Idiot Nation

People in America can all agree that everyone has the right to receive a free education; high school graduates are encouraged to pursue higher goals and attend college. This leads us to believe that, in theory, we will become a smarter and a well-educated nation. According to Michael Moore, this is not the case. Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest grossing documentary of all time and winner of the Palme d’or. In his essay “Idiot nation” excerpted from his book stupid white men and other sorry excuses for the state of our nation, Moore focuses on the collapsing educational system of the United States of America. He questions its overall structure and goes into depth by pointing out the flaws of it. He does this by blaming mostly the government and large corporations. Throughout the whole text, he emphasizes that the majority of Americans do have a bright mind but are not putting it to adequate use. Moore describes George W. Bush, as not being so smart himself; which makes us question… How smart are we really, as a nation?

Our educational system is failing our students. Moore claims that the blame is on our nations’ government officials and politicians who are not addressing the issue properly. And yet “the very politicians who refuse to fund education in America adequately are the same ones who go ballistic over how are kids have fallen behind” (106). This means that instead of our “leaders” being true leaders, they find someone else to blame instead of figuring out a plan to address the faults and eventually perfect our educational system. Moore argues that they approach the issue in a wrong direction by creating more and more tests, while comparing us to other nations and expecting high results. He does not believe that testing is bad but he suggests that they do something other than keep creating more tests. Moore does not think highly of our officials,