We are bargaining away our grandchildren’s future in the name of random budgetary cuts to satisfy the whims of a political agenda. This does not bode well for making America great, writes Kathy Hirsh-Pasek.
For the past seven weeks, my academic sabbatical took me to Chile and Australia. In the normal course of things, seven weeks is not a long time. But times are not normal, and the country I left is vastly different from the one I returned home to.
As a professor and scientist, I was quickly privy to a list of newly forbidden words. Terms like women, community, and diversity were declared out. Headlines suggest that language implying kindness, caring, friendship, family, and hope were replaced by those of revenge, cruelty, and hate.
Stanford professor and social psychologist Philip Zimbardo warned us of the Lucifer Effect — times when situational contexts make good people act in evil ways. The U.S. climate today is ripe for spreading cruelty and indifference. Why are we not outraged that a U.S. citizen can be arrested with no warrant, or that the laws of the land can be flagrantly ignored? Have we become indifferent?
When I was in Chile, before the inauguration, several top U.S. cabinet nominees had already been announced. Through my work, I spoke with scientists and educators from across the globe; the consensus was that Congress would never approve such unqualified people. And yet, all were affirmed.
By the time I landed in Australia, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was promoting cod liver oil to temper the spread of measles. Again, my international colleagues were dumbfounded: How could U.S. leaders allow this?
I returned home amid a major assault on public and higher education, which has the potential to impact our standing in the world for generations.
American students already struggle to meet international levels of competence. Recent National Assessment of Educational Progress scores — considered the nation’s educational “report card” — show only 39% of our fourth graders and 28% of our eighth graders are at or above grade-level proficiency in reading and math. This is a time to invest in education, not divest. It is a time to help every child gain the skills needed to outsmart robots.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recently asked me to lead education workshops for Romania and Bulgaria, as they rethink their educational curricula. Yes, two former Eastern bloc nations are investing in education — why aren’t we?
Higher education and research laboratories have been the shining light on the hill of American world dominance. Americans hold more patents, have made more world-changing discoveries, and have advanced more treatments for diseases than any country in history. Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman at the University of Pennsylvania toiled for years to develop mRNA science, and ultimately the COVID-19 vaccine.
Imagine if their research had been cut off midstream. By slashing research funds, the administration is likely preventing a cure for the next pandemic, cancer, or Alzheimer’s.
Headlines from afar gave me only a glimpse of the magnitude of the transformation and showed no sign of a national outcry against these cuts — from elected officials, scientists, educators, or everyday citizens.
We are bargaining away our grandchildren’s future in the name of random budgetary cuts to satisfy the whims of a political agenda. This does not bode well for making America great.
When I left the country, people were still proudly wearing their MAGA hats, they were confident egg prices would go down, and that prosperity was around the corner.
I came home to high-priced eggs with limits on the amount that can be purchased, a diving stock market, a budding measles epidemic, lack of public health information about the bird flu, a trade war with our friends in Canada, England, Mexico, and Europe, a growing friendship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and massive firing of knowledgeable government officials by an unelected presidential appointee.
Where is the opposition? Isn’t it time the muzzled voices be heard? Doesn’t patriotism demand we stand up for our democracy? Together, we have strength, even if we are afraid.
I feel like a stranger in my own land.
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek is the Lefkowitz Faculty Fellow in psychology at Temple University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She examines the development of early language and literacy, the role of play in learning, and learning and technology. She has authored 17 books, including the New York Times bestseller, “Becoming Brilliant.”