-Jane Goodall

“Stopping Trump is the short term solution.The long-term solution – and it will be more difficult – is fixing the educational system that has created so many people ignorant enough to vote for Trump.” – Andy Borowitz

In Daisy language, the first quote tells me, “Get up and speak up. Do more than just vote; make sure others are getting to the polls. Get up off the couch and go make a difference. Get back into the volunteer circuit and do something to get a strong, decent, candidate on the way to becoming a strong, decent president.”

The second quote is more difficult. As I read between the lines, I see an indictment of today’s public education system, and I’m part of that system. So how do I address Andy Borowitz when he says the educational system is creating (infer: graduating) ignorant people?

Maybe I don’t need to address Andy. I know our public educational system has limitations. It’s not perfect by a long shot. One of the downfalls comes in the concept that public schools educate everybody; rich or poor, smart or not-so-smart, eager or apathetic learners.

And yet – and yet – that’s what makes our educational system unique. We educate everyone. One of the best lessons we can teach is that: everyone deserves an education.

The tougher lesson to teach, the one Borowitz suggests, is fighting ignorance. To root out ignorance, we (educators and families and whole villages) need to teach high level thinking skills. We need to teach our students to read, to analyze, and to form conclusions. With that in mind, I’ll pull up the late George Carlin. He’s the one who said, “Don’t just teach your children to read…Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything.”

It’s in the questions that we’ll find answers. It’s in the questioning that we’ll find thoughtful, insightful voters. When those analytical, thinking voters get going, we’ll see an intelligent, analytical, thoughtful, insightful, candidate become an intelligent, analytical, thoughtful, insightful president.