i agree totally to this comment. i also fully belive that education should be the top priority for todays youth. it angers me when i hear that the U.S is cutting back more and more on education and everything that goes along with it. were spending more and more money on things we dont need rather then the things that are inportant for our future.they want us to be succesful well they sure aren't helping it be possible.

It's a good start.

I agree with the "dumbing down" statement above. As a current public school teacher I have been chastised for teaching beyond what was outlined in the curriculum. Literally reprimanded for NOT teaching to the test, and reminded, through implication, that I needed to teach to the lowest common denominator. Independent thought within the confines of today's classrooms is being brushed aside. Gone are the days of the essay test which required students to organize their thoughts, synthesize information to postulate a solution and then clearly and effectively communicate them in written form. This task of assessing student's knowledge by demanding that they prove what they know is now an issue of excessively high expectations. Unfair to those who cannot meet the demands of such rigor. Crushing the self-esteem of a child who could, if given the correct answer within a pool of incorrect ones, would identify the correct one and enjoy the success that is so cruelly deprived of him in essay examinations. Hence the advent of the now much used multiple choice test. Academic success at one time had a price, hard work, along with a sense of pride for those few who enjoyed the spoils of their work, the freedom to pursue avenues of life which were prior to educating oneself wer unopened. Expecting students to put forth the necessary effort to succeed academically has gone by the wayside. Rigorous courses of study have been abandoned because of their unreasonable difficulty, and the demands these courses of study place on students. Instead society today has in place a piece of legislation known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) which has now placed an incentive for schools to make earning higher marks on standardized test more important than the level of true academic achievement. We, as a society, now have an educational system that does not want to lose federal funding. Public schools now push for higher test scores, not higher order thinking and creativity; therefore, why make an examination that would require a course of study that would demand perseverance, self-discipline and pride from its student body. Instead, provide a curriculum loaded with facts and concepts that can be easily tested in a multiple choice format. Why waste resources dealing with the hordes of apathetic, discipline problems ridden students who muddle the waters of understanding for their peers? There is no incentive to do otherwise, thus the dumbing down of what public schools now teach children, all in exchange for more federal dollars.... When will Americans wake up, drop the victim mentality, accept personal responsibility for failures and make efforts to overcome one's shortcomings instead of passing legislation that reels in those in the lead. We ALL lose in the end.....if not losing now.