When We Value Intellectual Pursuits, We’ll Be Richer
The education system in the United States is failing. Most well-informed people know this. Some say that government is at fault for not providing more funds to education programs. This is true; the government does not place a high enough priority on education. Others blame teachers for the schools’ failure. Teachers may be partly to blame, but their fault is the least. The responsibility for learning lies with the student. So the real problem is in student attitude, and in American attitude in general.
Consider this: Who is most likely to win a popularity contest--a star athlete or a straight-A student? The answer is obvious--the star athlete. But why? There are countries in the world where education is treasured. I’m not saying that the straight-A student would necessarily win the contest in those countries, but he would run a close second.
The difference between the United States and those other countries is that American students lack a love of learning. They generally feel that being sent to school is done to them, not for them. It is this lack of love for education that impedes the progress of education. No matter how gifted the teacher, a student will not learn if he or she does not want to. There is not one student who is enthusiastic about learning who will do poorly in school. The reason is that an eager student will work with, not against, a teacher.
There is an attitude among students that teachers are supposed to make classes easy so that the student can pass them with a minimum of effort. If a test seems too hard, cheating is acceptable, they say, because they shouldn’t be expected to learn all that “unimportant stuff,” like dates in history, or the codes for chemical elements.
Why are there very few students who treasure learning? Partly because American society projects the idea to young people that it is fine to be mediocre. Too many people are satisfied with being average; they feel that average is enough. There is no motivation to strive for excellence.
Even worse, there is a feeling that being in the pursuit of excellence is not normal, and those who engage in that pursuit are not normal. This attitude tells young people that they will not be socially accepted if they seek knowledge.
The United States is slipping as a political and economic power because every year there are fewer graduates from high school who have the drive to achieve excellence. Most, it seems, are content to find a quiet niche in life and stay there in silence and apathy. Those are the citizens who won’t vote or take an interest in social issues. They are the ones who don’t care to make a difference.
Another reason for our national deficit of sharp, determined minds is that many never took it into their hearts as children that the pursuit of excellence is the most worthwhile venture. It is easier to settle for C’s than strive for A’s. To give up rather than persevere. To flicker out instead of shining brightly.
How can the problem be solved? The answer is not simple. The only way to remedy our educational problems is to change the way people think about learning. That is a Herculean task indeed, for trying to reverse the negative course that we are on as a result of a collective lack of internal fire is like trying to reverse the spin of the Earth. The great inertia of the problem is overwhelming the forces trying to counteract it, and the problem keeps increasing. Each time a student chooses an easy class over a challenging one, or decides that a diploma is not worth the effort of staying in school, or settles for being ordinary in order to be accepted, the immensity of this problem grows greater. The need to confront it is urgent. Like an unrestrained object hurtling through space, the problem of mediocrity in education will be unstoppable, driving our nation down the path of self-destruction or other disastrous end.
I have painted a picture of an educational depression, a depression from which we might not return. I see a light, however, a beacon: It is shining from all the teachers who are determined to keep the darkness from engulfing us, from all the students who thirst for knowledge and dare to aim high, from all the little children only just starting their education, and from all those who envision a society where the extraordinary person, by today’s standards, is unremarkable.
It is to these precious few that I plead: Make strong your light and dispel the great darkness. Fuel your mental fire with love of learning and use this fire to provide intellectual illumination and warmth to your neighbors. Make it your goal to defeat this ignorance that threatens a life we love. Dare to make a difference. Can we afford not to?
