"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders."
--Samuel Adams
Hence,
"In 1993, a Department of Education survey found that among college graduates 50 percent of whites and more than 80 percent of blacks couldn't state in writing the argument made in a newspaper column; 56 percent could not calculate the right tip; 57 percent could not figure out how much change they should get back after putting down $3.00 to pay for a 60-cent bowl of soup and a $1.95 sandwich, and over 90 percent could not use a calculator to find the cost of carpeting a room. But not to worry. A 1999 survey taken by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni of seniors at the nation's top 55 liberal-arts colleges and universities found that 98 percent could identify rap artist Snoop Dogg and Beavis and Butt-Head, but only 34 percent knew George Washington was the general at the battle of Yorktown. With limited thinking abilities and knowledge of our heritage, we Americans set ourselves up as easy prey for charlatans, hustlers and quacks." --George Mason University economics professor Walter E. Williams
Thanks to the Friday Digest of The Patriot Post.
I few weeks back I was having a conversation with two young ladies, 14 and 19 years old, and one of them made a comment about all the laws President Obama was going to make. Not one to let a teaching moment go by, I spent the next 30 minutes or so explaining how our government worked.
The older of two graduated from high school this past Spring, the other just began her first year in high school this Fall. The older was, I believe, thought to be a fair student, and the younger was pretty much a straight A student at her middle school (She currently attends a private school where she is finding how ill-served she was at her former school). Neither of them had a clue, not one, about how our government functions.
Not much of a future if Mr. Adams is correct, and he is.
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