Quote of the Day, and a sore tooth

I think it's bigger than that. Melden Fred really was touching on this when he wrote about the state of education in his blog (Bad Education0. It isn't merely the competition amongst poets (or any writers for that matter) it's the lack of competition right now amongst all of our children (perhaps everyone in general) to be less ignorant. If my grades, if my pay, if my personal well being depend on a lack of ignorance (or even a lack of perceived ignorance) then I'm going to try my damnedest to not be ignorant, but right now, through the education system all the way into every day life where's the impetus to learn?

Certainly that impetus isn't a degree. Degrees at this point are so completely devalued as to be nearly irrelevant. They are career oriented - but that can't be the meaning. Who we are should not be defined by our career, that is not enough.

That quest to understand, to learn, to grow, to give meaning to the lives of others, and to receive it - these are the things that should matter. But right now, what do we teach our children?

Money matters. Security matters. Entertainment matters.

But what of greatness? What of bringing joy to the world? What of knowledge?

The sort of arrogant ignorance that leads men to neglect those soul-feeding endeavors numbs our present and leads to a gangreenous future devoid of hope and love. I am afraid of ignorance and idiocy, most of all my own, because it does not just kill me - it kills my children.

Ignorance, idiocy, apathy towards growing -- these are not defeated with passion alone, but passion  for knowledge, perhaps that might do the job.

• stephan