No matter your nationality, ethnicity, education, culture, age, or gender there is one thing we should all be able to agree on that my country does well – pass the buck and avoid responsibility.

That is what the entire Common Core hubbub is all about. Pushing blame onto someone else (in this case the educational system).

What do I mean?

It’s a distraction from the giant lazy elephant sitting in the middle of the room playing Candy Crush and texting its besties.

The issue is entitlement and lassitude, of which the schools in America have zilch in the way of control over. Americans don’t want to learn. They want to be Entertained! Give us reality TV until our eyes bleed. We want generic pop music that has no substance. We want sex on tap! Give us pretty lights that dazzle the senses in 3D so we don’t have to go to the trouble of experiencing real life! That mindset rolls over into the next generation, and as that classic public service announcement once said, “I learned it from watching you! Okay?”

On the average Americans don’t read. Americans use their libraries as cyber cafes and DVD rental stores. Americans don’t visit their museums. (Sure some of you do, so don’t be offended. You’re part of the solution, not the problem.)

But…. the American culture refuses to acknowledge this lassitude and entitlement beyond a head shake, because in the short term entertainment is great for the economy. Not to mention easy. Who wants to think after a hard day of sitting in a cubicle, peddling massive amounts of fried foods, passing medications and wiping flabby geriatric butts, or any other vocation? Americans have this twisted cultural psyche where they equate thinking with work. No fun! Who wants to think? Like whatever!

Parents want the schools to change the students because they don’t want to change themselves. I’m a taxpayer. I pay your salary! It’s your fault my kids are dumb and don’t do well on tests! It’s the schools causing the problem in America! 

Which is quite funny, because they themselves are products of that same educational system that is supposedly failing these children.

I’m a product of the old system, and without tooting my horn I’m not exactly what anyone would consider intellectually stunted. So, did the old system fail me? Hardly. 

Education is a two way street. If it’s all the purview of the establishment then it’s indoctrination, not learning. Indoctrination is also great in the short term. It boosts spreadsheet numbers, makes for awesome PowerPoints, and assuages some of the bitterness over our extreme taxation.

But both entertainment and indoctrination are destructive in the long run because they breed stagnation. The number one culprit of extinction in all its forms – stagnation.

If the grown up world of America as a whole doesn’t want to think, then why should its children?

Don’t pass the buck. Scapegoats only increase the problem.

~Nick Shamhart

3/6/2015