Is it just me or has anyone closer to my age, noticed that the youth today cannot even read an analog clock? I had a kid ask me, "Hey, can you tell me what time it is?"  I said, "there is a clock right there on the wall".  It was one of those dreaded clocks with a DIAL and HANDS!!! OMG!!!  He proceeded to ask someone else what time it was.  It occurred to me that this young man could not read an analog clock!!!  WOW!  I mean really WOW!  I remember making those little paper clocks out of paper plates and construction paper and glue and practicing reading the clock.  No more of that!!!  Now we have digital clocks which require little to no brain function whatsoever.

Here is another good example...you go into a Taco Bell, you order your food and it comes to 5.07, so you hand them a $20 and .07 cents and they look at you like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car!  What in the hell is up with that?  Is this for real?  If our kids cannot perform these small tasks, how will they EVER understand the importance of history and the way our government works and what they are doing to our country?  Or what we are ALLOWING them to do.  Could this be intentional?  No child left behind...that's right, no child is left behind whether they know the material or not.  They just move them along to the next grade to struggle and fail.

Here's my solution.  Pay the teachers what they are worth.  If their students are not "up to par" they don't make as much as those who's students are up to par.  If they aren't good teachers, get rid of them and pay good money for those who ARE good teachers.  Make them accountable for their performance, just like any other job.

When I was in school, you had to do the work in order to get a passing grade and credit for the class.  It seems that with this no child left behind stuff, we've just let those who need more attention slip through the cracks.  I don't think that is what this program wants to foster, or at least I would hope not.