Great discussion--
Can I just say ditto to eema, Val and Giftodd?
Is the behavior of most people a function of personality, IQ, income, and / or educational attainment...? (or something else?)
If personality or IQ has anything to do with it, then I'd say things are likely to always be this way. Only those with certain personality traits and / or above a certain level of intelligence will be interested in fixing the problems in society.
If income is the reason, then you'd think all those people not living paycheck to paycheck would be informed active citizens (are they?) If it is educational attainment, we just need to improve our school systems.
Interesting question. A blend of each perhaps? If it were purely educational attainment or income, then I would expect each of those groups to be unified in its world view, which does not appear to be the case. Nor does it seem to me that personality on its own can determine, since environment, opportunity and experience surely shape priorities.
Re: the earlier question about the origin of public schools. My recollection is that compulsory education in the United States was largely motivated by a combination of immigration and labor issues. Placing children in school kept them out of the factories where they could be hired for less money, which depressed wages and job opportunities for adults trying to support families. Additionally, it kept unemployed youth off of the streets where they could cause trouble.
I can't find a link that relates to the job competition aspect, although it is something I recall learning both in my history of education class and my labor history classes. There are various articles that talk about the compulsory education movement happening alongside child labor movements, but these seem to focus on the impacts of child labor on children rather than the impacts of child labor on adult labor.
Americans were also reacting to immigration and saw schools as a way to assimilate immigrants, rather than to have immigrants change the dominant culture. There used to be a much bigger emphasis on the teaching of citizenship in school with the explicit goal of educating children to become good citizens of the United States.
America at School It's interesting to recall some of that history at a time when there is so much discussion about discipline issues in schools and about the cost of providing services to english language learners.
