Sir Charles called it right, getting educated on the issues and candidates applies to more than the poor people. In fact for some, the easiness of the way may makes it easier to accept what we are spoon fed by the media. Don’t let the media or politicians use emotion to get your vote or support! Proper education determines our destiny both personally and as a country. Responsible citizenship requires all of us to understand the issues and act accordingly.

Here are some other great quotes on how education determines our destiny.

“The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn” (Alvin Toffler, writer).  Reading skills for some may still be abysmal, but even the weakest thinkers will be able to read. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to be a functional member of society anymore. As competition mounts, knowing how to learn is what will separate the successful from the unsuccessful.

“Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants” (John W. Gardner, government official in the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson)

So much of this “teaching to the test” mentality forces a student to learn a rigid set of principles when education is actually a dynamic experience. To get ahead, students must be taught how to learn rather than just what to learn.

And lest we think that those who want to control the aspects of our lives don’t understand the full power of how education determines our destiny – as individuals and a land of liberty – here is a quote from Martin Bormann, a Nazi official: “Every educated person is a future enemy.”

Unfortunately, there are people like Bormann in the world, even today, who view an education as a hindrance to world domination or at the very least getting their way by taking advantage of others.

One bloody example of this is the “cleansing” performed by the Khmer Rouge. It is estimated that over 1.7 million people died from starvation, execution, disease, and over-work during the Cambodian genocide, which took place between 1975 and 1979. It has been established that the Khmer Rouge targeted particular groups of people, among them Buddhist monks, ethnic minorities, and educated elites, who were referred to as “new people.”