To: Augustus Gloop who wrote (6065 ) 6/26/2002 7:41:16 PM From: stevenallen Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 17639 As a teacher in elementary schools for over 20 years, I can't tell you just how much I disagree with your statements ...as a result of their own personal feelings of guilt they seem intent on breaking almost all traditions, and ...our public learning institutions have found a way to divide whether by race, religion, sex, education etc. far more than they have found ways to unite. You are either incredibly naive, ignorant or warped to hold such beliefs as they are without basis of any discernable facts. Ironically, someone of your political persuasion should be quite pleased by the reality of the situation, which is that the vast majority of schools are as conservative, if not more so, then the communities in which they are located. If you'd like to educate yourself on that subject, I'd suggest you read "The One Best System, by David Tyak, a professor at Stanford, which historically traces how the public school system emerged to fit the corporate model of America. There are indeed many problems in our schools but not enough tradition and/or desire for unity simply are not the issues at hand. Personally, I'd be looking at class size, poor facilities, lousy pay, inadequate supervision and evaluation techniques myself. In any case, most of what goes on in public schools is dictated by your state legislators, and your local school board - If you really care about these matters I implore you to be a patriotic American and get involved on those levels, rather than spouting disparaging nonsense. PS - I liked OMD's admonishment to keep politics off of this thread, and I'd love to let this whole thing drop - it just was hard not to respond when I read what I considered to be inflammatory remarks. My hope is that those type of remarks would indeed be taken elsewhere and likewise my responses.