And so the drumbeats of the March Towards Mediocrity continue to be heard across the nation.

Smart people do not vote against their own interests. The conservatives have taught us that education is not as important as it should be. They, the conservatives, get into control and then run the country for their own benefit. Fuck every one else. It is the dumbing down of the people so their nonsense can get a grip, otherwise they have no chance of gaining control.

Apparently "leaving no child behind", leaves every child behind.

It made for lazy students who can't think creatively

Excellent! Thank you for sharing a thoroughly interesting and informative article.

“This is not a system that’s designed to foster intellectual engagement. Students learn to skip and skim, not just their assigned readings, but everything. Everything is done at maximum speed and with the least possible effort. Curiosity and passion must be actively suppressed. Students become experts, not so much in subjects as in working the system. There is simply no time to do anything else.” I think it was Emerson who said: ““In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.” Speed seems to characterize the language of salesmen and politicians both of whom loathe questions that cause them to think, instead they prefer to spew stock-in-trade glib answers.

Robert Pirsig in his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance introduced classical thought and waxed philosophical. His novel was not intended to be about motorcycle maintenance nor Zen Buddism.

People not wanting to think deeply is not a new phenomenon. It did not start with the No Child Left Behind Act. In second year Latin in 1946-47 I used a “pony” to help me translate Caesar’s Gaulic Wars.

Your use of “I feel this is exactly what it has become....” to state a thought, a questionable thought rather than a feeling, is an instance of not thinking deeply.