ProfEmeritus, I just wanted to make some comments about some of the posts you have made.

As for your causes listed for the dumbing down, a number of those were relevant when I went to high school five years ago. The memorization and homework especially come to mind. I was first in my class with a 4.0 but as I look back on it, I wonder how much that was really worth. I also went to a very small school so I'm sure that also had impact.

I also enjoyed your list of advice for those who want to teach. A former mentor of mine has inspired me to consider teaching and so now I have plans for graduate school. When I started college, I was going to just get my bachelor's and pursue some career in network security. But as my love for computer science and people has grown, seeing what my mentor did for a living seemed to be a perfect fit.

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bobafett1972, I agree with your statement about having a thirst for knowledge. Wanting to learn new things and to think critically are very important. I really had an awakening of this as I am in college, especially in this last year or so.

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I also have a couple of comments in regards to homeschooling. So far, I have only personally known two people who were homeschooled. They seemed fairly socially capable, though I think how they were raised as children may have made them more different than homeschooling. They were also pretty isolated in the country.

One thing I have seen a lot is the perception of homeschooled children being socially awkward. However, I am a perfect example of that happening in public schools. I was in a public school since I was five. As it turned out, I became more capable at talking to adults than my peers, especially since I was picked on and eventually snubbed by them for becoming shy and quiet from their bullying. Though I lived in the country and my neighbors were a few miles apart, I feel that I honestly would be more socially capable if I had been homeschooled because of how the other students treated me. While I still struggle and will probably always be somewhat shy, college has really helped me become more socially capable.

On the topic of bias in homeschooling, I got nothing but bias in public schools. I got in some interesting debates with my history teacher regarding politics and government. Being shown different perspectives and learning critical thinking to draw our own conclusions was not even mentioned. I myself have never heard of critical thinking being taught in elementary or secondary schools. I only received true training on that from a Philosophy class I took in college and a Social Implications class, though I've also taken classes about mathematical logic, which kind of fits but not really.

All I have mentioned is only my personal experiences so I realized that there are different situations and such.