Our Kids Should Not Be Low-Information Thinkers

This is a commentary I wrote some months ago. It's simple, but certainly possible. Let's do it!

Our kids know nothing. I'm not kidding. Some of the more educated ones with parents who talk about the news know some little snippets, a headline or two, but have done almost no research into anything. First let me state that it's not the fault of teachers or really the schools. It is your fault. You have not realized the red flags that would tell you in a microsecond that the students of Newport-Mesa know very little about our country, our politics, our "values" which we talk about ad nauseum. We should have known that democracy was fragile and could blow in the first strong breeze. It appears that the front of that breeze is upon us.

We should have been scared. We should have insisted that the district institute civics classes immediately. We should not call it Civics which immediately makes eyes go dim. We should call it "Citizen Power" or something.

Politics is not a dirty word in and by itself. Democracy requires it, but politics doesn't mean dividing the country.

If we do this right, Politics will mean investigating and understanding. Politics will mean knowing...not feelng ...that you MUST act yourself. You must join something, write something, run for something.

It is not your right. It is the price you are going to have to pay to live in anything remotely resembling a free society.

Send and email asking for "Citizen Power" to feedback@nmusd.us or call (714) 424-5000, or write Education Center and Sanborn Buildings2985 Bear StreetCosta Mesa, CA 92626

and just for the heck of it, write the superintendent directly: superintendent@nmusd.us