Yes, there is shame in not knowing

[hunter]

12. I had a physics professor who wrote brutal exams that were impossible to pass...

...if you didn't know what he was teaching.

Memorizing a bunch of facts, being able to do the math by rote, that wouldn't get you through his class. You had to feel the subject in your gut.

Kids who had been straight-A students in high school because they could memorize great piles of crap and regurgitate the "right" answers on standardized tests would break down in tears.

This professor was the nicest guy in the world, always accessible and friendly, his teaching assistants were never cruel, but it was impossible to pass his class if you didn't know some physics.

As a nation we have failed any student who graduates from high school without critical thinking skills, without curiosity, without the desire to seek greater knowledge just for the sake of learning it.

I look at Presidents like Reagan, George W. Bush, and now Donald Trump, and I see venal, incurious, and ultimately empty people.

Sadly, a large number of U.S. Americans don't have the critical thinking skills to recognize their abusers. The Republican sabotage of our public schools is deliberate. The devils behind the curtain know exactly what they are doing.