Reader Response #1

    In the article "Idiot Nation" Michael Moore discusses the intelligence of our society. Moore talks about politicians, ivy league college graduates, and everyday people, from high school students to people of the work force and their lack of intelligence about our nation. He also covers how public schools are run and funded, and the lack of respect that teachers in our society receive. Overall, Moore is disgusted with the education system in the United States and directly relates it to the lack of intelligence that American people have about important issues in our country.
    This article was part of his book Stupid White Men...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! written in 2002. Moore starts with the illiteracy in America, and how much more T.V. is watched then time spent reading. He talks about the ignorance the people who run our nation have, and about prestigious universities who fail in teaching their graduates high school level material. He then ends with discussing the sad state American public schools and librarys are in, and why we should be blaming the politicians and not the teachers. This particular selection seems to be aimed at high school students, since it summarizes with  a "How to fight back against your high school" section.
    I agree very strongly with many of the points Moore makes in this article. I think its crazy how we blame the teachers for our failing educational system. How about the lack of funding in public schools and the continued budget cuts. I also believe that standardised testing is a lousy way of rating actual intelligence, just because testing scores get better, does not mean that this society has done our job in producing great students and teachers. It's not just the teachers that need to be held accountable, but its the system behind the education that needs to take responsibility for what they have done to the budget, not only on funding to schools, but also the kind of funding behind paying our teachers. If you want passionate, hard working individuals who are basically bring up our children into adults, you need to pay them what they deserve, which I guarantee is much more then most our earning.
    I think in this article Moore does too much running of the mouth in certain areas. He talks a lot about the stupidity of current and past politicians, but has fairly petty examples. It also seems as if he is attacking the schools who have made deals with commercial sponsorships, when the school is simply just trying to gain more money for the children. It's definitely the companies who are the ones to blame, they are giving a ridiculous low percent of actual contribution to the schools, in return for being able to claim that they are making a differences in childrens lives.
    I really enjoyed reading this article. It made me think about our schooling systems and how controversial they are. When you sum up "Idiot Nation" by Moore it's really about the blaming game America likes to play with its major faults.