Personal entitlement should be scrapped. The educational system was not put into place in order to seek ways to keep from bruising delicate psyches. There should be rules of conduct that are enforced. There should be levels of achievement demanded from students before they advance. If some students require special help, that help should be available.

Mainstreaming students with special needs is one of the worst ideas to ever get a foothold in American education. Why should a teacher be expected to teach down to the least capable student when the teaching should be aimed above the best students? Yes, segregate students by demonstrated abilities and then try to stretch those abilities to their farthest.

Require Physical Education again. Fresh air and sunshine or even rain is not going to seriously damage youths’ bodies or minds. Force those little faces out of books and from in front of computers and raise their heart rates for a while.

How is that for a start?

However!!

Jr High and High School in many area’s suck.

Not because of the teachers, but because of the students.

Past that, students mature and its damned good.

Where I live in China as an ex pat from the USA teaching English, there are tons of students who want to go to the states for education. Not to end up living there, but because here they can live like a king and every door in the world will open up for them. The biggest problem for them, is they have to pass an English test that is reading, writing, comprehension and speaking that even many Americans would fail. They study hard for years to get to that dream.

Peace

Jim

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The point is, you can make statistics say whatever you want. If you want to prove education is great; you can. If you want to prove education in America is a joke; you can.

I won’t deny there are a number of schools (WAY too many) that don’t teach children the most essential knowledge. There is a lack of funding for some of these schools, but some of them have teachers who have just given up on them.