The Real Solution: How to help our kids succeed

Rontrell—who is willing to literally work his way out of a bad public school—is now excelling at Capers. God bless him and the school that was willing to take him in.

The story made me wonder: What if more kids were willing to do this—to simply abandon bad public schools and work their way into good ones? So sure—let’s helped stressed-out moms form healthier attachments to their kids, as David Brooks proposes. But better for politicians to work to prevent problems from forming in the first place.

And we should celebrate when kids like Rontrell Matthews find their own solutions—solutions that show that individual ingenuity always trumps the best government program.