[Magdalen] Trump, education and children

[Sally Davies]

My question: Is he in fact "uneducated" himself and literally unaware of
either facts or ethical issues or even political sensitivities;  or is he
making a cynical and deliberate appeal to the millions of citizens who do,
genuinely, appear to be uneducated and ignorant and frandly malevolent?

Education was a key "old liberal" value, then the money people came in and
over my lifetime I've seen it become more and more vocationally driven. At
the same time the social status of teachers has been massively degraded
(along with their real salaries and benefits), and educational systems have
been required to do more with less. Higher education has not become more
accessible, in fact it seems that it's been rolled back in every way
intellectually and financially.

The USA may be a particularly egregious example, but it seems to me that
every industrial country now has an enormous, angry, ill
educated rent-a-mob; uncomfortably reminiscent of the former
Austro-Hungarian empire in the years between the world wars, or France
before the Revolution. Except that this bigoted, hateful and ignorant Vox
Populi is more easily expressed and extended via social media.

I've read that children in America are being deeply affected by Trump's
shenanigans (and maybe the other republican candidates as well to the
extent that they espouse bigoted or cruel opinions);  and it's interesting
to me to watch my own childrens' reactions to him - as they like kids all
over the world spend a lot of time online and the online world is dominated
by the USA, so to them Trump is a very real and horrifying figure.

Our youth minister was recently on a tour with a group of Evangelical, but
indisputably well educated Americans; some of whom, to her amazement, were
supporting Trump. So it'ss not as though all of his supporters are
uneducated, either theologically or in any other way.

As for me, I don't know if I do believe in education as a foundation for
social progress any more. Maybe too many people are just not capable of
benefiting from it...and those countries that have continued to invest in
education and have achieved a higher standard, had much less economic
inequality to start with.

Maybe we need to see a child-led campaign against Trump - let the children
speak and give us all the benefit of their honest, clear vision. Though I
am heartened by recent reports that his ratings overall have slipped far
behind both the Democratic candidates.

Sally D



On Saturday, 02 April 2016, M J _Mike_ Logsdon <mjl at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> A political analyst a few minutes ago on Chris Hayes' show on MSNBC said
> something to the effect of, "I've followed presidential politics for five
> decades, and all during that time there has never, EVER, been a candidate
> -- and that includes Pat Paulsen's candidacy -- so positively uneducated in
> regard to domestic and foreign policy as Donald Trump."
>