Sam, not meaning to be rude, I'd have to say that I think that you're commenting about things you have limited knowlege about. I grew up during those good old days in the inner city of Washington, DC. My neighborhood was a "colored" one, and being 'white" our family was the minority. We never felt like a minority, it was just where we lived. My friends & I made sure we did our school work, because our parents made sure that we had it done, and frequently we did that work together. That was no fantasy. If anything your comments just prove my point. The "good old days" were good. The vast majority of the country was literate, and there was optimism for a brighter future. Why have we thrown it all away for experiments which are costly...

To all the excuse makers and progressives, we used to have the best schools in the world. The majority of our citizens could read and write. They could do arithmetic without relying on a calculator. They could read a newspaper to see what was happening. With a common language they could do business with everyone else. In other words, we were one country. The problems we had were ones of divisiveness, of groups being excluded from the main. The educational system we once had encouraged all to become part of a common people- American. Results mattered, not phoney degrees. Don't allow the exceptions demonize a whole system or culture. All of these fancy exercises in "modernizing" our schools have been terrible failures. Multi-culturalism...