“Education is unique among consumer products -- when it fails to work as advertised, it's the customer that gets labelled as defective.”

Education is such a collective endeavor that I have always felt it must be examined by independent assessment to define any problematic outcomes of sufficiency as to student performance. Both kids and teachers get lazy sometimes; that's easy enough, but when other more sinister factors enter into the equation, the fix gets messy as Wisconson is finding out.

This being the result of Teacher's Unions working to rule combined with policy handed down from on high dictating the content and standards that are to be achieved...or not achieved depending on your perception.

Education is the responsibility of the individual. The fact that the village, city, state or church puts tremendous resources available to the individuals disposal does not circumvent this fact. Most people know of motivated students and parents and of unmotivated students and parents. This divergence between people is not the problem the problem PRODUCT.

I don't know a lot of 6 year olds that are all that responsible...and that is when their little critical thinking patterns are being developed... We have a current situation where parents of the little ones were also raised by this progressive school system...and those raised before that were done so with the trust of the parents who received a good education...yep...trust lulled us asleep at the wheel....and that must change right now.

Law schools in Amerika may be the ultimate example of the quote. For at least a century the Constitution has been that g*&%# that got in the way (just a little bit, for awhile) A socialist stare decisis, with man being a god, when it doesn't get in the way of the newest social engineering is all that is taught. Now that the system is failing, it's the customer that gets labelled as defective.

So, Waffler, what's YOUR excuse? Knowledge is power, and teaching is an honorable trade. Why shouldn't teachers be compensated for passing on their skills and expertise? Why shouldn't students get to choose the best teachers for their money? Once 'education' became institutionalized and monopolized, the schools became an instrument of control and conditioning. How many fields are there in which an employee can be guaranteed lifelong employment and retirement pension? Once the unions got their claws in, the student became a low priority. The cost now per student in a government school is about $20-25K per year -- private schools do much better with a lot less. Look at the costs of tuition these days for college -- they are out of this world! I mean really, isn't an institutionalized education simply a book list with someone making sure you read them? Anyone with the desire can learn as much in a library or online. The education 'system' is now nothing but a racket.

I have been somewhat close to education since 1965 and the solution to whatever problems they were having, has always be more money. Here we are 46 years later and we are still having the same propblems. Until people get their heads out of the sand and wake up to the fact that our educational system is broken, nothing will change.

When you use a weed whacker to cut your hair you cannot complain about bloody ears and a poor haircut. Nor can you complain that the weed whacker isn't doing its job when you leave it sitting in the shed. The "product" must be used as intended and the "customer" MUST do their part!

BIG! BIG! BIG! I mean really BIG NEWS! Check it out and find me a time when education was not broken. Find me a time when education met any of you all's dreams of perfection. Giving a kid a book and expecting some type of nirvana reaction is as immature as is Archer. Education is not some type of lobotomy in which you can just pour information or knowledge into the human being. The purpose of childhood education is to give learning opportunities and diverse choices to the student so that he/she may make choices as they grow from grade to grade and into life. Parents are just as bad as private schools, churches etc in funneling children. I submit that a village, or state funded education affords the child the greatest choices. One of my child hood friends majored in wood shop, another auto shop, my brother in business, I in college prep. Tell me of "private institutions" that meets the customers need as those schools did.

LOL, Waffler, jeez, you take the cake. Wood shop? At 25K/yr for 4 years of high school, that is $100K to teach a guy wood shop or auto mechanics. Such a shame. You guys just paid the salaries of government employees, unions, and banks -- as far as an education goes, you got ripped off, and the rest of us who have to pay for that got ripped off, too. Keep defending mediocrity, Waffler, but there are some of us who broke free of institutionalism and excelled. What I could have done with $100K in high school -- I could have bought a home. What a waste, and a scam to 'funnel' kids into servitude to the state. Looks like it worked for you -- a loyal federal house slave. I suppose we are now paying for your government pension, too. What did you do again? Tax collector? Riveting the chains on your fellow citizens -- they trained you well.

Learn to read Archer. The kids and their parents chose those paths. The state did not make them do it. As in the past children and parents chose trades, apprenticeships etc. And I perceive you did not pay for crap. In fact I perceive that your entire political, phiosophical mind frame is informed by or twisted by the fact that you think you are going to pay for something.

Waffler, Study history, if you want to know when education was not broken. During the 1800's in America, education was definately not broken. A lot of the children spoke two and sometimes three languages, and went to college at 15 years of age.

To live free and responsibly is more expensive than living off the labors of others, which is what living off the state is. (And in case you have forgotten, the state has merely borrowed from future generations.) I paid for my education myself, and I chose what I would learn -- I did not follow the 'rules' laid out by some arbitrary authority. I have never collected one dime of welfare or unemployment even when I 'qualified' for it. I have been up and I have been down. I have donated years of service to others and causes I believed in when I was able to do so. I have made a lot of money, and I have paid a lot of taxes, and I have a right to insist that the fruits of my labors are used to support Liberty not servitude. I do not expect you to understand, Waffler.

Amen, Archer.

You're half right Mr. Killion. However, with some products it's a manufacturers' defect that an entire consumer class gets stuck with.