Teaching the Basics

Watching the flooding within Oregon and Washington - and watching the people going through high water and then having to be rescued (a few did not get rescued) - shows that what is taught in schools is NOT what is needed to survive - but what is politically correct to be taught.

Why? Because the Government (all levels) has been gradually been teaching everyone that you NEVER do anything yourself - you ask for help and let the appointed Government people to come solve your problems for you - they are basically saying you are too stupid to know how to do anything so leave it to "us" to help you.

Now government is created by PEOPLE so that chores that they WANT to do is more efficiently tasked to someone else who can do it full time. You do not see a farm raising or planting EVERY type of food - they pick 1 or two and become good at it - and other farmers plant, or raise other food since it is just more efficient doing it that way. Government was create for the same purpose. Everyone CAN be a soldier - but doing it full time means they cannot do anything else - so the creation of standing armies  since the 1200s - special purpose people doing what people want done but they cannot do full time themselves - is more efficient than having everyone in the Army and no one planting food, raising meat, fishing etc.

Practical survival skills is NOT taught even in the "wild west" of Oregon and Washington. Driving a car through high water is fine - IF you know how high "high" is (to paraphrase President Clinton). If the water would come up more than 4 inches over the tailpipe of the car - your car will stall. This is due to the water pressure and the design of the modern engines REQUIRING only so much back pressure in the exhaust system (due to environmental regs on emissions caused them to recycle fumes, use backpressure to reuse past expelled fuel etc) - above that level then the gasses cannot leave the cylinder and thus it will become more and more rich and then eventually fail to ignite.

Also, once the water level gets above the tailpipe in most every design that means the water is now pushing against the sides of a vehicle. Below that threshold there really is no problem, above that then the car will also start to FLOAT! Now a floating car with side pressure (like when crossing a stream) means that the car will be pushed off the roadway into DEEP water - and now you are often under water. Most roadbeds are 2 to 15 feet above the rest of the land.

Is any of this practical stuff taught in schools - no. The Government just states 'Do not drive in high water' and NEVER explains why - they know best after all - and then people still drive through - because like a lot of things that Government does since they can -- they never teach the reasons WHY a rule was created out of an unrelated law that people never had a direct say in due to the way most every government in the world works.