Episode 82: What younger generations no longer know

Welcome to Wisdom from the Aerial View, the podcast that

[music] seeks to help you find meaning and purpose in your

life and avoid anxiety. And I changed it up because just

before you got on, Mark, you said to me, "I may surprise

you today." Well, I may surprise you too because you had

said you wanted to talk about education, about how kids

nowadays are not being educated in civics. So, let me read

you something that I found. It said in 2024, a study by

the US Chamber of Commerce found that more than 70% of

Americans failed a basic US civic literacy test. One in

three respondents did not even know that there exists

three branches of government, much less what those

branches are and what they do. H the latest Constitution

Day civics survey from the University of Pennsylvania's

Annenberg Public Policy Center found a mere 5% of US

adults surveyed could name all my god all five first

amendment rights and 20% could not name any two. The 2022

National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as

a nation's report card, showed that for the first time the

civic scores of US 8th graders had declined and on and on

and on. So, I know you wanted to talk about this because

it bothers you that young people don't know civics. They

don't know our history. But, interestingly enough, neither

do older people. Neither do teachers. A lot of teachers

said they would not be comfortable teaching civics cuz

they don't know it either. So you want to talk about it?

Go ahead. Whoops. What say you?

>> Well, I wanted to talk about it, but civics I wanted to

talk about education in general. Um, and civics was just a

great jumping off point.

>> You know, we used to call it when we were in school was

social studies.

>> Yeah.

>> Same idea. So, why do I want to talk about this? It

doesn't sound like something that belongs on wisdom from

the aerial view. It's like more like a political or

podcast. But there's a reason I wanted to talk about this

because it it speaks to the fact that uh we're not there

there are consequences to not educating our population. Uh

and civics is just one, but let's let's start with that.

Civics or social studies understanding our country. I saw

another I know I saw some more statistics recently during

the July 4th runup for our 250th anniversary that that a

large number of Americans uh were not proud to be

Americans. They're not proud of our country. And the

numbers obviously it's skewed more towards people on the

left who mostly were not proud of our country. Uh at least

h I think about half were not. uh on the right side of the

scale 90 something% were proud. Okay. So it does it does

separate somewhat along political lines. But what that

tells you is that um people do not understand uh some of

the fundamentals of what our country is and why why it is

why why are people fighting to get in and very few people

are fighting to get out. Some people leave. It's true.

Some people some people leave the country. They were upset

with our politics with Trump specifically and a small

number of people actually did leave, but very very few

compared to the billions that want to come in. And when

you see something like the World Cup we talked about um

that's still going on, the World Cup uh the people from

around the world that are coming to the United States are

having a blast. They love it. They think our country is

very cool and our c and and it's not just them. the fact

that our if we left our borders open some number of

billions of people would try and get here because people

who have who live in countries where they don't have

freedom they don't have opportunity and those are the two

big ones freedom and opportunity are looking for it and

they and where they see it most is in the United States of

America so the fact that people so many people in this

country are not proud of this country tells you a couple

things one is they have been miseducated or uneducated and

like you said it's not just young people it's people of of

all ages, they don't they really don't understand.

Nobody's expecting a country to be perfect. If you're

expecting your country to be perfect or your company to be

perfect or your you know family to be perfect or anything

to be perfect, you're going to be disappointed because

perfection is not pure perfection is not attainable in any

of these venues. So yes, the United States had some

history of things that we, you and I think are heinous and

uh we've uh marched against, fought against when we were

younger. Uh I don't think when we were younger, even

during the time of the Vietnam War where we protested or

the civil rights movement where we protested, I think if

you would asked us, are you proud of your country? We'd

say, oh yeah, we're proud of the country. We just need to

fix this. Right? We're not proud that we're in a in a war

in Vietnam. We didn't like it. We thought it was a bad

idea. Most young people did at the time. And it turned out

it was a bad idea. But never did we say uh we hate this

country uh and and this is a terrible place. And during

the civil rights movement of the 60s uh we were obviously

the same thing. We were you know very upset by what was

going on. Many of us were uh many of us protested and

marched uh along with our black citizens and but we didn't

feel like the country was a disaster. We said let's fix

this. Right? So there's always going to be things to fix

and improve, but when you when you don't educate your

young people to be proud of not not only be proud of their

country, but to understand that that it takes a community

to work together to improve things, then you're going to

end up with a problem. I I you know, we we read about

what's going on in the democratic socialists and I I look

at this and I go, well, you're not going to find anybody

who lived in a socialist country who's going to think this

is a good idea. Just ask them. Ask people who lived in

commun Soviet Union in in Russia or the Soviet block in in

in what was then Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, all

these places that were under the Soviet umbrella. Uh you

know, ask them ask them how it was. Cubans, they'll all

tell you the same thing. It's a disaster. It's always a

disaster. And yet somehow this is this is rearing its ugly

head again as if it's never happened. Now, you know, I

always say history repeats itself and and we're watching

it again. But the fact that people are not educated to

understand these things is a real problem. But so I'm

going to stop talking about civics because I do want to

move on to something else. But I I certainly want to give

you an opportunity to weigh in on this.

>> Well, the only thing I would disagree with you, I

believe that during the 60s, uh, people did say they hate

their country and particularly those men, boys who were

being drafted to go into service who moved to Canada. So I

I think which goes back to what you're always saying,

nothing's nothing's new under the sun. So I believe that

during the 60s people did say they hated their country.

And I I think when people say it today, I I will tell you

how I feel. I'm disappointed in my country. Do I hate my

country? That's a that's a hard word. It's a harsh word,

but I am deeply disappointed in my country right now. So,

I guess you and I are sort of at opposite ends on this

one, but I am deeply disappointed. Do I hate my country?

Am I Am I proud of my country right now? I'm not proud of

my country about a lot of things right now. That's what's

my opinion.

>> That's fair. It's fair. I think it's fair to say that

there are things about your country you're not proud of

and you wish were better. That's totally legitimate for

anything. And I will tell you, I was a draft age and I got

within a whisker of getting uh drafted for the Vietnam

War.

>> Uh uh but ended up not getting drafted again, but it

was close. And I was against the war, but I didn't ever

hate the country in it. I didn't like this particular

thing, right? I wasn't a fan of uh you know the policies

both Democrat and Republican because remember the war

started under Kennedy got mostly uh uh increased under

Johnson and then of course Nixon finally uh

>> managed to after much to do finally get it to draw to

an unsuccessful close but it was closed at least. Um but I

I would say and I was you know with guys my age who are

all about to be drafted and I don't remember us hating the

country. we didn't like this is a is a difference and even

now I would tell you

>> I think it's

>> no no no it's not I don't think it's semantics I think

I think you can say it's like your family right there are

things your family does and you go I don't I don't like

that I'm not proud of my parents brothers sisters siblings

whatever children I'm not I don't like what they're doing

but I don't hate them right I wish it were different so

we're always going to have things in in a community in a

country that where we we disagree with and we wish can be

better and it's our job to try to improve them

nonviolently of course and try and do what we can to to

make it better. We should always be doing that. That is

never going to end anywhere on earth. But it's different

than hating your country. But I don't want to get I don't

want to get bogged down into that semantic thing because I

think really what I wanted to talk about is is the the

fact that we are not that the lack of civics education is

a symptom of a deeper problem. And that deeper problem is

we don't we're not teaching our children the important

things to understand about life. And so when when you see

people we talked recently about anger, how anger is a

choice. And you see the amount of anger in this country

especially, you know, not especially but including young

younger people. That is very troubling to me because that

is a lack of understanding about what what your life is,

what it's supposed to be, how you how you can best live

it, what your goal should be. You know, we we've neglected

that in our education system. That's why our young people

are so uh distraught in so many ways. Suicide rates are

very high, right? And social media certainly not helping.

But, you know, we have this underlying fundamental uh I

won't call it a sadness, but uh uh a lack of enthusiasm,

let's put it that way, for for the future for their future

lives in many people. And I think it's because we've set

expectations incorrectly. We haven't we haven't taught

kids the most fundamental things about caring for others,

about love, about kindness, about generosity, about not

being the most important thing, about not being the center

of uh of attention. This the whole idea of selfies, taking

selfies day in and day out. That's the antithesis of what

you really want to be in your life. You'll never get happy

taking selfies. That will never work. But but we don't

teach kids that. We don't explain this to them. So what I

really wanted to talk about is this lack of our is that

our a failure in many ways to to educate young especially

younger people because they're the ones that count. You're

right. Older people have the problem too. it especially

younger people because they have the future the a long

future ahead of them and they're going to they're going to

end up in in a place that is not going to be fulfilling

not going to be meaningful and it will cause a large

degree of unhappiness and disappointment because their

expectations are incorrect and we haven't let them down

the correct path in many ways

>> well I think your your convers you said something and

then you took it back you said maybe sadness it is about

sadness I think right now Americans for the vast majority

of We're sad. All you have to do is you just said to me

before we came on, you said you don't even read the paper

anyway. You don't want to watch the news because it makes

us sad. It's depressing. There is not much. That's why

we'll go back to our conversation about the World Cup.

That's why that was so exhilarating. It's still going on.

It's something that people can wrap their heads around.

It's something that people can share a common commonality.

Other than that, we are sad. I think turn on the

television. It's sad. We have wars going on. We've got

malnutrition. We've got hunger. We've got poverty. We've

got suicide. We've got It's We are in a very sad place. Is

it anything new? No. But it doesn't matter because we are

living right now. I understand the past is the past. But

I'm living You're living right now. We're living in the

present. We're living in the street view. And I think

we're sad. And I think that's the problem we have right

now. The other thing that I question is how do we teach

kids? First of all, you have to teach the adult first so

that the adult in turn could teach the kid.

>> Well, that's true. Unfortunately, the some of the

adults didn't learn either. I agree. That's right. You

know, you know, I don't you know, I don't agree with you

that this is a sad time. I think we're living in the best

time in human history for sure. I mean, people are living

healthier. They're living longer healthier. They're living

longer in general. uh the amount of work people do is less

grueling and less difficult in many cases. So if you look

at the whole world, you look you know this is where the

aerial view is so critical. If you just look at the big

picture and you look at the jukebox of time and look at

everything, this is the best time ever to live. You're not

freezing cold in in especially in the in the developed

world. Uh you're not freezing cold in the winter. You're

not boiling hot in the summer. Now Europeans don't want to

put in air conditioning. That's a different story. But but

seriously, you know, yes, there are people that are

hungry, fewer people than have ever been hungry. Yes,

there are people in poverty, way fewer people than have

ever been in poverty. Poverty has been decreased by like

70% in the last 50 years. It's unbelievable the severe

poverty. So, you know, yes, we have poverty, but compared

to the past, it this is not Charles Dickens time. This is

way better. So, there is a lot to be optimistic about.

There's a lot to be happy about. We just have to again not

hate on things, but fix the things, improve the things

that that disturb us. So that so when kids look at this,

oh my life is a disaster. There's no future. I'm not going

to be able to get a house. I'm not going to be able to get

a job. Well, neither of those things is going to prove to

be true. The the idea of job loss, I think, is a myth. And

we I don't we don't have to go through all, you know, why

I believe that, but I do. I've been convinced that AI is

not going to kill the job market. On the on the contrary,

I don't I don't believe that. I think uh people will be,

you know, we will we will see a time when we turn in this

country where it's easier to buy houses. We'll fix these

things. They will get better. But but if you have if

you're rearing a group, a generation that says, "Woe is me

and I'm a victim and I hate everything cuz I'm owed this

and I'm owed that and it's not coming my way." Then you

have a problem. So we that's what we're teaching them

incorrectly. you know, I don't um I it's not I it's not

that I don't watch the news or read the newspapers. I do

still, but you know, I've been busy. That's really the

main reason I haven't. But I mostly just shake my head. I

don't get sad. I mostly just shake my head. I go, "Okay,

we we should know better. There's a way out of this. Just

look to the past. This has all happened before. We have a

way to solve this. We just have to get more serious about

it, more dedicated, and we will. Things things will turn

around. This is not the worst time. This is not our worst

politics by far. This is not No, I I disagree with that.

But but if we set expectations incorrectly for younger

people, of course they're going to be depressed and say it

because they're shooting for the wrong things.

>> Well, tell me who's going to fix it. Who's going to fix

it?

>> We are all of us together.

>> Oh. And how are we going to do that?

>> You know, I can't give you a prescription, but I can

tell you I I know it will happen because it always has.

You know, I was I'm watching uh Den and I are watching a a

documentary on FDR. Now, of course, you know, we've read

I've read tons of books on FDR. It's not very little that

I that is news to me, but when you watch that period of

time in the uh Great Depression, which was an awful, awful

time, unemployment was super high and people were hungry.

In the beginning, the government was doing nothing, right?

Before FDR took office, the government was literally doing

nothing. And then what happened? Then FDR comes along and

he says you know let's give it let's create a new deal and

you know certainly implemented some things that to help

feed people house people then of course the war started

and whenever you have a war economies generally do well

and then that got us out of the depression more than FDR

even although I give him a lot of credit uh but the war is

probably what what really triggered the end of the great

depression so these things happen they cycle they and and

we shouldn't be surprised by any this is why the aerial

view is so important you know I just want digress for a

second. Before we started, this is where I told you I was

going to surprise you. Before you and I started recording,

we were talking about uh this place you go um where you

see elderly people who are living um together in uh like

assisted living situation and you've talked to some and

they said to you, you know, this is my life now. And and

you you said it's kind of sad. These people have had

unbelievable lives, unbelievable careers, and here they

are in their 90s, you know, and they're living in an

assisted living, and it's so sad. And and you talked about

who they were. And of course, from the aerial view,

there's no such thing as who they were. It's who they are.

They're just on a different page of the book. That's the

point. they're on a latter page in the book instead of an

earlier page in the book or the mid middle of the book

when they had these roaring careers and they were writers

and you know people in all kinds of occupations being very

successful having lives having families and friends and so

on and now they're on the latter page of the book almost

they're almost near the end of the book right and so it's

very easy to say it's so sad but it's not sad it's in a

sense that the rest of their life is still going on that's

what we know from from the jukebox of time. All of these

things, all the events of their previous life are not

history. They're still happening. They're still going on.

And so when you take that perspective, you then find

yourself less sad and less disappointed about about life.

And I think that's that's what's lacking in in our in

teaching younger people. This is all part of your story.

You are writing a novel. You are the protagonist. You

maybe right now going through a time, one of my children

is, you know, looking is is now currently looking for a

job. And I know it's hard for him, right? But I also know

that he's on an early page in his book and if we fast

forward 50 50 pages for two, things are going to look a

lot different. He can't see that now. I can't see it

what's going to happen, but I know it's going to happen.

So that's the better way to look at life as as the novel,

the the metaphor of the book to understand that that

during the many pages of your life, you're going to have

ups and downs. There's going to be good things and bad

things, but they're all part of your story. You cannot

remove any single page. If you move a page, your whole

story is different. And that's a better way to look at it.

And so you end up then not being disappointed, sad, uh,

frustrated. It gives you some degree of optimism because

you know there's a lot more to the story to be written or

in the case of the older people all that stuff is for

their lives is still going on.

>> So what well first of all I am said but what do you say

to your son? I mean he's trying to find a job. He can't

find one. Um, what do you say to him?

>> He's highly educated. He's super smart. Uh, and he will

find a job. Now, I don't know what it's going to be or

when it'll be. Could be in a month, could be in six

months, I don't know.

>> But, and then what does he in turn I mean,

>> he's living it.

>> He's living it,

>> right? Understand this is part of your story. Some

people's stories start

>> he's like because he's living in your home right now.

Yeah.

>> He's not out on the street.

>> He doesn't have a job, so he couldn't afford an

apartment or whatever. But what happens if he didn't have

you? Well, yes, but most people in this country don't live

on the street. The people that do live on the street,

generally speaking, have different issues. But most young

people who can't find a job are not living on the street.

Hardly any. Maybe I can. It's probably a fraction of a

fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent. It's

nobody basically. So, you have to understand that this

that your life is going to is a story. It's a book. You'll

have ups and down. you happen to be. So you got to, you

know, if you go back to his first 20ome years of his, 20

years of his life, you go, there's a lot of good stuff in

there right now. He's running into a little bit of

adversity. You have to have adversity. It's part of the

story. But you don't give up. You keep working. You keep

trying. It'll be okay. You know, so he's done all the

right things. He's continuing to do the right things.

It'll work out. Do I wish it would today? Yes. And it's

only been a very short period of time. I just finished

school, so it's very short. But that's the way to look at

it. You have to look at the whole. You got to get in the

aerial view and look at the whole book to see, oh, okay,

he's only on page 20. There's a 400 pages to go, 500 pages

to go, a,000 pages to go, some huge number of pages to go.

He's at the beginning. Your friends who are in their 90s

in assisted living, they're at the end of the book. But

the interesting about them is their whole stories are not

gone. They're not just in the past. They're still going

on. They're still young people. They're still in the

middle of their careers. These moments never go away.

That's the whole point. So when you on both ends whether

you're in the beginning or the end if you understand the

aerial view that you in that your life is a novel and that

that all the pages in a sense have already been written

you just don't you're only on on one particular page at a

time and so you have to just take it in take go with the

flow. Take it in stride. Continue to do the best you can.

Continue to strive to to become a person of substance to

when you can help other people. then you don't have these

bouts of depression and sadness and frustration. You you

get the big picture. You have to have the big picture.

That's the aerial view.

>> Let's get back to civics for a second because it it is

rather frightening that you know they do these man on the

street or person on the street interviews and ask people

about the the three branches of government and they don't

know the answer to that. I think it's part and parcel to

this whole issue of where we are as a society and where

our where our educational system is lacking and I think it

is lacking in terms of civics and maybe that is while you

don't like the word sad I think that is sad that we don't

know that and I don't know how we work our way out of that

um and I will I'm going ask you a question are you ever

sad does anything ever make you sad

>> well I try not to be sad I've certainly been sad in the

past. I'll probably be sad in the future. When I'm gonna

but I'm if I'm sad, it's going to be very short-lived

because I just flip back up to the aerial view. And you

have to appreciate this life is finite. Right? Again, I've

said this a million times. We live our lives as if if we

do everything right, it goes on forever. But it never goes

on forever. It doesn't matter what you do. It's going to

end. It's a limited time engagement. Make the most of it.

There's going to be ups. There are certain pages where

things are great. Certain pages there are downs where

things are not so great. Adversity, difficulty, stress,

struggles. Yes. And then moments of great joy and

happiness like we discussed about joy last time. You're

going to have these things. It's part of your story. So

you have to catch yourself. Your initial reaction.

Remember the brain interprets everything. No event, no

phrase, no word, nothing has any intrinsic value. It's

whatever our brain interprets it to be. That's a really

helpful thing to remember. I'm making myself sad. I'm

making myself depressed. I'm making myself disappointed. I

don't have to. I get that choice. Okay, things are tough.

I'm on page 87, it's not going so great, but page 45 was

terrific and page 227 will be even better. So, that's the

way to look at it, right? It's all part of your story. So,

you have to catch yourself. So, do I get sad? Yes. And

then I catch myself and I go, "No, no, you're getting this

wrong." And I do this pretty much on [snorts] a daily

basis. I'm always say reminding myself of how of how to

interpret this world and what I'm supposed to do. And that

keeps you from getting too low. Uh I think that's it's and

it's not just a phrase or a trick. It's real. The aerial

view is real. The the fact your life is a story is real.

That all moments exist forever. All moments are playing

forever. This is real. All time exists. This is real. And

when you appreciate that, you're able to return to a new

equilibrium. It's not simple, but the more you do it, the

easier it gets. So that's kind of the way I look at it, I

think. And you going back to your civics point, this is a

fixable problem, right? The fact that kids don't know

something, this is fixable. Our education system stinks.

It stinks, right? We don't set high enough standards for

kids. We don't we don't uh we can blame two groups. I

don't really want to blame anybody because blame doesn't

help. But if you want to blame two, it's the parents and

the teachers. Bingo. That's it. Right? and the teachers.

You know, you then you can look at the at the uh the

structure of our education system, whether it be the

unions or the the government institutions or the school

boards, whatever. Everybody needs to do better. You know,

as a doctor, I told you many times there's only one thing

you have to think about what's best for the patient. If

you always keep your eye on that ball, if you always say

what's best for the patient and you do what's best for the

patient, things will work out. It's when you start as a

doctor thinking of other things. Can I make more money?

Can I be more famous? Can I get more time off? whatever it

is, can I get more prestige? When those become your focus,

then you and you digress and you get um uh diverted from

your attention on the patient, that's when bad things can

happen. But as a doctor, just keep your eye on the

patient. What's best for the patient? Well, it's the same

thing here. What's best for the student? What's best for

our kids? We don't think about that. That's not our

politics. Our politics, when's the last time you heard a

politician really mean our children come first? None of

them say that. I I just don't hear I should I don't do

harsh, but we don't hear it enough. Let's put it that way.

And this education problem is a fixable problem.

Absolutely positively. This is not this isn't even rocket

science. This is easy. We've done it before. We've had a

good education system in the past. We need to fix the

things that are wrong and improve it. So, kids do learn

these things. We set the standards high. We we we demand

that they jump over the bar and we don't make excuses. And

and that's there. This is what we have to do collectively.

I'm not an educator. I'm not in charge. But this is not a

difficult problem to solve.

>> Well, it gets down to the basics. It's how you vote. I

mean, if

>> Okay. Well, I don't know how that [clears throat] I

don't know how that works because the people in charge of

I know you're you tend to be on the left side of the

leisure and those are the people who are in charge of our

education system. So, how does that work?

>> No, I don't think that's true. I mean,

>> I think it's true.

>> I think it's true.

>> Keep blaming us. Okay.

>> No, no, no, no. The only reason I say that is because

if you look at the data, like for instance, in college

professors, 98% of them are Democrats. So, you know, so

I'm not picking I'm just saying it doesn't matter. I don't

I'm not going to fight with one party or the other. It's

everybody's responsibility. Put the kids first. Put the

patient first. If you're a doctor or a healthcare

provider, put the put the students first, the kids first.

If you're a parent, an educator, a politician, whoever,

put the kids first, right? Are our kids educated? No. It's

not just civics. What? 30% of them are proficient in math.

I mean, reading, it's terrible. It's not just civics. It's

everything. We're doing a terrible job. And it's fixable.

>> Well, you know, you talk about reading. I was looking

at some statistics about athletes, student athletes,

particularly in the college level, when they recruit them

to come to their college to play football, to play

basketball. They don't care if they can read. It doesn't

matter to them that they can read. It's about the brawn,

not the brain. And so, we continue on this cycle, this

vicious cycle of not worrying about education at all. on

the college level at some of these, you know, these big 10

schools or whatever, it's more about the brawn than the

brain. So, we perpetuate this whole thing about education

is the the less valued on many college campuses than

anything else. I mean, it's all about it's all about the

money. They make money in college, but these basketball

and football and now with the NIL and all this, but you

know, the system is broken. There's no question about it.

The question is how do you fix it and when do we fix it?

Well, we fix it now. And how do you fix it? It's not that

hard. You go back, look back 50 years, you know, pick a

pick a number, right? When when education was much better

in this country, what were we doing? Right? Okay. What

were we doing? We didn't have computers. We didn't have,

you know, iPads, right? What were we doing? We had

teachers who were dedicated, who demanded the students

perform. We had parents who said, "You have to do your

homework." Didn't make excuses. They weren't saying,

"Okay, look, you don't have to go to school today. I'm

taking you don't have to study tonight because I know you

have a soccer game tomorrow or something. No, we have to

make that the priority. So, everybody has to focus. It's

just just the same analogy. Put the student first. What's

best for the kid? What's best for the kid is to be

educated well. How do you educate them? Well, we don't

have to reinvent this. It's been done in the past. We have

to get serious about it. We have to go back to what we did

what we know that works. It's not like we never not like

we're never successful. We were very successful, right? We

know how to do it. But you have to have the will. You have

to have to say, okay, my getting elected is not the most

important thing. Uh me as a parent being able to go out

with my friends is not the most important thing. The kids

the most important thing. When we get back to that, we'll

be in much better shape.

>> I'll put one plug for teachers. There are really some

really good teachers out there. I think the problem begins

at home. I think that when a kid gets to school and he or

she is on that little iPad or the phone, it's not the

teacher's fault. Again, we're not putting blame on

anybody, but there are really good teachers that I I don't

>> No, I'm putting blame on people. I'm blaming the

parents and the teachers, but and the politicians and the

politicians. I I

>> there are definitely there are very there are certainly

lots of good teachers. Nobody disputes that. But when you

say the teachers, we're talking about the institution

there. If we had all good teachers, kids wouldn't wouldn't

be in the 13% wouldn't know about 87% wouldn't know about

the Supreme Court and the branch of government. And we

wouldn't have 70% who couldn't read and we wouldn't have

70% who couldn't do math. If all teachers were great, we

wouldn't we wouldn't have those numbers that you know. So

we we can say all we want that teachers are great and many

of them are but not nearly enough because look at the

data. The data is screaming at you that there's a problem

here.

>> There is a problem. We also run out of time. Let me let

me end George Washington. He said the assimilation of the

principles, opinions, and manners of our countrymen by the

common education of a portion of our youth from every

quarter well deserves attention. The more homogeneous our

citizens can be made in these particulars, the greater

will be our prospect of permanent union. And a primary

object of such a national institution should be the

education of our youth in the sciences of government. this

change, this assimilation of the principles, opinions, and

manners will be better for our country.

>> Amen.

>> Amen. He had he hit the nail on the head. He said it,

Jefferson said it. Ben Franklin said it. They all said the

same thing, right?

>> And Mark Klein said it, too.

>> No. Aristotle said, I mean, you can't have an

uneducated populist. It doesn't work, right?

>> I agree.

>> So,

>> so you got the final word.

>> The final word is is this is fixable if we remember to

put kids first. If we stop worrying about our politicians

stop worrying about their about being elected if our

parents focus on the kids more than themselves and the

teachers same thing uh worry less about how many vacation

days they get and whether or not we are teaching our kids

everybody's responsible together all of us parents

teachers politicians it's a fixable problem uh but it's

not just civics it's everything that's talked it's how to

be how to live a life of meaning and purpose the things we

talk about every week this is what we're not teaching kids

and the whole idea that your life is a story. It's going

to have its ups and downs. Keep going. I I'll tell you one

quick aside. One of my when one of my when my daughter was

in college. Uh a woman, a girl she knew committed suicide.

I think it was a girl, maybe it was a guy, I don't

remember. And she was very distraught, of course. And she

said, "You know, Dad, I know you would never let this

happened to me." That's what she said. And she said, and

she says, "And I know you tell me that nobody told this

kid that things would get better." So I don't want to

minimize and simplify um suicide in young people. It's

very complex and I don't mean to gloss over it with one

sentence. But but if kids have the understand that that

that things will get better. They're only on the early

pages of the book and as the book gets written great

things are going to happen to everybody at some point.

Then then chance of getting that getting that low where

you think you want to take your life is is certainly

decreased. Not eliminative, certainly decreased. And so

it's not just civics, it's [music] everything. It's how we

how we teach our kids what we're doing with the with

younger people and trying to present the world to them

that's optimistic.

>> Good. Thank you. Appreciate it. Till next time.

>> Appreciate you. All right. Thank you everybody for

listening. We'll see you next time. Peace.