This is why I had so many problems with the Gates Foundation slogan of "College and Career ready" in education reform, which I used to write about a lot in my years as a columnist. It left out the most important "C" - citizenship, and the punitive emphasis on standardized testing ended up pushing out civics. When I was in high school back in the 70s, they brought in real voting machines for our mock election, so that we would be familiar with the process when we turned 18.
I think you are only scratching the surface with the question of Americans rethinking who we are. This pandemic has us questioning if we are still the "can do" people we thought we were. If we are so "can do" why didn't we do nearly the right thing to contain and tamp down the spread of the disease like the Europeans? Or even the Chinese!? Some are also asking if internationally we are like the big strong dumb guy, flexing our military muscles while we let the Russians feel-up with our wife and the Chinese steal our beer money. Finally if we are such a democracy how come two of the last three Presidents got into the White House with a minority of voter support and if our Constitution provides guards from a take-over by a rouge, corrupt President why can't this one be stopped? Ya, Americans are rethinking a bunch of things.
This is why I had so many problems with the Gates Foundation slogan of "College and Career ready" in education reform, which I used to write about a lot in my years as a columnist. It left out the most important "C" - citizenship, and the punitive emphasis on standardized testing ended up pushing out civics. When I was in high school back in the 70s, they brought in real voting machines for our mock election, so that we would be familiar with the process when we turned 18.
I think you are only scratching the surface with the question of Americans rethinking who we are. This pandemic has us questioning if we are still the "can do" people we thought we were. If we are so "can do" why didn't we do nearly the right thing to contain and tamp down the spread of the disease like the Europeans? Or even the Chinese!? Some are also asking if internationally we are like the big strong dumb guy, flexing our military muscles while we let the Russians feel-up with our wife and the Chinese steal our beer money. Finally if we are such a democracy how come two of the last three Presidents got into the White House with a minority of voter support and if our Constitution provides guards from a take-over by a rouge, corrupt President why can't this one be stopped? Ya, Americans are rethinking a bunch of things.