Or try the first rule of anthropological interviewing: trust but verify. Cross check everything you learn to determine if it is true, accurate, and you actually understand what it means

My son, currently a print journalism major @ USC, so loved the little ditty he learned at Northwestern’s summer program for high school journalists:

“If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

As a former teacher who taught in rural areas in New Mexico and Washington, as well as in urban and suburban Colorado, I’ve been fully exposed to the brilliance of both our adults and the children we’re dooming to idiocy in our schools. My short career came to an end when I accepted the fact that neither the students or parents or administration were interested in genuine learning.

When I left teaching, I had resigned myself to the hopelessness of revitalizing the US. There is no way our current levels of stupidity and ignorance will allow us to prosper in the future.

Unfortunately, “Idiot America” is a book that will be ignored by the idiots.

But beyond that, INFORMATION is NOT KNOWLEDGE. Only when received information is put into context, and connections are drawn between new facts and previous understanding, i.e. when information is processed, analyzed, critiqued, and mutually adapted into larger frameworks can true understanding ensue.

That kind of deep contextual understanding is a function of a sound liberal education. Unfortunately, as everything in our culture has been re-defined to serve profit margins and the bottom line, as information itself becomes just another commodity, understanding has–like so many other elements of a healthy society–fallen by the wayside. As long as education continues to become more and more merely a commodity that the consumer student can purchase on his or her way to greater profits of his own, the trend of mistaking information for knowledge will continue to worsen. To the detriment of democracy and the greater good, and other “unprofitable” values . . .

And you, too, Bev.

And thank you, Charles Pierce. Looking forward to reading your book.