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There was a news story by John Stossel just this evening about the decline in education here in the U.S. Apparently there are a lot of problems in education. For example if a teacher is shown to be less than good at their job they can't be let go because the teaching union won't allow it. There was one example given where a teacher was known to hit students and it took 4 yrs & thousands of dollars to terminate his contract with the school. Not only were there thousands of dollars spent in court fees etc. but he still got paid I think they said and they also had to pay for a substitute teacher to come in and teach in his place. I'm sure there are some great teachers out there but when someone is incompetent at the job they should be able to be let go and someone else given the job so that the kids won't suffer. Teachers are supposed to be there for the kids benefit not the other way round. I still remember struggling with Algebra in regular high school as a teenager. If you missed a lesson you had trouble catching up because each lesson built on the one before. Later I finished my high school education through Blackhawk tech. (due to a bullying problem) and they had a retired math teacher (Mr. Cooper his name was I think) come in and cover the maths section (including Algebra) and the man had a real gift for teaching. He made things comprehensible for me and my fellow students (one of which was 75 yrs old). Later when I went on to college (at another Blackhawk Tech campus) I took college math and I actually managed a B+ for my final grade. A first for me since I'd had trouble with math since I started school. I think a good part of that was I had some good teachers who actually made sure I understood what I was supposed to be learning. Of course I also had good reading comp. I was tested on it and other things when I was 13 and I already had a High School Senior's reading level at that time.
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