well articulated
well written
well put

i think instead of trying to reinvent the wheel (like no child left behind or some other such nonsense) we should look at our most successful neighbor nations and see what makes their educational systems run so much smoother. Finland is an excellent example of a state-sized nation that could be the basis for federally mandated educational reforms, or at the very least the beginning of such a dialogue.

Murdoch controlled right-wing newspaper caricatures important national debate, targets powerful Democratic support base in run up to Presidential election in 2012.

Truly, this has never happened before every significant election in recent US history.

Rabble-rousing at it's finest! Seems more suited for the editorial page of the New York Post than the WSJ, but a dive in editorial standards seems to accompany most of News Corp's acquisitions.

And Fran Tarkenton? Really?

why do you call it football? its not football

it should be hand-ball not foot-ball

Football originally got it's name from rugby football leagues. Rugby was originally founded by a bunch of football players that decided to pick the ball up and run with it, creating the game of rugby, but they called it rugby football. American football modeled many of it's rules after rugby football, so the simple name of football stuck despite the fact that the ball is actually only kicked about 20-30 times per game.

funny you mention the origin in rugby. back in high school i played rugby my junior and senior years and the head coach happened to also be the head coach of the football team. i remember him giving us a lecture on this topic exactly and how a lot of the rules from rugby are still in football.

its pretty common place to see a back kick the ball in the air and pass it to himself over the oncoming defense. this is a lot harder to do with full pads but its actually still legal in football. that is to say, if you catch the ball, you can kick it in the air, run after it, catch it, and continue to run with it.

i played center outside back, wing and full back so i got pretty good at that and whipped it out whenever i got a chance playing real (american) football with friends.

Ron, my wife was a middle school teacher in the public system for many years. Thinking about options for improving the school system is an important discussion. I'm assuming you disagree with the argument in the article, but completely denigrating it really doesn't help further the discussion any.

I'm tired of Ds and Rs (and many other groups) completely demonizing the arguments the others presents, in an attempt to score cheap political points.

Perhaps you feel strongly that the current tenure system is the best option, maybe it is.

I think it's a silly example- but certainly the education system needs to be reformed.

Is bad teachers the most important issue facing the system though? IMO it's not even close.

So, IYO, what is the biggest factor?

Parents.

If the parents aren't active participants in their kids' school career, those kids are likely going to do poorly. Teachers are a close second to parents as they have the ability to keep the parents in the loop.

But as usual, the system is blamed instead of the people inside of that system being blamed.

Oh yeah, and unions/tenure sucks.

I had so many lazy fucking teachers in high school that were close to retirement that it makes me sick, and the system is powerless to prevent this. Fuck a union.