In the many decades leading up to our Constitution being written the idea that democracy would fail without an educated citizenry was widely understood.

Today, due to our de-valuing learning we have lost trust in each other and we have grown to distrust the schools that educate our children.  

Contentions of fact to try and disprove: 

(Participant cards) 

• Modern societies dominated by endless ethnic, religious and tribal conflict have one thing in common: leaders downplay the importance of learning and education.

• There is no avoiding the consequences of a society that does not make learning their top cultural and social priority because, 

• If we do not value education we will forever be fighting, because we will lack the capacity to know or do anything differently. 

• Since the beginning of time, in societies that did NOT value the general education of its citizenry, the savage few rule over the many. 

• The downplaying of general education keeps us stuck to the society that we’ve had -underperforming, and un-remarkable.

• Reading the words of other people is the most effective and sure way to appreciate the remarkable thinking ability of our fellow man.

•  In modern times we are not reading the brilliant things that people write, and therefore we are doubting the one fact that could hold us all together - the natural born goodness of mankind. 

(All Together)

America downplays the importance of reading at our great peril. 

Exercise: Discuss the concept of a catch -22:  Our devaluing education is our largest and most dangerous catch -22. 

Websters Dictionary defines a Catch -22 as “A problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by circumstances inherent in the problem…” . Our catch 22 - Once we think we are right, we don't need to learn anything -especially from someone who looks or thinks differently than we do.  We discount the opinions of our deepest thinkers.

How do we possibly improve things if we all do not value being educated?  When we are unwilling or unable to read, or learn, when we stop placing our trust in the process of learning; isn’t that the beginning of the end of any trust in our society? 

Discussion quotes: 

“We must learn together as brothers or perish together as fools.” Martin Luther King

 “Even under the freest of constitutions, ignorant people will always be enslaved”  Condorcet

Resources; 

(Note: consider further research into the area of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy CTE proving regression of brains subject to repeated trauma, mistreatment. Proving that when our brain is not developing and learning, we are regressing and that the non-learning brain is not something to take lightly. When we mistreat our brains we can regress into a very dark place. )