Sue, I hope that we can respectfully agree to disagree on this. I too was 18 in 1968, and I too knew a lot about the subjects you mentioned. But so too do my kids who are 26 and 30 and who went to public schools. And I can tell you that at least one 12 year old went to school in Europe and wasn’t at a disadvantage, except when she returned to the US. My DD2 spent a semester in an international school in Paris. She learned a lot (mostly about wanting to travel) but it did not help to get ahead when she got back to the states. I’ve worked with the products of European and Japanese school systems and I give them no clear, overall advantage over the US kids I’ve hired. Kids who want to learn can get a heck of an education at the average public school in this country. The course selection in high schools today outstrips what I had. AP classes and such can earn kids college credit as sophomores in high school. My wife’s 3rd grade class is doing lessons I did in 4th and 5th grade.

But I don’t say all is perfect or even well. There are always improvements that can be made at all levels. Dropout rates are higher than they have been in a while. It’s getting harder to keep qualified teachers (most new teachers quit after 5 years) so as the older generation of experienced teachers retire, you won’t have a lot teachers with 15, 20 and 25 years of experience. That’s not good. Because good teachers motivate, good experienced teachers motivate and get results. But more kids are getting post high school educations, more women are getting science and math degrees, more colleges are starting to make humanities courses mandatory. And, believe or not, No Child Left Behind, is working as the percentage of kids performing at grade level is going up significantly.

That being said let me finish by saying that human nature isn’t dependent on nationality, race or creed. Motivated kids will learn and unmotivated kids will not regardless of the situation. The job of parents and teachers is to motivate them to enjoy learning and take it on as a life long task. Reading, as you have mentioned Sue, is the keystone but it doesn’t much matter if it’s classic books, wikipedia, blogs, or that bastion of power and corruption, the New York Times. Hopefully it’s all of the above and more.

Finally, I make a pledge to never address this issue again on these forums.