As I have written about in the past, there are certainly a large quantity of idiots in the world – especially, though unfortunately, in America. From daily activities to watching what happens across the globe on the evening news, I’m sure that I am not the only one who sits back wondering – how the hell can these people live they way they do?
Sure, some situations make more sense than others. Watching video footage of Michael Jackson holding that baby over a balcony may not quite be the same as a 43-year-old man not knowing what “country” South Africa was in on an episode of Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?, but both certainly make you wonder how these individuals have survived this far in life with such idiocy flowing through their veins.
Reading through the news earlier this past weekend, I found a report released by the Annenberg Foundation. This charitable organization, created 20 years ago by former Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s Walter H. Annenberg, has awarded over 5,200 grants, with an excess of over $2.8 billion.
Recently, the Foundation took a poll asking Americans what the three branches of government are. Disturbingly, only about 33% of all Americans are able to name all three. That’s roughly 103 million of the 305 million Americans in the country.
For many, this is pure stupidity. It’s a matter of how you’re raised, who you’re raised by, and what kind of person you are. For others, it’s the failing education system which deserves this obvious blame.
According to Georgia College & State University’s The Colonnade, many public schools “do not provide the education which is necessary to rid students of the ignorance that leads to such an astonishing statistic. In order for a republic – by the people, for the people – to properly work, that ignorance must be erased.”
If you’re reading this and don’t know what the three branches of government are, let me educate you! They are the Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, and Judicial Branch.
“To ensure that no person or group would amass too much power, the founders [of America] established a government in which the powers to create, implement, and adjudicate laws were separated. Each branch of government is balanced by powers in the other two coequal branches: The President can veto the laws of the Congress; the Congress confirms or rejects the President’s appointments and can remove the President from office in exceptional circumstances; and the justices of the Supreme Court, who can overturn unconstitutional laws, are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.”
By having a nation with one-third of its citizens unaware of this important balance of powers, we are breeding a nation that would be certain to fail in the future. Education is, of course, one of the most important rights every human has in this country. And for one of the top countries in the world to have such a failing educational system is beyond disturbing.
Research more about your government – our government – and educate others who may not know. Fix ignorance by breeding a more powerful form of education.
