Illiteracy

Over the spend of 200 years our labor forced has changed many times. People in the California and southern states area worked on the Fields most of their lives growing food for Americans, from corn, beets to wheat and other crops. With technology came change and the growing need for literacy. As all science fiction writers foretold many years ago, we have become a society where basic scientific knowledge in medicine, chemistry, physics, engineering, law, the environment, the earth, and universe are essential to increase our collective understanding of life. Our public school have failed to get students excited to learn. 90% of education is on your own and not the schools responsibility. High School is meant to expose children to different areas of science, technology, art, history to help the students find out what their aptitudes are and what they might be good at as a career in life. The arts and music programs were cut and eliminated at many schools which was wrong. There are many brilliant potential artists, painters, and musical prodigies that can express their creativity in this manner. Engineering,psychology,medicine, and architecture isn't taught in most high schools. Electrical engineering should now be taught along with physics to help design the newest products. We need more pre medicine taught in high schools to help take care of the baby boomers that are getting near retirement. Illiteracy is a problem because of the social message that "nerds" or intellectuals are not desirable in high school. That has to change along with the journalistic medias support of education.
Intellectuals like myself have spent our lives filling our heads with seemingly useless knowledge. But, enlightenment to understanding ourselves can only be achieved by reading the insights of others in literature, philosophy, science and technology. Countries such as China and India have a very low cost and affordable university programs for all students. There are over 100,000 graduates from these two countries in engineering, programming and medicine every year. Americans are such a leisure based society, we don't tell our kids to stop playing video games, going out partying, playing games too much by hanging around with friends, some of which may be a bad influence. They should be studying there lessons four hours a night after school like I did in high school. The first eighteen years of a students life should be in the pursuit of knowledge with some free time. I spent the Summers in Boy Scouts in the Sierras for three months learning about nature and the environment.
This country needs a second Renaissance to help overcome this high level of illiteracy that leads to crime and poverty in this country. Our government and people need to stop playing political games and start doing what the people elected them to do and that is to fix the countries problems now, not next term. We need to start doing what is morally right and now politically correct.

Lauer, R.H., Lauer, J.C., (2008). Social Problems and the Quality of Life (11th Ed). Boston: McGraw-Hill.