I will just add that it doesn't say much for the parents of those said kids, putting the blame on the education system is a cop out.
The number one educator for children is the parent, number two is the child him/herself, number three is the teacher, IMO.
Bravo!
I think that a lot of "education systems" have gotten a bit lax over the years, but look at the type of "students" they are dealing with. The parents (generally) don't start them off right with the right mind set and discipline to be truly successful in schools. And society (which includes a lot of parents) have gone to a Nike "Just do it" attitude of doing whatever you *want*, not whatever you *should*.
It is a hard battle for those of us that still are trying to keep our kids off of the deep end. My oldest (13) has been using the old "Buy Sally's parents let her......" type of approach. I am tired of having to keep saying "But we aren't Sally's parents!"
So it is getting harder and harder on people that try to be active parents, and harder and harder on teachers in schools with so many passive parents out there not helping in raising their kids.
Schools can only do so much. I remember a classic saying in one of my early computer programming classes back in college: Garbage in, garbage out... We need to stop sending garbage in to our schools if we expect to not get garbage out.
