We have grown accustomed to a richness and convenience of life that many countries could never dream of. We have the luxury of watching reality TV and organizing our lives with the latest iPad, but we take all that we have for granted. America no longer understands a passion for freedom or the willingness to sacrifice for it. We have forgotten the principles that our country was founded upon.
The founders had such a passion for their cause and they constructed a country that depends on its people as an integral part of the government: rule by the people, for the people.
This was successful when the oppression that caused revolution and the sacrifices made to achieve it were fresh in the memories of the people. But the passion of the founders eventually faded away as citizens became accustomed to their privileged lives. How did we allow these principles to disintegrate? The failing is in our educational system. As America prospered, its citizens became less appreciative of thefounders sacrifices.
It is the responsibility of the education system to instill Americans with an understanding of the importance of these sacrifices, and to create well-informed citizens who can think logically as well as perform professionally.
But the more we spend on education, the less we seem to get out of it. Despite frequent recalibrations and downgrades in test content, standardized scores continue to plummet. The national average ACT score has dropped from a 23 to a 21 over the last 20 years, despite higher school budgets and specialized prep classes.
The responsibilities and expectations of young people have been declining for decades. In a time when they are free from any responsibilities or obligations, high school students are no more educated now than 100 years ago. In fact, they are quite the opposite.
When the founders worked painstakingly to provide a framework of government to be ruled by the people, would they ever have guessed that an estimated 29% of Americans could not even identify their vice president? Or that 63% would not know how many justices there are in the Supreme Court? A recent study done by Newsweek reported these percentages on American’s political awareness, and several other sources have issued similar findings.
While it might be tempting to blame these failings on the complexity of the government, the truth is that the American people, on average, do not have the level of knowledge required to successfully govern their country.
The average citizen does not thoroughly understand the U.S. government, or the history of the country for that matter. Unless we remember the historical patterns that led the American colonists to upheaval and revolution, we risk falling into the same circumstances that they found themselves in 235 years ago.
Americans have always been an innovative, resourceful, and moral people. We are slowly losing these qualities. Our inability to solve the current problems with national debt and the failing economy illustrate this. We no longer have the means to solve the many problems that arise in the process of governing a country. While some citizens recognize this, there are not enough. Like all great nations before it, America seems to be heading for imminent destruction.