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People will remain victims so long as it is profitable for them. By being a victim, people get more things for less work than they would otherwise. I have a feeling that is may more relevent in America, where everyone is so afraid to offend another person, or another person's child, that we get little done. "Oh noes! I'll get sued!" I'd like to think this was a recent problem, but I'm not sure.

We need to train our children to be stronger, and less sensitive. Not in the good ways, as in caring for others, but we need to get them accustomed to failing at things. They do fail, many times. They need to know that so they can learn from their mistakes instead of being coddled. Parents need to learn how to say "no." I've worked for camps and day-camps for a few summers now, and every group has a spoiled little princess who can't put on her own sunscreen, pour her own milk, walk for half-a mile, or just listen without making a big fuss. We train it out of them by the end of the week, but as soon as they go home we know everything we worked for will just be reversed.

Of course this has to edges... to hard on them and we run the risk of creating cold, uncaring adults with bad attitudes. Still, not spoiling a child has many advantages, the least of which is making them easier to handle.

Training parents may be a problem, though. Required parenting classes seem to be an interesting idea, but Americans would hate that.

Lot's more, actually. According to the US census, it was 12.7 percent and rising as of 2004.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html

And here is a giant problem.
The upper 15% of the economic dog-pile are the actual decision makers in the nation.
I have no problem with representative governance... so long as it actually is representative of the populous they rule.
*eats more chocolate*

Thank you for that stat, Lasreaine. 3nodding
Also, the Society of Victims is one of my worst foes in much of this... yes, everyone has the right to raise their children as they please, but the level of indulgance isn't the only problem... I'm a spoiled rotten little brat, yet I still have some conviction. There is more than just indulgence... it's the expectation of codling, not just the coddling itself.
Now, telling people how to raise their children will cause massive problems, but increasing the level of autonomy a school has to instruct the children may help... this however runs into the stranglehold that local school boards hold on the actual schools.
*pours another drink for himself*

Yes Arcadian... there is no shame... Wealth is now often considered to be the sign of a worthwile individual... not virtue, not erudition... just geld.
Also, there is legal insurance... I personally have pre-paid legal... I get free consultations once a mounth, and trial service once a quarter, for free. wink

So, how do we pry control of the education of the youth, out of the hands of the school boards?

Also, I am strongly in favour of required exams to hold certain offices.
Furthermore... taking a bribe is treason, and should be dealt with as such. It is a betrayal of the office that is held, and the public trust. Rather than being accepted business, it should carry a very strong penalty. I am in favour of deportation, revocation of citizenship and confiscation of all properties. 3nodding

Ooops, I meant more autonomy from local school boards... I would like to see a more federalised system, eve if it does require an amendment. Seeing as we maintain a standing Army without an amendment, this should be possible without one, also, a control of federal funding seems like it would help, but may be more damaging... weakening an already poor educational system. sweatdrop

Would federalizing the school system also mean that they wouldn't be allowed to teach anything that has no basis being in that particular field?

Like opposing Evolution with IC/Creationism. I think that would be a nice side effect.

It's not that I don't like religion. Well, actually, I'm very wary of organized religion. Spirituality I have no problem with and advocate for. I'm just not happy with the way children often blindly follow their parents' faith because they don't know any better, and keep the same prejudices that follow.

Instead of teaching something that has no scholarly merit, they should teach things like History of Religion well before college level. And by should I mean mandatory. Same with Modern History and Geography. I'd also like to see a seminar of current events once a week.

There's a lot of bullshit curriculum that needs to be filtered and replaced with better material and subjects with a more efficient timetable of teaching. Waking adolescents up at the crack of dawn to learn Pre-Calc DOES NOT WORK WELL, and I don't know why the teachers would want to come in around 6 am anyway. Aside from family issues, but when the higher salaries get implimented they should be okay.

How to impliment standardized curriculum? Well, there are standardized tests. It works pretty well when coupled with GPA. The problem with standardized tests is that we don't have a standardized population. Everyone is an individual, so some people just don't test well, which could reflect poorly on an otherwise intelligent person. The problem with the GPA system is that some classes are easier to pass than others. Some schools are not nearly as harsh as they should be on grading, or they may be too harsh. So letter grades are sometimes not the best representation either, since someone could be taking all easy classes and getting A's and someone else just as smart could be taking more challenging courses and getting lower grades.

But when you couple these 2 together, you get a more equal representation. If a kid fails the test, but has good grades, let them pass on. If a kid has poor grades, but does excellent on the test, let them pass. But if they fail both, clearly they should be held back. This seems to work pretty well for College Admissions.