The best thing schools could do to help the US political situation would be to actually start teaching basic math again. It’s stunning how much economic demagoguery would be undermined if the average American could do straightforward long division or calculate averages. Here’s a real simple one for those who don’t grok yet: 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) divided by 333,000,000 (333 million, the approximate US population) = 3. Here’s another one, slightly more difficult, but still no big deal: 32,250,000,000,000 (32.25 trillion) divided by 333,000,000 (333 million, the approximate US population) ≈ 97,000. Let’s do one more for good measure: 32,250,000,000,000 (32.25 trillion) – 4,500,000,000,000 (4.5 trillion) = 27,750,000,000,000 (27.75 trillion).
I think I’ve made my point now; if you still don’t get it, you’re probably an American voter.
