This particular video was on the failure of our education systems. A failure that is so pervasive and so subtle, that we don’t even realize it is happening. In fact we end up believing we know things about how the world and our society works, when we really don’t know them.

We live in a world filled with information. From the moment we enter the school system, and even before, we are bombarded with facts and details about the world around us. By the time we graduate from school or college, we know all kinds of things. But do we really understand the things we know? And how many of the things we “know” are actually wrong?

I posted the video below so that you can watch it for yourself. The presenter gives a simple exercise at the beginning to illustrate his point. I recommend doing the exercise. I think you’ll be surprised at what you don’t know. I was, and it really made me wonder about the other things I “know.”

I don’t consider myself all that knowledgeable. The sheer amount of things I don’t know is astounding. My education covers the basics, but there are a lot of things and areas of study I know nothing about. I have the standard college education that most people have nowadays. I don’t have a Masters degree or a Doctorate. Just a normal undergrad degree. I got good grades in college, but not straight A’s. All in all, I consider myself to be of about average intelligence and believe I have an average level of education.

Lately I’ve been in a Bible study with a group of fellow Christians. Most of the people in the group are my age or a little younger. For those who don’t know, I’m 28. Anyway, most of the people in the study group are college graduates who are in their chosen career. A few are still in school pursuing graduate degrees.
The Bible study is structured in a discussion group format. One thing that struck me right from the start, was that people in the group seemed to be very ignorant of current events, history, philosophy, science, and the Bible. Many of the people are new Christians. So I could understand the lack of knowledge about the Bible. What I didn’t understand, was the ignorance these people had of everything else!

I didn’t know most of them that well before the beginning of the Bible study. Some of them I met for the first time at the study. At first I thought maybe I was just in a group of rather stupid people. I know, that isn’t a very nice thing to think. But that was my first impression. There are plenty of stupid people in the world, and I just assumed that I had “lucked out” in getting stuck with a bunch of them. I was wrong.

After I got to know them a little better, I realized that my first impression wasn’t fair at all. These people were just as intelligent and smart as I was. In fact I think a few of them are probably smarter than me. The problem was that most of them had never learned basic facts and information that I took for granted. Basic facts about history, philosophy, science, and current events that anyone with a high school or college education should know.

I really don’t understand how they could ever have made it through college without knowing these things. I could understand not remembering details and dates. Remembering names and specifics of information you don’t use in your daily life is not something most of us can do. So it’s not surprising people would forget. But in this case, most of these people seem to have never heard of many of the concepts and facts that they should have learned in school.

The only conclusion I have come to is that they never learned things they should have. Why didn’t they? Has our education system failed them? I don’t know where things went wrong, but that kind of ignorance scares me. Smart intelligent people who don’t know their own history, current events, and basic philosophy are easily swayed and deluded by corrupt politicians, con artists, and cult leaders. And that is scary.