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My kids are **NOT** any smarter than any of children of any Freeper. They are normally bright.The following is what 18th and 19th century education and values did for them:

—My homeschooled kids entered college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13.
—They finished Calculus 3 at the age of15. Two earned B.S. degrees in **mathematics** by the age of 18.
—Two were tutoring college students in math when they were only 14.
—One was teaching math to college students at the age of 18 and earned a masters at 20.
—The other was a world class athlete and traveled the world representing the United States. He earned a masters in accounting at a typical age.
—All play a musical instrument and sing in choir.
—One plays the organ and piano for church services.
—All are accomplished ballroom dancers.
—One was a world class athlete.
—All married members of our church and continue to be highly active in the church and community volunteering groups.
—One is an Eagle Scout.

These are only a few of their accomplishments. And...As elementary and junior high age children they never spent more than 2 hours a day in formal homeschooling. They played! Gradually, their play became their teenage work. It was a fascinating process to watch.

One more thing. What you as a parent have accomplished, not many can do. You have exceptional children because you were an exceptional parent. It has been my experience that very few parents have that kind of drive combined with any sense of enlightenment. It is crucial that the people of this Nation be educated. That job truly is over the top for most parents. To keep our Nation functioning, public schools seem to be needed. As dysfunctional as they are, they are better than nothing. It would be in the best interest of everyone to repair that broken school system. Parents without your skills were actually responsible for breaking that system. Maybe you could give some thought toward fixing the general case. You are not the norm as a parent.

I have an extremely good workshop facility. I share it with high school students who have a yearning for learning by mentoring the high school's robotics team. The school isn't up to it, but it is ultimately my school to maintain. I am one of We The People, the place is my responsibility.

Sorry, I can't leave you alone. I clearly see that your approach is complementary to my approach. I couldn't hope to help a child with playing a musical instrument or making a piece of art. Both of our pathways are terribly important. Let me share some things with you, and then get back to this.

I retired from electronic and software engineering after 43 years in that career. All along I have been a woodworker and a metalworker. I have even made rockets from scratch as a hobby. After a short time in retirement I became very restless. I mentored the school's robotics team while my boys were there and a couple of years after that. I heard that the school was going to offer an Embedded Computing class; however, the teacher scheduled for the class had a heart attack and had to go on extended leave. I called the principle of the school and offered to teach the class.

In order to teach the class, I was issued a permit that put me into the classroom under the condition that I work toward earning a teaching certificate. Ok, off to the races. The school allowed me to purchase $12,000 worth of equipment and materials.

Teaching was very rewarding, but it is very difficult. One is expected to teach dullards through geniuses in the same class. That actually doesn't work, regardless what the pedagogy says. It had a good time, the students loved my class, and they learned things that were way outside their preexisting mindset. Numerous students told me that mine was the best class they had in all of high school and several told me that their life's goals became set upon taking that class. I really couldn't develop the horsepower to get a certificate, so after three years the certificate expired.

I learned some very important things. A teaching job is very difficult; and, teachers take a full workload home with them every night. Teachers are usually very competent; however, state and county rules interfere with their ability to teach effectively. The major thrust of administrative intervention is mitigating parental anger and readjusting continuously from lawsuits. Parents almost never get angry because the schoolwork is too easy or the state mandated curriculum is content-less. Parents sue because their baby thinks the work is too hard, or they didn't get a fair grade. Parents are the ones who push the educational standards down. After all, how is their pride and joy going to get that football scholarship if he gets kicked of the the team for having terrible math grades?

Another thing I observed was that curriculum is established at the state level and then mandated down to the schools. Those in the education department have doctorate degrees in education, but have no knowledge in the subject areas. That upper hierarchy is an interesting set of interlocking fiefdoms, quite impenetrable from down below. This is the source of the degradation in the quality of our Nation's educational system.

My question to you is, "How do we fix our Nation's educational system in order to maximize the quality of education for all?". (After using compiled computer languages for so long, nested punctuation marks for normal grammar bewilders me.) For the sake of this argument, please assume that homeschooling is off the table. Most parents couldn't do it.