歪歪漫画

Our world is headed for a cataclysmic end.

Unless we stop robbing a good percentage of our youth of the opportunity to use the gifts and talents the Creator gave them, the future of planet Earth is not bright.

You have heard the old joke about hell freezing over because the Vikings won the Super Bowl. Based on the current weather reports, it will never happen.

Earth鈥檚 average temperature recently was the hottest on record and the hottest in 120,000 years. There is a message here for all of us.

What will it take to find solutions to these dire needs? I鈥檓 not sure, and I could be long gone before a solution is found.

One thing is certain: the more people we have working on it, the more likely we will find some answers.

Maybe the answer resides in artificial intelligence, or AI. AI is just beginning to change the world. There are many unanswered questions about AI that we have yet to contemplate. Rest assured, it will confound and confuse us.

For every good thing about it, there may be 10 negative things. Consider how the computer has changed our lives. Get ready for artificial intelligence. It鈥檚 already here.

What do Al Pacino, Thomas Edison, Ringo Starr, Benjamin Franklin, Princess Diana and Roy Kroc all have in common? None of them completed school. They all dropped out.

Think of the contributions Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin made to this world. Al Pacino is the Godfather in the acting community. Ringo Starr helped make the Beatles what they are today. We can enjoy a hamburger wherever we go, thanks to Roy Kroc and his golden arches.

Interestingly, all the above people found success 鈥� not just a little success, but monumental success. Each of them achieved greatness.

You probably think, 鈥淲ell, John, that鈥檚 a major blow to your 100% graduation rate theory. You just showed that students don鈥檛 need to graduate from high school.鈥�

If that were true across the board, I would be an advocate for not finishing school. Unfortunately, it鈥檚 not true. Al Pacino, Ringo Starr, and Princess Diana are all exceptions.

What it does prove, however, is that 鈥渄ropouts鈥� have talent, and if that talent goes untapped, we are wasting a valuable resource. Let me repeat that; we are wasting a valuable resource. Students who do not finish school cannot be forgotten.

If you were to sit down and list the crisis in today鈥檚 world, what would you list? We could start with climate change and the environment.

Let鈥檚 add to the list: war in Ukraine, Alzheimer's, drugs, air pollution, poverty, refugees, violence and guns, water, obesity, the achievement gap in education, racism, and the list goes on and on and on. Let鈥檚 not forget artificial intelligence.

We know that the more education you have, the greater your likelihood of making better decisions. This is why we have mandatory public instruction. Kids have to go to school.

The point is that education increases our natural brain intelligence to deal with issues like artificial intelligence.

Unfortunately, millions of students in the United States have not finished school. We have millions more students worldwide who don鈥檛 have the opportunity to finish school. These individuals could be Thomas Edison, Al Pacino or Roy Kroc.

World War II is an excellent example of how we tapped a forgotten resource, which ultimately helped us win the war. I am referring to Rosie the Riveter.

Millions of women were called upon to do work previously thought they were incapable of doing. Our world is vastly better because we have broken the glass ceiling in many professions (granted, we are still working on it.) Because of this, we have increased our badly needed overall brain power.

Parents aren鈥檛 doing enough to help their kids graduate. Communities aren鈥檛 doing enough, and schools can do much more.

When 25% or 50% of our students are not succeeding, isn鈥檛 that a call for action? What are we waiting for?

Just showing a slight improvement is not enough. Before long, we will have artificial intelligence telling us what to think and do. What if artificial intelligence makes terrible decisions?

How do we get every student to graduate so every youth can delve into all the serious issues facing our planet? I don鈥檛 have all of the answers. I do know that what we are currently doing is not working. Current area unacceptable graduation statistics show this to be true.

It is well known that Thomas Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts before he created the first light bulb. We have been trying to graduate 100% of our students for 200 years. It鈥檚 about time we stop doing what we are doing and try something different.

Hubert Humphrey began talking about civil rights in the 1950s. People thought he was acting too soon. 鈥淗ubert, we aren鈥檛 ready for civil rights,鈥� people said.

His response was, 鈥淣ot ready? We鈥檙e already too late!鈥� Civil rights legislation has helped all races achieve their potential, and the work isn鈥檛 finished.

We are running out of time to solve our local, national and global issues. The more people we have working to solve our problems, the better for everyone. Every person counts.

Riddle: Mary's father has five daughters: Nana, Nene, Nini, Nono, and ____.
What is the fifth daughter's name? (Answer: Mary. Practicing solving easy riddles will be needed to solve tomorrow鈥檚 larger riddles.)

For the fifth year, Project Graduate was in the Red Lake parade on July 6.

John R. Eggers of Bemidji is a former university professor and area principal. He also is a writer and public speaker.