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On the other hand, do we really want to emulate Belgium? I've heard many times about how European students out perform American students in pretty much every subject. Well what good has it done them? Their economies are going down the toilet and they ceased to be meaningful world powers long ago. If trends continue, Europe will be mostly Muslim by mid-century. Europeans may be well educated but they aren't exactly smart.

There are many things that should be done to improve education in the US. But please let's not emulate Europe. They are a dying civilization - better seen as a warning of what not to do than as a positive role model.

Their economies are going down the toilet and they ceased to be meaningful world powers long ago.

Their economies are in the toilet because their economies are more socialist than ours is. Their education system is better because it's less socialist. The lesson is clear -- socialism stinks.

I agree with you, Sassbox. One must concede the obvious truth that European kids are much more rigorously educated. I agree, also, that great education may not add up to a great society.

We have all been trained to believe that education is a pure and great good that can never be over done. I've had some pretty serious second thoughts about this lately. I pay a lot of attention to French culture and to their very competitive and rigorous educational system. French people are very educated, but they have a dying culture. (I am not engaging here in cheap French bashing -- there is a lot there that I admire.)

Intellectual activity is only one sphere of human endeavor. Someone (some country) will always be ahead and some other will be behind when we rank ourselves on educational attainment. I don't think it is a healthy thing to become obsessed with the necessity always to ratchet up and up the goals and standards of education. It can be life enhancing, but, for many, it is crushing, dispiriting, when the real world needs lots of people who don't especially need to know any calculus or have a knowledge of ancient Greece.

I say all this in a very tentative spirit. I don't exactly have a plan. For me, personally, life is in large measure about learning and understanding. But I do feel that we are unreasonably pressuring everyone to fit into that mould. All the while, these educated people are chosing not to have enough children to reproduce their numbers. This strikes me as the ultimate definition of social decay.

There are many things that should be done to improve education in the US. But please let's not emulate Europe. They are a dying civilization - better seen as a warning of what not to do than as a positive role model.

Because our public education system is a socialist monopoly, I'm afraid we're already emulating Europe.