I am old enough that i learned parts of speech by being taught to diagram sentences!(mind you, i have some dyslexia, and can't spell for beans, but i know how to find the nominative case!)
I won't go into my feelings about the "no child left behind" (too political!) but it's sad.
i often watch Jay Leno, and its sad (i know they cherry pick the worst respondants) how little history, or general knowledge people have (one example i remember was american history..(something as simple as 'why (and what) do we celebrate on July 4th?)
jay started with the "college student" (he didn't know answer) nor did his 'educated parents" but his grandfather (a man in his late 60's or early 70's,) knew the answer in detail!
my kids got pushed not to just to pass tests, but to learn..
even my daughter was depressed at how little (and how inaccurate ) the stuff she was served up at school was.
i deplore the idea of home schooling, but i understand why some parents are for it--schools are less and less about education, and more and more about lock step information (and regurgation)
