GLOBALLY SUBSTANDARD! That's what the international tests are showing for our students where more than 25% cannot demonstrate proficiency in baseline mathematics!

Let's face it, folks, all those millions spent on new textbooks, cramming standards and benchmarks down the throats of our attention deprived kids, and all because George said we couldn't leave anyone behind, and here we are almost a decade later and we left George behind, along with thousands of students who just have no clue how to study, what to study and why they should study it. Instead we are a nation of pant sagging, spitting and drooling pre-gangster wannabe's who jiggle our way across the landscape of life with snappy little finger/hand greetings and colorful euphemisms to use as base language because even the taggers can't spell. So when I read this kind of report I think, "so what's new?"  You can click the image for more test questions, but why depress yourself? Between our sad global competitiveness and our reality TV mentality, not to forget the black hole of state budget chasms rapidly approaching, we are at the edge of collapse, and ultimately change. "Responsibility educates," said Wendell Phillips and the trouble is clearly that we hold no one to any decent level of responsibility. You can lie your way out, cheat your way out, or claim some exemption like the color of your skin, some absurd disability, often defying logic, poverty even in the midst of shopping sprees, and an assortment of other ridiculous exemptions. We are globally substandard. What makes me sad is that we should not be. Americans are among the most ingenious, creative and clever of survivors - why we have allowed ourselves to bottom out in obese ignorance is beyond me. It was never acceptable to be second best. Now we are lucky to be in the top 10. Am I just bitching? No. Short of death, we can change this. I am just amazed that no one stands up in outrage. I am just amazed that we all have better things to do. It is no secret that I like sci-fi. The reason why I do is that it offers a promise of things to come, a time when we have flexed our mind and taken up a new challenge. We need a new challenge. America needs to reinvent the way life gets done. Just getting by is just not good enough. Screwing people just because you can is just not good enough. We always hear about diversity. There should be NO diversity here; we are American, and if you want to claim a national status under one diety, that should be the goal. So now what? I do not think I will cry when education goes down the toilet and has to be reborn like a phoenix. It is time to set things right. It is time to promise our children a brighter future than unfathomable debt. It is time to start again. Bring it on! MisterWriter