I keep writing about education reform with a certain desperation.

It comes down to the fact that I am sad and outraged and depressed at so many things in the world that just don’t have to be “the way they are.”

As I continue to think about them, list them, I know there is a fundamental cause for every one of them. And each of those causes has a cause.

In this essay, I list a few of the major things that infuriate me! In the next one, I will share what I think the causes of these ills in our society are — and, ultimately, the one cause.

When I taught in a Catholic high school a half-century ago, we had weekend seminars for teenagers called “Seminar in Christianity.”

The lead-off question we asked them was: “What’s bugging you?”

There was always initial reticence, but then the floodgates opened! Not a bad question for all students about all things — everywhere!

So, I share with you some of the things that deeply “bug me,” which I think education should definitely address:

  • Why do 14,000 children on the planet still die every day from lack of food, clean water, and universally available and affordable health care? The first time I even heard about “child mortality rates” was 40 years ago. At that time it was estimated that 40,000 children died each day from malnutrition, bad water and lack of simple, inexpensive medical care. We have come a long way since then, but not far enough!
  • Why do the world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up the poorest 60% of the planet’s population (according to 2020 Oxfam data)? What is the purpose of money?
  • Why does the United States rank 29th globally on how “democratic” a country really is, among world democracies?
  • Why does Wyoming, the smallest population state with 600,000 people, have the same number of senators to represent them as California has with 39 million people?
  • Why are there religious wars? Or any wars?
  • Why are black Americans incarcerated at five times the rate as white Americans?
  • Why do many Republicans still claim that the 2020 election was corrupt when the party lost 61 of the 62 cases it brought to court, trying to prove it was corrupt?
  • Why do I, we, exist rather than not?
  • Who won the 1986 World Series? (I just threw this in to see if you were paying attention!)

The last question is easy to look up. The others aren’t so easy, but they are vitally important. I imagine they are important to most of the thoughtful people in the world.

Getting down to education, how much time and discussion are given to these issues? How often is the question, “What’s bugging you?” discussed? Shouldn’t one focus of schools be to create agreements on how to discuss things civilly?

I believe that prejudice — the presumption that we “know the way things are and why” — is the biggest reason education needs reform.

Real education frees us from ancient and personal prejudice. That is what I will explore in my next essay: The world’s “Eight Great Prejudices.”

Don’t wait for me. Start your own list now.

What in the world is bugging you? Why do these things happen?

Frank Sanitate is a Santa Barbara author of three books: Don’t Go to Work Unless It’s Fun, Beyond Organized Religion and Money - Vital Unasked Questions and the Critical Answers Everyone Needs. He was a monk and high school English teacher before starting a successful seminar business. Over his 40-year career, he presented seminars throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. He can be reached at franksanitate@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.