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I agree. While my daughter is only in 1st grade, I have not found much to complain about yet.

I know absolutely nothing about your circumstances or those of WhyisaTexasgirlinPA, but please keep in mind that there are millions of parents all over America who sigh and shake their heads at stories in the newspaper about how bad the public schools are...

... and then say "thank goodness the schools are good in my area!"

There is no doubt in my mind most are pretty horrible. I don't have much to go on as she is in first grade. I haven't seen anything too strange, as of yet, but believe me I am keeping my eye out.

Truth is, I worry more about the fact that she is in a room full of kids who--god knows what is going on inside their homes each night--Well, I worry more about that.

I appreciate your comment, and I'm not saying the schools are "good" - just that there are varying degrees of bad or good.

I've spent quite a bit of time over the years in the schools my children attended - and I can assure you, some teachers are horrible - shouldn't be teaching anywhere, and then there are some who are so great at what they do, but are totally overwhelmed by the class size or the rules and demands that change each year - more paperwork vs. time to teach, etc.

I'm definitely not blind - I merely pointed out that some schools offer more than just some "room" where kids go wild and learn about sex and liberal policy all day -

One short example: In the 10th grade my daughter had this liberal social studies teacher (honors class - which basically means the kids have to be recommended to be in that class and they are there to learn, so there is a better environment in there). The kids were excited to finally be learning something about history in this Century, and they were learning about the Vietnam War period.

The teacher asked a Veteran to come speak to the class, and unfortunately, he turned out to be an anti-war, burned out 60ish hippy who disappointed many of the kids with his rhetoric - my daughter came home very upset and we discussed options of visiting with the teacher to request a different point of view to be presented. My daughter asked that we wait one day, to see how the teacher reacted to what had happened. Sure enough, the teacher thought the guy was great, however, another girl in the classroom, whose father is active-duty military, requested that her father be allowed to come and give "his" point of view..... the teacher agreed. He showed up in his uniform and gave a more informative view on what and how things happened. That is what the kids wanted - the whys and hows, not the "I hate America" crap that this hippy was spouting - it gave them nothing of value -

Some people are blind - you are right - but not everyone - some of us see the good and bad in many situations, we deal with it

Here's an interesting (and cute) story. My nephew, who is five years old and in kindergarden, likes to refer to me as Mr. President - This began after he overheard me and my wife's family discussing politics and one of them saying I should be president.

Anyway, one day we had just gone out to pickup a pizza pie and as we were getting out of the car, he had just called me Mr. President again. I told him, "since I am the president, don't you think you should carry the pizza upstairs for me?" His reply - "No way, if you are the president, you work for me, so I am your boss. You have to carry the pizza up!" So I say to him, "maybe you should be the president." He replies, "I can't. I am only five. You have to be 35 to be a president."

This was two years ago and it still blows me away. I asked where he learned all of this and he said at school. He knew lots of things that I couldn't believe. How many US senators, etc. I was very impressed.

I, on the other hand, also went to public schools and they sucked. I did have some good teachers here and there, though.