I don’t remember a lot about my first formal school – Gregory Nursery School — but I do remember Miss Heller’s kindergarten. Like the Hackley children, everyone in my kindergarten class could read, “count,” and write.
Societally relevant education consists of four Rs, and a C: Reading, WRiting, ARithmetic, Reasoning, and Character — Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Good Citizenship.
Good Citizenship: “It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences (both physical and social sciences) but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country.” (Noah Webster)
The question is: How do people develop Liberal, democracy relevant education?
If properly educated, human beings become the most divine and civilized of all animals; but if they are insufficiently educated or miseducated, they become the most savage of earthly creatures. (Plato) (And this is so relevant today!)
Giroux said it well: “Individual freedom and personal capacities must be developed to their maximum, but individual powers must be linked to democracy in the sense that betterment of humanity must be the necessary consequence of individual flourishing.” High-Quality/High-Quantity Education will ensure that individuals, families, communities and the nation live safer, more decent and more progressive lives.
“There is but one method of rendering a democratic form of government durable, and that is by disseminating the seeds of virtue and knowledge through every part of the state by means of proper places and modes of education.” (Benjamin Rush)
Moral Philosophers have said: The diffusion of knowledge is the instrument by which the human condition advances toward perfection. Or, as stated in the Preamble to the Constitution: “… in order to form a more perfect Union….”
Many factors determine how people exercise their civil rights and what political parties they support. Foremost among these factors is family —in the main, parents shape the ideological beliefs of their children during their formative years primarily through conversations and modeling.
Research indicates that people with higher IQs and favorable genetic markers for intelligence are more likely to adopt liberal political beliefs that foster care about the welfare of their fellow citizens — their health, their housing, their education, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties. (Source: ZME Science, https://www.zmescience.com)
Intelligence is correlated with a range of liberal political beliefs, suggesting that genetic variations may influence political ideology. Siblings with higher IQ scores or favorable genetic markers are more likely to lean towards social liberalism and lower authoritarianism, even when controlling for socioeconomic factors. This suggests that intelligence may play a significant role in shaping political affiliations, potentially influencing values such as equality and social justice. (ZME Science)
Clinton’s and Harris’s support from highly educated people, and Trump’s popularity with lower educated people are illustrative when using college Education as a presumptive indicator of intelligence.
High Education Voting Outcomes in 2016
Clinton over Trump
College graduates – 57% to 36%
White college graduates – 55% to 38%
Non-White college graduates – 68% to 26%
(Source: Pew Research Center, Survey of US adults,
Nov. 29 – Dec. 12, 2016)
High Education Voting Outcomes in 2024
Harris over Trump – 2024
Post graduate – 65% to 33%
College graduate – 51% to 46%
College graduate + 57% to 41%
White college grad + 55% to 43%
Black college grant plus – 82% 16%
Hispanic, college grad, Plus – 56% 42%
(Source: Pew Research Center, Survey of US adults,
November 12–17, 2024)
Lower education voting outcomes in 2024
Trump over Harris 2024
Some college – 54% to 45%
High school or less – 59% to 39%
No college degree – 56% to 42%
White, no college degree – 64% to 35%
Hispanic no college degree – 50% to 49%
(Source: Pew Research Center, Survey of US adults,
November 12–17, 2024
Education is a primary target of America’s fascists because ignorance makes mental enslavement simple to achieve. Functional illiterates are effortlessly deceived into trusting, abetting and defending their oppressors, and attacking those who are trying to open their minds and free them.
Anyone who impedes citizens’ acquisition of high quality/high quantity education is uppermost among TRAITORS and the worst kind of Domestic Enemy — to individual citizens and the nation. Only Domestic Enemies can inflict this kind of serious harm to democracy, as they have done via education throughout America’s history. Today, the president and the Radical Right Extremists who control the GOP have made their intentions crystal clear with regard to the denigration of quality education for American citizens.
WE THE PEOPLE should not let it happen! VOTE in the 2026 Midterms!
