Thursday, March 10, 2011

Who you callin' educated?

The terms “educated” and “elite” are being confused with “wealthy.” The term “elite” has been used for a long time by right-wing conservatives as a put-down of college-educated liberals. These “educated elite” include many teachers and professors who shop at Marshalls and get hair cuts at Supercuts. As for the other end of the political spectrum, “fair-and-balanced” Fox News is funded by a billionaire conservative. Somehow I doubt that he shops at Marshalls, and gets his hair cut at Supercuts.

The term “educated” is subject to debate. Consider such icons of the right as Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich (who thinks Obama grew up in Kenya) and George Bush (who never would have gotten into an Ivy League school without his daddy’s money). The truly educated person has a working knowledge of history, geography, science, English grammar, and current events. I do not consider a person to be educated if they don’t know the difference between North and South Korea, don’t know where the current U.S. president was raised, or can’t form a coherent answer when asked a question by the press.

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