Woody Cavenaugh

Here's what we have.
1. Schools doing their best to teach readin' writin' and 'rithmatic to students with a healthy dose of science and history to boot.

2. Parents expecting schools to take over the parenting role with reguards to behavior, right and wrong, how not to be arrested, etc.

3. A president who decited that every student is going to take the same test. If your school has low scores you will lose funding. If you have low scores three times in a row, bad things happen.

Who makes the rules? (say it with me) "He who has the gold makes the rules." The president gets the gold from the parents (in the form of taxes). The schools have no say in the matter.

The parents want students who have been well parented at school.
The president wants students who test well.

Nothing else matters.

School systems need to throw out concepts like critical thinking, and writing skills and give the customer what the customer wants. The customer only wants a child who is well behaved and tests well. Now I know this shakes the very pillers American education is based on, but times have changed. Math, science, reading, writing, research, critical thinking, history, and fitness have no place in today's society. Just give up, drop it, and move on.

One day the parents may realize that they are the ones that are supposed to be doing the parenting, and one day the president might notice that he is an idiot surrounded by other idiots. When that day comes, they come crawling back to the schools with a request that their "kids be less dumbness please", nod, smile, reassure them, but please don't rub their faces in it, that would be rude.