[pageonetoo]

... As a recent graduate (2002) of the public school system,...

Latin was a dead language when I graduated in 1965, but it is the foundation for much of the worlds' literature, and great writings.

The requirements, to graduate, do not reflect the value of the classes offered. With PCism, much of the good stuff, in literature, is excluded, while "I have two mommies" has been substitued.

Without a doubt, attitude plays a lot in your education, but I have a challenge for you. Without looking them up, please quote for me, the first paragraph of Lincoln's Gettysburg address (and tell me in what state it was given), type the whole Preamble to the Constitution, and The first paragraph of the Declaration of Indepence. If you cannot do it without cheating, please so state, in reply!

My next challenge would be for you to tell me about George Washington Carver, and his impact on society, then name the 23rd President, and Vice President. Then tell me the 49th and 50th states added, without looking them up, in order!

As previously stated, I graduated in 1965. I still remember them...!

[Terpfen]

Without a doubt, attitude plays a lot in your education, but I have a challenge for you. Without looking them up, please quote for me, the first paragraph of Lincoln's Gettysburg address (and tell me in what state it was given), type the whole Preamble to the Constitution, and The first paragraph of the Declaration of Indepence. If you cannot do it without cheating, please so state, in reply! My next challenge would be for you to tell me about George Washington Carver, and his impact on society, then name the 23rd President, and Vice President. Then tell me the 49th and 50th states added, without looking them up, in order!

Alright, here we go.

Gettysburg Address, given at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: "Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought forth a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

Preamble to the Constitution: "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity, establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Declaration of Independence: "When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another and to assume the seperate and equal station to which the laws of nature and God entitle them, a decent respect for the opinions of Man requires that they should declare their causes of separation." -- I'm pretty sure I botched this one.

I can't tell you a thing about George Washington Carver, since my AP American History teacher had to skimp on the social history (I could only take the course in the second semester of that year, meaning we had less than the full term to prepare for the exam).

The 23rd President was Harrison (and I don't mean William Henry), though I don't know his VP. As for the states, Alaska was the 49th, Hawaii the 50th.

Again, from first-hand experience, I find that public education suffers most from a lack of willingness on the part of a good amount of students to learn--excessive apathy, the same reason many don't vote. Some of my teachers were terrible, but they were gone the next year, so that said something to me.