The New Terror: Ignorance

You have noticed it. The person working the counter at the fast food chain can’t make accurate change. The parent asked to sign their child’s homework and review it with them can’t seem to handle that simple task. The truck driver asking for directions to a place written on a piece of paper, but that he could not find because he could not read it.
To make matters worse, we find those who have been identified as graduates of colleges and universities struggling to use correct grammar in written or verbal communication. Even teachers and teacher’s aides sometimes lack skills in correct usage of language. Employers are reporting difficulty in finding capably trainable employees because of the lack of basic reading, writing, and math skills.
In the U.S., there is a growing awareness that we have fallen behind in the education and preparation of those of the coming generation who will be responsible for the economic success or failure of our nation. One third of Ivy League schools admissions are now filled by foreign students, because they score consistently in the highest brackets academically. When vast numbers of U.S. students show deficiencies in academic capacity in general, we have to look at the underlying issues and evaluate accurately where the weaknesses lie.
Recently, North Carolina changed the way it calculated dropouts to reflect a more accurate counting of those who left school between 9th and 12th grade only to find the statewide high school graduation rate drop from a previously calculated 95% to 68%. If you dropped out over the summer, you weren’t counted previously.
U.S. Education Secretary, Margaret Spellings, announced on Monday that there would be a new national standard for tracking student dropout measurements. This came following a report presented by a non-profit group led by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma, that noted the critical need for change to remedy current school dropout rates nationally. They reported 1.2 million teens annually drop out of U.S. high schools. Nearly a third of U.S. students will not graduate with a high school diploma. In some areas of the country there is a 70% dropout rate.
Economics has often been touted as the basis for poor achievement. Poor students are reported to have poor grades, poor success, etc. The lack of literacy however has little to do with poverty. Some third world countries are now competing with the U.S. in literacy counts.
The apparent issues more prominent in the educational endeavors for U.S. students have long been noted by the litany of many very capable educators who point to the distinctive breakdown in family life as the essential and critical missing link in the education of many children.
Dropping out is not an option when cooperating parents set a higher standard for their children and demand it of them with loving discipline and clear expectations. Not all children will be at the top of the class, but every child with parents that care can be in class. Students that seem unmotivated often are surrounded by those who model a lack of motivation for improvement. Parents who were dropouts often create a second and third and even fourth generation of low expectation. While not everyone may have had the opportunity of education, no one should hold to the attitude that education is unimportant for future generations. Even the least educated parent should aspire for their children a good education and should be supportive of every effort of their children to achieve such. To do so requires parents who love their children and who encourage their children. Such encouragement is found in the simple basics of daily attention, asking questions, talking with those helping with your child’s learning and development, accepting the guidance of those who have a sincere interest in helping your child to grow in their knowledge and skills. No person is beyond using their abilities to help others in some way. We do have a crisis on our hands as a nation. It begins with the basics of home and family and shared living and responsibility and love and care and forgiveness and encouragement and help and guidance and instruction and community and living by the compelling words of Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. Ignorance is deadly -- it kills the innocent; it destroys hope; it inhibits opportunity; it paralyzes with fear; it creates pain; it undermines improvement; it disregards truth; it overloads the already overburdened; it is a cancer that will undermine a culture of freedom and responsible living with the necessity of mass management of illiterate masses, primarily via prisons and communities of persisting poverty bankrolled by those who remain able to function in an increasingly incapacitated environment.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Where there is no hope for tomorrow, people fail to consider the reasons for today’s effort. In the grace and mercy of God, we see the love of the One who desires to redeem and save and give life. In Him we discover our worth and value. In Him we gain a vision for our future that includes being disciples of righteousness, truth, and wisdom – all most clearly defined in him.
Until we value one another with the eyes of Christ, we will remain as those who relate to one another as commodities to be bartered, sold, or ignored on the basis of our own selfish intentions. God help us to discover again our hope in him that will allow us to regain a vision for redemptive change. It is a time for all of us to be students…and a time for all who will, in love, to be teachers.