I asked my nephew to impart upon me one useful fact he learned in his 12 years of schooling. His response (enter the sound's of crickets) What do you mean?

I'm sure he learned many useful pieces of information. However he needed more instruction to come up with an answer to a very simple and basic question.

He needed me to set parameters, he needed me to be more specific in order for him to formulate a response to a basic question.

He learned in 12 years of indoctrination how to memorize and how to follow instruction's, and not much else. He could have answered 2+2=4. a simple answer to a simple question.

Why was the question met with such confusion? Because it required him to think for him self, for him to determine for himself what he deemed to be useful and impart it upon me. It was met with confusion because in 12 years of indoctrination he had been given very narrow parameters on how to solve problems. The answers were always given and simply needed to be memorized.

This simple question was met with such confusion because in their indoctrination camp's, individual thought is punished. Conformity is rewarded. This simple question was so difficult to answer because he needed me to spell out exactly what I was asking for, so he could search his memory bank for an appropriate response.

You suggest there are 100's of other thing's we could be worrying about and I say name 1 more important than education. Education is not consuming information and regurgitating it on demand at least not to me. Education is teaching others how to solve problem's and how to use that grey matter between their ears.

Interested in finding out just how far along your child is in their indoctrination. Ask them a simple question or to perform a simple task without setting out any guidelines prior. If they need your approval and your instructions for basic question's or task's than you know they are well on their way.

Teach children how to problem solve and to think for them selves and those 100's of other issues you refer to will be dealt with in less time than it takes to read my rant.