The reason that school starts earlier each year is due to the lack of teaching skills that plagues the educators of today. They need more time, they need more money, they need more teachers, etc. Isn't it strange that when you figure out that the last time our schools really educated children was back before 1970, my generation. At that time in our history, we had fewer resources, less money for education and less of everything, but the children learned. Educators today say that the children of today's world have more to learn. What??? My generation had more to learn than the previous generation and so on. We've added roughly 35 years of history. No big deal....we never ever reached the end of the history book anyway. Math? Two and two are still four. Languages are the same but today's children seem to have more problems with it than we did, they can hardly put a decent composition together without spelling or grammar errors. Foreign languages? I started a foreign language in 8th grade and by the time that I graduated high school I had had five years of that language. The only big changes have been in the information field, computers, telephones and the changes in technology within several fields. I'm not aware of children in high school now graduating with that much more knowledge in our numerous technical fields. Sure they know how to get on a computer and chat, order merchandise, create personal web pages and similar things, however find me a reasonably intelligent 60 yr. old secretary and she can be taught in most cases the same information in one or two days. So what more do today's children have to learn? I am trying not to be overly critical-I truly do not understand how we are failing to educate.
I have some ideas as to a few things that we are doing wrong in our schools but again not enough to warrant the failure of this magnitude. Today's children are unhappy and burnt out as well as the parents and teachers. The scary thing is that no one will admit that maybe we aren't doing it the right way. Maybe we need to go back and retrieve some of the methods that worked years ago.

What can you expect! Hire a person and tell them that they cannot be fired, that they don't have to worry about performance, just show up and earn your ck. The recent slap on the wrist to the so called educators that failed to report child abuse, is a great example. There are many reasons the system is failing, the best way to end most of the problems would be compettion. Give parents the ability to educate thier children as they see fit.If govt. schools lost taxs to private schools, they would have to improve or not exist. Simple if your child does not attend govt. school you pay no taxes! With that plan you could sit back and watch improvements take place.