I'm going to get on my soap box here, and rant for a couple of paragraphs. The emphasis on school improvement in this country falls to math and science, because American students don't score as well on international assessments in these subjects. But as we look at the dynamics of this election, it's pretty obvious we need to improve what students need to know about civics and American history in order to preserve our democracy. How else is it possible for a convicted felon and rapist who himself organized a failed, but deadly attempt to attack Congress in the middle of counting electoral votes, to even be re-nominated by a major political party? The rest of the world is asking that question. Why can't we explain it?

Several years ago, my wife and I hosted a foreign exchange student from Switzerland. He was 16 years old, in his third year of what would be the equivalent of an American high school, spoke three languages, including his native Swiss-German, English and French, and was taking Russian in school, was placed in a Calculus AB class, in which he earned A's, and had enough of a working knowledge of American History to get A's in the class and help other students understand the objectives. He was able to identify and explain political ideology in terms of both philosophy and government policy and understood differences between Democrats and Republicans more than almost all of his classmates. And in Switzerland, he wasn't considered an honor student, though his grades were good enough to get into the University of Bern, where he earned a law degree.

And for Swiss students of his age, that's typical. The Swiss managed to remain neutral in the center of the hostile political environment of Europe, through two world wars that raged right up to their borders and to the edge of their airspace, and preserved their nation. They value both their neutrality and their independence and they understand that an educated and informed electorate is the key to preserving both of those things. It's a requirement for students in their educational system, and failure isn't an option, they must pass before leaving school.

Their education system may also be one of the reasons why they have one of the highest percentages of personal gun ownership in the world, and no mass shootings. John Dewey, considered the modern father of American public education, believed that education was the key to social reform for the benefit of a free society, and he was absolutely correct.

An educated and committed electorate, made up of true patriots, would never tolerate such an insurrection, would have prosecuted the instigator along with the participants, and would never have been in the situation of having him become the nominee of one of the two major parties. That must be fixed as soon as possible.