"I Just Wanna Be Average" and "Idiot Nation" Response

Michael Moore, author of "Idiot Nation", said "even if there are two hundred million stone-cold idiots in this country, that leaves at least eighty million who'll get what I'm saying - and that's still more than the populations of the United Kingdom and Iceland combined!" (128).   Moore argues that the American people lack intelligence because they don't read enough and aren't taught history in school.  He repeatedly says that they are ignorant, especially political figures, because they complain about children not doing well in school but they don't support the school system with up to date books and certified teachers.  This explains the attitudes of Mike Rose's friends in "I Just Wanna Be Average" because they know that they aren't receiving a good education and therefore aren't likely to get high paying jobs when they graduate, so they don't feel like trying.  They just want to blend in, be average, get by, and move on.  They accepted that they were placed in a very low level curriculum where the teachers barely even know what they are doing and are not the least bit inspiring.  I think today there is this new idea of being successful and being intellectual; they aren't necessarily related.  This makes it so that a lot of American teens are okay with being intellectually average because they can still strive to be a reality TV show host or a movie star or a salesperson.  I think that the school system today has become so convoluted in the way that they separate students into groups depending on whether they are "smart" or "dumb" because it has led to students not learning anything interesting or useful that will help them exercise and expand their minds as well as help them to succeed in life.  Being okay with being "average" shouldn't be acceptable.  We need to strive to be the best people we can be and the school system needs to support that.