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Content: Understanding "democracy", its values and its hazards. Understanding the structure and practical working of our society. Here are a few thoughts about each of these essential goals. Learning the skill of critical thinking. Every student will not become a philosopher, but every student can learn what it means to think independently and critically. Most students should be able to learn how to distinguish bunk from genuine information or argumentation. Naturally, this kind of education will be seen as a direct assault on the advertising industry, and in a way it is: Independent, critical thinkers are notoriously resistant to meaningless advertising blurbs. ( However, the ad industry can still count on greed, envy, lust, vanity, and of course love, as emotions that usually respond on a different plane from where critical thinking reigns, so all is not lost.) Learning the skill of critical, objective thinking involves unbiased exposure to various modes of thought, it includes instruction in logic, in statistics, and study of the means of deception that admen and salespeople, preachers, charismatic cult-leaders, and above all politicians routinely make use of in attempting to influence the individual and the "masses".