Stage 5: Prioritizing Early Education

You could spend endless hours reading about what is wrong with the U.S. public school system and another eternity reading about how we should fix it. According to the Pew Research Center, U.S. students continually score in the "middle of the pack" internationally. We're used to being number one in most international competitions. From personal experience, watching the Olympics as an American is incredibly satisfying. Today, we hear the echoes from post World War II  of being the greatest country in the world. How do we have world-class universities, yet lag behind other developed countries in K-12 education?
I don't think the solution is to increase competitive incentives, and standardized testing isn't helping either. Like most governmental issues, there are multiple layers to the problem. Our nation's children need to be nurtured academically, socially, and healthily (meaning access to health care and proper nutrition). We need to start praising effort more than talent. Children's confidence in academics can be jumpstarted in Pre-K programs. Unfortunately, access to quality preschools is limited.
Cultivating a child's natural curiosity at a young age will set them up for a more holistic education and motivate them to pursue the joy of knowledge. This drive will ultimately push a society to evolve intelligently. Investing in early education prevents older kids from having low self esteem and playing a constant game of catch-up. Many kids get tired of this game.
If the people of the U.S.A wish to remain to be a leading society, focused efforts toward early education will hold up other pillars of American excellence.

Stage 6: Commenting on Mr. Cargile's Post on Climate Change Legislation

My fellow classmate, Clay Cargile, wrote about the threat of global warming and how the current EPA administration is not acting with the environment's best interest like their name would imply. His post, Change Is Needed, makes clear the "daunting truth" of business interests outweighing public health and environmental preservation. He informed me of Scott Pruitt's (Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency) decision to repeal The Clean Power Plan which "would cut carbon emissions by 32 percent over the next 25 years." Apparently, this Obama-era plan would "decrease premature deaths by 1,500 to 3,600." To the people who propose that regulating emissions hurts industry job growth and economic prosperity, do they simply not care about the health of themselves or their communities? The environment gives so much to humanity. Nobody is going to be around to contribute to these "energy" (oil/gas/coal--nonrenewable) businesses if they're all sick or running from natural disasters. The science is clear. We need to make renewable energy the dominant resource. Mr. Cargile makes a wonderful point: "If the EPA's sole goal is to protect the environment they would have never attempted to combat this legislation." Scott Pruitt is not the right person for the job, because he does not make the obvious prioritization of environmental health (which affects public health and the economy and the life of every American or foreign person) over the business sector. Thank you Clay for your work reminding us all of the urgency of climate change's influence and impact in the U.S.