Is this the price for not educating our people?

More than 25 years ago, I moved to US. I was shocked to see the number of uneducated people around. In my culture, you are middle class if you are educated. In US, education had nothing to do with your social standing. As a result, the richer you were, the less cultured you seemed. I mean look at Trump!!!
I left US after 8 years.. back to Europe and Cental Asia and Middle East. There is an old saying that to travel is to live. No one I knew in US ever really travelled. And if they did, they never saw anything but a hotel and a pool.
Anyway, I wonder sometimes if the lack of curiosity and hunger for learning has put the globe in this situation now. US’s policies are effecting everyone, especially Middle East. In the old days it was ok, because you still had a moral code to follow. Now the construction of a hotel determines who are allies and who are foes. Business in Saudi for Trump, gives us war with Iran. Business with Netanyahu, moves embassy to Jerusalem... business with Putin, gives us fanatic Christians running the county, protecting unborn zygots, while killing living ones at the boarder, in Yemen, in hospitals in Iran..

America. Please educate your children. Make education free like so many other countries. Teach them history and empathy, science and collaboration. With the amount of money you spend on weapons, you put the globe in danger with every uneducated child you send into the world.

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Cierzo · M

This is a complex topic. In my opinion the 'travelling and education make better people' is just partly true.

About travelling, it does not have any influence in the person if the sole purpose of travelling is just to have fun, shop,eat or brag on social forums. Only when the traveller shows real interest and curiosity in the way people life and their habits can help making a better person. To do it, there is no need to travel to the end of the world, sometimes going to a different neighbourhood is enough.

About education...I am a teacher, so I must have a certain faith in its ability to make better persons. Education should make people to make their highest according to their talents. However, we must never forget that nature has a lot to say (more than it is nowadays acknowledged, in my opinion) in the way these talents are shared.

Also, education should include teaching both knowledge and values. The former ones should be acquired at school, the latter ones at home. When school chooses to teach values too education turns into adoctrination, and makes good servants, not good people.

Writer · 100+, F

Very true... But non or badly functional families must have support so the cycle of a morally broken generation will break. @Cierzo

Cierzo · M

@Writer The situation you describe in you post is not happening only in the US. I see it happening in my European country too. There is no correlation between being rich or powerful and being educated.

And to be honest, it is a mistake woto think that correlation should exist, or at least be a strong one. That would mean leaving aside our personal traits.

I like to use this example. We are marathon runners. The time we can take to complete the race may vary within a certain range. Education, reading, travelling...may lead us to reach the best results within our personal range, but there will always be people who won't be able to take less than four hours, and some who will never be able to finish it.