Blame whomever or whatever you want, the core problem facing our country is not politics, not the spread of corporate ideology, is one of unbridled laziness and wide spread stupidity. If you are a parent, blame yourself. This article speaks to what our future holds, or rather, does not hold.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/education/19graduation.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

IMO the chain is only as strong as the weakest link. If we all earned $10 and pooled it together we can buy a larger item than together. However, if one or two people dropped income to $5, it weakens the pool. When we were poor, we were cautious. Now we are richer, feel we can afford to pull the weaker ones along. Sooner or later, it overwhelms us and we sink. Solution? Let the weak go. Let Darwin rule. Strong survive and weak die off. When we were young and hungry, that is essentially what we did. Now we don't and other nations are hungry and they are doing what we did but don't do now. That is why they are surpassing us.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

We did our part,,,, one son is a chemical engineer for Bayer, and the other works for us in the business and is the hardest working most talented worker we have.

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

Agreed.

But my life as taught me one thing over and over. Most people, sadly, are not willing (or able) to admit when they were wrong. I love listening to people my parent's age talk about how America has become so ruined...

You should see their face when I ask them the following questions:

"When did it all start?"

"How old was I?"

"How old were you?"

Moral of the story? The people that allowed it to happen are the same ones complaining.

That is why I choose to live my life by the following:

The pessimist complains about the wind,
The optimist expects it to change,
The realist adjusts his sails.

I've decided to be the realist and adjust my sails. I don't complain about the price of fuel. I am not interested in going into politics and trying to do something about fuel prices, so I do things to buttress it. Sadly, a vast (HUGE) percentage of the generation that allowed it to happen is only interested in the pessimist's view.

Let's hope that my generation has learned.

Pete

Peter,

You have no idea how nice it is to hear a parent speak about their children like you do. You have obviously supported your children and they have made you proud. I hope to be able to say that about my children (none yet) one day. Parents, sadly, have little idea how much impact they have on their children. (Especially if they let them have *too* much impact an aren't very good parents (unsupportive, pessimistic, problem-maker not solver, etc.).

Kudos,

Pete

Divide the regional factory-like school districts into smaller, more locally responsive entites that give local control to the local school boards. Those geniuses at the NY Times would be amazed what parents will do if they have direct impact on the school board. In Mississippi where I lived the school board was elected and unpaid. School board meetings were always attended by cadres of parents pi$$ed-off about something. That combination of unpaid dedication and direct parental interest resulted in very good schools because that was what the parents wanted and were willing to pay for.

I have to wonder, how come sometimes you say some very foolish things, and other times you say brilliant things like this?

Your idea is 100% what we need in my area too. The problem is that parents (most) are too lazy and *THINK* they are too busy (NFL, CNN and MLB takes up their time, and that is more imporant than their children) to care or do anything about the current system.

What do you do in that case?

Agree with most of that. Present day high schools are a combination of education factories and prisons. One important factor I would add would be to democratize the schools. If we weren't so blinded by our socialization we would be astounded that a society that calls itself democratic does not run its most basic socializing institution in a democratic manner. Schools should be run by students, teachers and parents.
I've taught at a free school (democratic to a large degree) and while I don't have #'s, I'm pretty sure the dropout rate is way lower than the average school and students actually graduate as mature adults rather than exiting as prison inmates.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

The high school I attended even looked like a prison!

More local control of schools would be ideal. Unfortunately, we appear to be moving in the exact opposite direction thanks to members of both political parties.

Pete - as for people who complain about how things have gone down the tubes in recent times, you might also point them to a passage in Ecclesiastes (can't remember the numbers) that states: 'Do not ask why the past was so much better than the present, for it is not an intelligent question.'

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Ralph

1985 300D Turbo, CA model
248,650 miles and counting...

I think you/someone hit the nail on the head with parenting.
My parents did good for me. gave me a good home, taught me the value of an education, sent me to college. When I wanted to drop out they gave me 3 choices:
1-Go to school
2-get a job
3-get out!

I should have chose #1 but I chose #2. Did pretty well anyway.
I try my best with my children. My son graduates high school this year. I tell him if he can't get A's thet's fine as long as he tries. And he does.
So far he has been able to not do the drugs and other stupid **** a lot of his friends and classmates do. He got himself a job and works to make money.
I'm looking foward to sending him to college.

My daughter seems to respond better though. She's 13 now. She says B's are average and average is ok. I tell her average is OK but when she brings a report card into this house it better be all A's. She has picked up her grades dramatically after that. I also bribe her too with cash and vacations. My dad did that with me. Whatever works.

I have a lot of teacher friends and they all tell me the same thing. The parents just don't care. The don't turn in homework, don't pay attention in class, miss assignments. When the parents want to know why their child id failing they no nothing about their childrens schoolwork. It's quite unbelievable!
Some of it may be the teachers but if you want to learn you can learn ANYWHERE.

Danny

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1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

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Actually I think this best describes what's wrong with America today:

Click Here

Danny

__________________
1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

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Because I'm a half-fast half-wit?

B

Many of the comments above are total BS. Suggesting greater input or control over the academic environment is as a solution is nothing but deception and hoax. Why would it make a difference?

When at work, most have little control over their job. The purpose of school is to prepare folks for the working world. The HUGE amount of folk who fail miserably at school is telling of what is ahead. If school age children are unwilling to work to achieve even normal tasks, what will we have but the progression of this pathetic lazy failure through life? This miserable pattern represents OVER HALF the folks who go to school. It represents the values of parents and utter carelessness of children. Looking at this, there is no wonder the country is in such dismal condition.

And we snivel about jobs moving off shore while doing not a goddamn thing to alter the trend.

Why has it become impossible to motivate over half the kids in our country to perform to the level of average. WTF?!?!?!?

If this were a representation of our past, we would have never even had the competence to build log cabins, horse drawn wagons, let alone sailing ships or even starting a fire. This trend is scary in the extreme.

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I don't know what school model would work best. I doubt that any one model will work for all communities across America. One thing that is more than obvious, even to the NY Times is that the current model is not effectively performing it's primary function, educating youngsters.

Local control is no panacea. Some folks will impose undue religiosity or other aberrations simply because they can. Some other places may place greater financial emphasis on beauty pagents, cheerleaders and football--like th ewhole freaking state of Texas. But even so, the current neurotic heirarchical uniformitarianism is uniformly counterproductive.

I think you answer your own questions simply by rearranging your comments.

B