[Z-man]

Who are you gonna blame?
The teachers who are forced to pass kids to the next grade despite their incompetency and lack of understanding?
OR
The parents who cry bloody murder if their little Johnny gets a grade less than a B+ despite him being a dumb kid? ? ?

Sorry, but you can't blame the NEA. My wife is a 6th grade teacher, and she's one heck of a great teacher. Truthfully, the parents are to blame more than the teachers for our education system. Why, you ask? This is why:

1. Parents don't spend any time helping their kids with school work. In our dual-income society, both the mother and the father are either working late or too tired to help a kid with his math or English or any other school work. Basically, the child is merely an annoyance to them.

2. Parents view school in a 'keeping up with the Jones' attitude. In our culture, status and prestige are highly valued. If my neighbor just bought a new BMW, I've got to go out and get the better Mercedes! As such, parents don't care how poorly a kid does in school, as long as he keeps moving onward. Similarly, people in our society don't care how much in debt they are, as long as the perception is that they are wealthy. So to them, it doesn't matter that their child is uneducated, as long as they keep moving on in the grades.

3. Parents will threaten teachers/principals/school boards if their little Johnny is treated 'unfairly.' Hey, your kid didn't cut the grade: he's not being treated unfairly, he's NOT WORTHY OF MOVING ON!

4. School systems don't want to deal with irate parents, so they would rather pass the stupid kids up another grade rather than have them get left back.

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now,
-Z-man.