O'Neill's Debate on Education Students are not getting the Basic Knowledge needed today due to the poor upbringing and lack of respect for the need of education. In O'Neills editorial his reason for this was because the students as a whole did not want their ignorance exposed. However, he forgot to include that teachers are just as ignorant as the student. Give a teacher the same test and see hoe much they remember about what they we taught some odd number of years ago. It's not safe to assume that because a person can't remember who the 31st president was, that they don't have the basics of gobble history . How many teachers know the basics