Basic education is a crucial human right and civilization’s foundation. It is also the keystone essential to sustainably maximizing humanities freedoms and security. Home schooling worked for the Taliban. Not so much for those who love freedom and security elsewhere.
Education can lead to better health if preventive elements are prioritized. They have not been in the current US system. Kennedy could change that, but not with his anti-vaccine movement. Emphasis on education and primary health care remains the twin engines of development here and abroad. Cutting USAID will lead to health threats here and there. And the most powerful military in the world will only be helpful in providing urgent care and digging graves.
In 1983, the publication of "A Nation at Risk" by the Carnegie Commission brought attention to the threat of mediocrity in our schools. It prompted action from foundations and wealthy individuals, resulting in three decades of attempts to improve education through initiatives like Race to the Top, Teach for America, No Child Left Behind, charter schools, and vouchers. Despite these efforts, education remains a serious challenge in our country.
But few people see education as a significant national security concern. This was clearly recognized and highlighted by a bipartisan Presidential Commission on National Security six months prior to Sept 11, 2001. In its final report the commissioners unanimously identified a lack of education in high schools and higher education institutions as a serious threat to US national security. Congressman Newt Gingrich, a member of the commission, apologized for his previous desire to eliminate the Department of Education at the release of the report live at the National Press Club in Washington DC. He then proposed paying teachers more as well as paying students to learn.
The shortage of science and engineering students, which remain crucial for quickly producing, and using high tech weapons. While also producing consumer products for the economic growth to buy those weapons. As well as for organizing/managing every aspect of our government and its array of independent agencies. Each vital to America’s health, prosperity, and security.
But this wise and clear warning was largely ignored by policy makers over next few two decades. And today we are rushing to invest in domestic chip making and advancements in Artificial Intelligence to keep what dominance our nation appears to retain.
According to a 2021 Pew Research Center survey, around 27% of American adults say that they have little or no confidence in scientists to act in the public interest. And about 23% say they don't have much or any confidence in scientists to provide full and accurate information about the causes and treatments for COVID-19. While this doesn’t mean a complete denial of all scientific evidence, it does represent a lack of trust or confidence in certain aspects of scientific research or expertise. Today, that rejection of science and the inability of a significant portion of the American electorate to discern truth from falsehood -or fact from fiction - are significant challenge humanity now faces.
Baghdad was once considered the world's science hub, where the Arabic language gave birth to terms such as Algebra and Algorithms. The city's culture, which was open to travelers and debates, led to the emergence of useful ideas and notable scientific progress in Europe. This was in stark contrast to the Christian-dominated state of affairs there, where non-believers were being persecuted. Fortunately for the Western World, nearly a thousand years ago, a Muslim cleric in the Middle East reinterpreted the Quran and proclaimed that math was the work of the devil, which ended its flourishing era of science in the Arab world.
As of 2021, a total of 8 Muslims has been awarded Nobel Prizes in science, including Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine or Physiology. As of 2021, with an approximately 14.7 million Jews in the world. And since the establishment of the Nobel Prizes in 1901, over 205 individuals identify as Jewish (by birth or conversion) have been awarded Nobel Prizes. A majority of them won in the scientific categories of Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine, or Physiology.
With approximately 2.4 billion Christians in the world, representing the largest religious group globally, a total of 269 individuals identifying as Christians (including both Catholic and Protestant) have been awarded Nobel Prizes. Approximately 40% of those having won in the scientific categories of Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine or Physiology.
May God save us and humanity from the MAGA insanity. Our political system just doesn't appear up for the task.
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