I don’t mean to sound overly dramatic, but the United States has become a country in which those who have actual knowledge and experience in a certain area, we’ll call them experts, have become “tainted” by their expertise.  By virtue of their unique depth of understanding, their motives are quickly challenged and their knowledge is discounted or ignored.

Here’s a quote from former senator and vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman referring to the new secretary of education for the United States of America Betsy DeVos, as he introduced her at her senate confirmation hearing:  “I know that some people are questioning her qualifications to be secretary of education, and too many of those questions seem to me to be based on the fact that she doesn’t come from within the education establishment. But honestly I believe that today, that’s one of the most important qualifications you could have for this job.”  Did you get that?  It’s because she doesn’t have any experience in education that makes her, and hundreds of millions of others I guess, uniquely qualified to run the U.S. Department of Education.  Try highlighting your lack of experience on your next job interview and see how that works for you.

In local school districts, board members who are responsible for running their district, have been upset about texts being recommended by educators that refer to man-made global warming.  They argue that they do not “believe” in this concept and lament that “both sides” of the global warming issue are not presented in textbooks.  This also occurs in relation to evolution.  Somehow, scientists’ views of the facts about man-made global warming, and other topics, are up for debate from people who know nothing about the science.  Uninformed opinion supersedes millions of data points analyzed by tens of thousands of scientists.

Why is it that Americans have elected an alarming number of decision makers to positions of power who are so uninformed?  This is certainly true in education where the secretary of education, right on down to the local school board, is almost always filled with people with no experience in education.  The following comes from a Forbes article about an interview Newt Gingrich did on CNN following a political convention:

“There are three different lines of thinking he explores, and they should all terrify you.

  1. The full suite of facts doesn’t say what you want it to say, so you pick out the few facts that support your non-factual position and talk about them.
  2. The average American doesn’t think that the facts says what they actually say, and that alone should be a basis for both voting and policymaking.
  3. And that what people feel about an issue is more important than what the actual facts behind the issue are.”

I never thought I’d say this, but Newt is correct!  Why else would Americans insist on turning their uninformed opinion into policy?  “Fixing” education has been a topic of debate in our country for many years now.  As usual, those who are uninformed, which includes most of the policy makers, believe the “fix” is easy and revolves around such gems as school competition, breaking unions, getting better teachers while showing a lack of respect for the profession, etc.  Those who are informed know that the problem is complex, demanding a long look at the facts.  Those who are informed know that many school districts in the U.S. perform on par with the top performing countries in the world.  Those who are informed know that “failing” schools are in communities dealing with problems schools couldn’t possibly solve on their own.

But that’s just my uninformed opinion.  What’s yours?