Fire Hydrant of Freedom

"I prefer an educational system that requires an intellectual "gathering of the pack" as a basis of combating ideologies of all sorts.  Now wouldn't that be something?
Karsk"

ALL ideologies?  Including the one upon this country was founded? 

This is a subject close to my heart.

The problem stems from the fact that there are so many different and conflicting claims to truth that it's hard to sort out genuine knowledge from opinion, religion, or propaganda. However, the act of separating knowledge from opinion or propaganda is the true mark of an educated person. It seems to me the goal should be to teach people how to think, as opposed to being told what to think. This could be achieved by acquainting students with the classics. I've seen high school literature books from the 1950s, and it stuns me how much education has been dumbed down in the last 50 years. I think it's a shame that the American education system does such a poor job educating students about the American Revolution. It's reduced it to "taxation without representation" and the Boston Tea Party. Students spend more time on the Civil War and slavery, but even that isn't done justice. It's unfortunate that you have to read a grad-student level book to find thoughtful and nuanced discussion about freedom. When I first read Bernard Bailyn's Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, I felt for the first time that I understood what America really meant. Why did it take that long? How many Americans live their whole life and never know, much less care? Is it possible to be ignorant and free?

Tom