mietla, one can only get so far blaming the government, I am pretty sure it's not entirely the governments' fault that an alarming number of adolescents are growing up without the basic concepts of accountability and respect.
you are right, I was just sarcastic. It's a combination of factors. We can blame parents (for not being involved), teacher unions (for not striving to hire only the best and making it impossible to fire the incompetent) and the government for throwing money at the problem without any accountability, pushing idiotic concepts like no child left behind and forcing school to spend most money on the least gifted and least intelligent students. If the uniformity is more desirable than the excellence, you have to cater to the least worthy.
There is no reason to believe that suddenly the kids themselves are getting stupider. If anything they are probably smarter with each generation. It is us who teach them to remain uneducated and not to bother themselves with free thinking. Government knows best. "Equality/uniformity" above all else.
The biggest problem is our acceptance of the agenda that everybody is equally gifted, down playing or even punishing the genuine achievement and "dispensing" a self esteem equally to everybody regardless of their abilities, work and achievements.
