Education: Teaching ourselves is the first step.

By Tim Prather The Pantherette, Paschal High School

Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.”

Unfortunately, according to the United States Department of Education, 20 to 30 percent of you who are reading this article don’t know who Thomas Jefferson was. America, once boastful of having the best educated pupils in the world has seen basic education spiral into a bog of insufficiency. Common sense and basic knowledge seem to elude students who focus less on understanding the world around them and more on that party Saturday night or watching MTV experiencing that pointless, mind numbing, and time wasting effect that it has on the brain.

I’m sorry, I would talk to you, but I’m afraid my I.Q. might drop. Empty minds filled with empty goals dominate the teenage landscape. This is a problem rooted in the apathetic mindset of average teenagers and perpetuated by their own willing ignorance. The manifestation of these problems appears in our own school, in schools across the nation, and throughout the world. Daily these spectres of ignorance walk the halls of Paschal, willing knowledge to flee their minds. Make no mistake; there is a difference between those who welcome ignorance and those who simply don’t know.

The starkest of realities. Recently while in our nation’s capital I witnessed first-hand the ignorance of those who possess the desire to run the very nation we stand in. Those who in one breath claim to be tomorrow’s leaders also claim they don’t understand the legislative process. Those who in one sentence aggressively argue the need for a border fence admit in the same sentence they are from rural Connecticut. Those who argue for the war in Iraq and yet can not find it on a map.

I think Miss Teen South Carolina sums it up: Knowledge of basic geography is particularly atrocious when compared to the need to understand geography. Why must maps, something so essential to life and so straightforward to understand, confound the people who inhabit the continents and countries represented on the very maps they can’t read? Knowing the lay of the very planet we are residents of seems to be of paramount importance to understanding ourselves. Yet, there are those who couldn’t care less that Iraq actually isn’t a fancy type of spice rack designed by Apple or that Berlin is in fact not the capital of the continent of France. If these who thirst for ignorance are not shown the error of their ways, what is to keep the world round or the oceans wet?

Today’s modern world. The human race has not evolved to its current standing in intelligence and innovation by allowing fellow members of our community to maintain a sub-par standard of knowledge. As the most advanced nation on earth, America must keep its priorities straight to maintain its competitive edge in the global community. This requires commitment to others, to our country, but most importantly to ourselves. Teaching ourselves is the first step in enlightening others. Tim Prather is a senior at Paschal High School in Fort Worth. This article was written for the student newspaper, The Pantherette.