EDUCATION: Get rid of 'group think'

Excellent commentary on the abysmal state of American education by Pat Buchanan.

And to think that we have some in this state who are PROUD that a “mere” two-thirds of our Idaho students are not reading proficiently.

What does that tell you about the American future?

There is an interesting tendency among human beings when it comes to “group think.” They refuse to accept all evidence contrary to their view because doing so causes them to leave a sort of comfort zone that they have built around themselves, even if that zone is a figment of their own imagination.

As long as the “group think” is never challenged from those within the group, all views that contest their delusion are violently attacked. Those who would dare to assault the sacred cow are regarded as cruel, uncaring, mean-spirited, naysayers with no constructive answers to the problem that they have had the audacity to point out.

The sad truth is that far too many Americans live in a near-permanent state of utter denial of reality. Our nation is in a state of decline, and a good portion of the blame goes to the education system which has crippled the minds of those who can no longer objectively look at facts and draw the appropriate, and dare I say, logical, conclusions from those facts.

DAN NORCINI

Coeur d’Alene