.
“…Preach…a crusade against ignorance…improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against…evil, and that…kings, priests and nobles…will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance…”
We all know how bad general education is in America – at least for most people – but unless you have spent decades inside higher education, like I have, it is hard to see the cause. That cause is the corrupted values of universities. I don’t mean that they are too liberal, or too conservative; I mean they are too greedy – not just for money, but for all the things academics can be greedy for. As Clark Kerr noted, academics have morphed from the “civic duty” generation to the “me” generation.
For those who wonder why I place the problem in the colleges, ask yourself where k-12 teachers come from. They come from colleges. Here, in a nutshell, is what happens.
It starts with poor undergraduate education for all but a very small group of students.
Add to that, that colleges get “educational” grants and then graduate a large group of essentially fraudulent PhD’s.
Many of these become “professors” at schools where large numbers of Americans go for an “education”.
At the schools where these “professors” teach, they are not prepared for the rigors of teaching.
These are the same schools that our society counts on to educate our k-12 teachers – the people upon which our whole educational system rests.
For the whole story, the details, and explanatory examples, of how all of this happens, see my blog www.inside-higher-ed.com
Something must be done, if it’s not too late already.
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