"Deprived of all knowledge"

"Hey U.S. public high school graduates!  Who wrote The Aeneid? Who said, 'My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country'? Who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?"

About half of the high school graduates I meet tell me that the author of Hamlet is "Um...Hamlet?" About a quarter of them can place Brazil on the correct continent. Fewer than one in ten can multiply 12 by 8 in their head.

Something is dreadfully, horribly wrong.

"But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge; and the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential."

-- President Donald J. Trump, 01/20/2017