Education shouldn't be scary

We all have natural right to it

An ongoing question for many of us is how do we educate better for citizenship among American-born people and for all those who come here to be part of what we might become.

  Immigrants who study for and pass citizenship requirements for naturalization quite often are better able to handle the responsibilities of democracy than people who get away with relative ignorance in this realm, being somehow perfectly comfortable with their ignorance,

 because, hey, this is a democracy and everybody gets an opinion and a vote, no matter how unprepared. 

  The lack of education itself is a very local concern everywhere and quite differently addressed everywhere.     

When Republican Bush #2 pushed his teach to the test POCrap on the whole country our previously already challenged educational system fell at least a notch or two. Why? 

  For one thing the humanities got and continue to get shafted.  Humanities is the way we become more human.  Period. And it isn't as though every single person does not deserve a fuller more rounded education at least through high school, it's that some apparently are quite afraid of it. And why is that? 

  A really big thing to look at in the last 44 years of Republicanism taking over at every level (Democrats where the H have you been, and don't you think it's way past time to roll up your tougher sleeves and get going?)  is the physical and economic decline as a direct result of corporate capitalist distortions at every level of the economy, particularly affecting the workers who keep this country going at every primary level. Not enough tax support for local schools, for teachers salaries, teaching all the basics and that includes humanities, translates to a degrading of even the idea of democracy. 

  Leaving for a minute the ever more obvious ingrown narcissism and greed that have Republicans looking ever more foolish and wondering who they are and how they are and not having any particular clues as to being better because they don't think they need to be,,,? this may look like a bootstrap operation.

  I personally have hope, bolstered by some faith anyway in the democratic process we are now being faced with to use more wisely, and deeply long for and looking for national and local conversations to turn this ship around. I'm finding this a lot on Substack and deep thanks for the folks who started it.