There are so many ways our federal government goes wrong. Most of them fall under the broad heading of Futile Posturing. I will deal only with education in this post.

Mistaking windmills for giants, Don Quixote said, "Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished." This case of mistaken identity was compounded by Quixote's claim that he could single-handedly defeat dozens of giants. If he believed he could defeat them, he was delusional. If he did not, it was mere posturing. If the windmills were actual giants, he would be dead.

Thus it is with the federal government and the U.S. public education system. To hear any President of the United States talk about the importance of education is theoretically commendable. But to hear the President claim to be able to do something about it is perverse.

Our federal government is a joke because it claims to be able to affect so many things from which it is far removed, and for which it is, by design, a cheerleader and silent partner. Short of passing unconstitutional laws that nationalize education, the only thing the federal government can do about education is to bring the economy to such ruin that state governments will choose to trade their sovereignty for solvency. States will then implement bureaucratic nonsense masquerading as practical policy, and billions of dollars more will be spent. Meanwhile, the United States continues to fall in global educational prestige.

The president can draw his sword, proclaim victory to his sidekicks, and make grandiose gestures at the American educational system. But, even extorting state governments, the federal government is powerless to do what it claims. It cannot teach a single child or implement a single policy that will conquer the giant that is a crime-spawning ogre. Teens and young adults who know nothing about their world, their society, or their own language, add to a population that sees no open doors of opportunity. It feeds in a trough of physical circumstance that offers little more than crime, government handouts, or both, as a means to make it to next week. This population is not a motionless windmill. It is a giant of hopelessness and despair that not only grows but threatens to inhabit the seats of government that will repeat the same baseless claim to defeat itself.

The best thing we can do for education is to ignore the federal government and recognize education as not a product to pay for, but a life-long state of mind. Each parent has to demonstrate a practical effort to learn more each day, and imprint that attitude on his or her children. Math, reading, etc. are general subjects. They are vessels from which greater things are taken by the student than just tests and homework. Our local schools must not be afraid to teach the unlimited potential of each child. They must teach that each student is not a specimen shackled to biology and statistics, but is an individual capable of both envisioning and achieving  the achievements that fulfill their highest aspirations. Our schools must teach the value of each practical step and the virtue of patience.

If the President of the United States wants to say this, I applaud it. But when he claims that the government over which he presides can slay the giants of ignorance and want, he deserves no applause, only the pity that a Sancho Panza can confer to a demented friend.

I saw this article that said one third of people don't believe in evolution. It stated that only 43% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats believe in evolution. Two things about this:

First, I believe this is misleading. On the one hand, the article states that the one third believe humans have always existed in their present form. This is not necessarily the same as "not believing in evolution." We are probably talking about great numbers of people who have no thought at all on the subject but who, when asked, have no reason to doubt that humans have always been human. There may be some who outright reject a concept of human evolution, but I suspect this is a tiny majority of the third.

Second, what's the big deal? Is it really important that everyone "believe in evolution?" I understand evolution as a concept, and I understand evolution of the species as a theory. I suppose it's all pretty reasonably worked out. But I don't give a damn. It's not important, people! Our daily lives are not governed by evolution, and to claim they are is to misunderstand evolution itself.

I think the average idiot realizes if you kill all the tigers there are no more tigers. Only a very few people actually think another animal -- such as a bear -- could turn into a tiger to replace the ones we slaughtered. And those few people are lying about it.

The average idiot knows humans reproduce humans, not koalas. They all understand survival of a species through reproduction without any evolutionary scholarly twaddle. They understand that if you mate two men or two women, you don't get babies. They know this stuff pretty well, I think, without a lecture on how disapproving the academics find them to be.

Part of the theory of evolution is that the process happens over great spans of time without my knowledge or consent. I'm unaware of it. And I don't care. It's a theory. I have no stake in whether it is true or false. It has precisely zero application to improving our economy, our environment, or our daily lives. Its sole use, outside of passing a course on it, is to separate people into classes of believers and heretics. 

Science is the attempt to explain the obvious. The theory of human evolution is an attempt, and it's as good as any, I suppose. Hey, I get evolution. I'm just fine with it. I'm also fine without it.  Most people are ignorant of far more pertinent things than evolution, things that actually make a difference in our world. Too many people don't believe it is beneficial to be able to read or write coherently; that they don't have to obey the law; that ethical behavior has no relevance to their lives.  These attitudes are more deplorable than adherence to beliefs in the descent of man.

Too many people actually believe they can get something for free. They don't believe their words and actions have any negative consequences -- to themselves or others.

Try this on for size: What percent of people believe that the way they live their lives actually matches what they say they believe? Does this make a difference in society? In the presence of war and poverty?

Let's deal with these meaningful things and put "believing in evolution" at the end of the list. I can't imagine a day when we regret doing that.