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Disagree. We need to go back to teaching HOW to think, not WHAT to think. Special interests is half the problem in public schools today. We are so scared that kids may not have the correct opinions and beliefs, that we pound them over the head with the "correct" opinion and punish and ridicule them if they don't accept it...or dare to question or disagree with it. They come out expecting to be told what is right, what is wrong. Or they are confused, angry, and/or bitter that the world isn't "correct" the way they were taught.

We need to go back to teaching the tools necessary to come to the truth on their own (reason, logic, facts). People need to learn how to question (and I mean even the sacred cows of race, religion, sex, gender, etc), if they disagree with something they should have to support it, not just run a emotional rally for it. They need to be able to use reason, logic, determine facts from information, etc, not just read the definition of it. Look how many idiots on here try to use the dictionary to defend feminism....well the dictionary said it was about equality so all those facts you presented must be false.

The other half of the problem is that we have tied student performance to teacher pay. Well, predictably this gets us lower standards and cheating (by the teachers). The standards get lower and lower so the school can claim to be doing a better job and get paid more. The standards need to be set and held. The basic skills needed to function well in society should be taught regardless of how many kids reach the level of competency. You don't stamp someone as competent when they are not. Period. The hard truth is that not every kid is "special" as we like to believe.

@Cat Lady: "What is the point in knowing how to think if you don't think about anything?" you can't teach how to think if you don't actually think. That is like saying I am teaching soccer by having them play x-box soccer. Obviously they have to learn by doing. Rote learning has it's place as you need the basic tools to begin, but then you have to actually do the things you are learning to truly be competent at them. And that is impossible to do right now, because what if the kids research, reasoning, logic, and facts don't support one of the politically correct opinions? Society would sh*t a brink then. It simply doesn't matter how well kids learn to think, reason, use logic, determine facts from the mountain of information, support their opinion, etc. Schools want kids to have the politically correct opinion...they consider kids learning to think for themselves to be dangerous (regardless of how well the kids do it).

American schools need to start failing more kids and firing more teachers. Right now both actions are difficult.

Women's and minorities contributions are usually taught in public schools today, thank god. The people who write text books took care of that.

Additionally, privatization of schools means my tax dollars go to private institutions. No thank you. It effectively ends the idea of free education as a right.

Some people don't think education is a right, though.

@Darrin: I disagree. School is all about critical thinking now it's just not been taught effectively. I actually think rote learning has fallen too much out of favor. What is the point in knowing how to think if you don't think about anything? I realize rote learning isn't really what you're talking about; you're talking about brainwashing. However, critical thinking skill are taught - at least in honors classes. I agree that trying to shield children from competition is BS. I switched schools in middle school because my school became obsessed with all the underachieving kids and canceled the programs for higher achievers (the ones I was in).

Darin nailed it on the head! So did Jessica. I don't think these two kids disagree as much as they think they do. Does anyone hear wedding bells in their future?

Just my own two cents: I don't think it's the poor who've taken over the school system. It's the rich. People who are in power like maintaining the status quo. Notice how no rich send their kids to public school, nor do they take any interest in improving it.

I don't think that schools teach pupils enough about worldly issues. I for one think that prostitution should be bought into sex education to make the issues surrounding it more pronounced. Many men who would consider using a prostitute don't know that women are being forced into it and kidnapped from abroad. I am shocked that schools don't fund the education of serious issues that effect people's lives.

School focuses too much on optional skills like complex mathematics and chemistry, I think that those classes should always be available to everyone, but optional instead of mandatory.

School should teach children more about the realities of life than it does already. Those are the REAL skills a person needs to understand life. More important than remembering pi off by heart or knowing your rocks and minerals.

Thank Mr. No Child Left Behind Bush for the current mess.

Sadly, there are a couple of generations of people screwed over because of it.

If History Classes included everyone (gender and race) then there would be no need for separate studies.

Well, upwards of 10% of boys in school are on ritalin to control their "aggression," so maybe the underperformance of some kids in school is a direct result of doping them up so that they are more sedated and more easily controlled?

But yeah, some of the questions being asked tonight leave me feeling like, Mother of GOD, what kind of a future are we headed for!!! I mean, people can say what they want about same sex parents...but at least our kids tend to do well in school!!! SHEESH!!!

Teachers unions have a good deal to do with that. It looks better if teachers keep their jobs regardless of how incompetent they are, rather than do anything to ensure children are challenged at school. We have created a stupid, multiple choice culture, one that is filled with dolts who can't think for themselves.

The school system needs to be privatized.

The lower class is the problem then, huh?

"Lower class"?? Puh.