It's too bad that there is so much friction between Trump and Mexico, because he is channeling his inner "We Don't Need No Stinking Badges"* personality so well.
America is close to leading the world in its aversion to thinking, focusing, contemplating, evaluating, learning and most of all planning (just ask any financial planners about the reactions from so many of their clients).
In fact, America doesn't have a STEM problem in education. It has a problem making thinking, learning, problem solving and planning fun and enjoyable enough that children would want to engage in them. Those elements form the software of the mind; STEM is merely a set of applications. Make those components fun and enjoyable and children will want to become proficient in STEM.
What has taken hold instead is a "feel then do" way of processing information along with a tooth and nail resistance to thinking, being evidence based, fact seeking or even just plain curious. Oh, don't get me wrong, plenty of American's are very curious about sports or the next Bachelor or Bachelorette offering. However, that's not curiosity, that's obsession.
One of the reasons for Trump's appeal is that there is no honor between him and his supporters when it comes to facts, accountability, consistency or the truth. It's as if he and his supporters have an unwritten, unspoken, "Wink! Wink!" agreement that if they don't hold him accountable to telling the truth, he won't hold them accountable to doing the truly hard, joyless work to "Make America Great Again." No harm, no foul, no real plan for America.
Ironically and almost laughably, one of the reasons the GOP has so much trouble with Trump is that they are the "think then do" party that can't stand to feel. And the thing they can't stand to feel most about Trump is how little control they have over him.
If by some chance Trump got elected, his supporters would quickly experience a "bait and ditch." That's because the unspoken promise they believe he is telling them is not that he'll make America great again, but that he will take care of them.
What they don't realize is that if Trump becomes president, he will invoke his own version of: "God Trump helps those who help themselves." What that will mean to Trump supporters is that they will need to learn highly technical things that intimidate them (let's face it Wendy's customers, the writing is on the wall... unskilled workers are being automated out of their jobs) to be able to work in the future.
Being afraid they can't learn such skills will not be acceptable as an excuse. Also to follow Trump's entrepreneurial secret to success, people will need to be willing to fail ten times and keep getting up. Many of his supporters feel so beaten down that they don't have that kind of resilience or stamina.
And if his supporters fail to do all they can to help themselves, Trump won't even be able to tell them, "You're fired!" because they won't even get jobs in the first place.
* From the movies, Treasure of Sierra Madre and parodied in Blazing Saddleshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFwprS_L6tg where Mexican bandits laughingly imply they don't need to follow any rules (sound like any presidential candidate you know?)