While I certainly agree that there are problems with American schools, just WHO IS Bill Gates to speak with authority on the subject? He's a drop out himself!

I am very weary of people with primarily corporate interest bemoaning the failure of our schools.

It seems to me that the sole purpose of the US educational system is to prepare mass numbers of students to be low cost workers that come prepared to fit the requirements of corporate America with little or no further training costs.

No one cares about the beauty of the American mind anymore, and to me that is the root of the problem that will NOT be addressed unless it is addressed by parents and teachers - because it serves NO political or corporate interest.

w1ld wrote:
] ] The most blunt assessment came from Microsoft chief Bill
] ] Gates, who has put more than $700 million into reducing
] ] the size of high school classes through the foundation
] ] formed by him and his wife, Melinda. He said high schools
] ] must be redesigned to prepare every student for college,
] ] with classes that are rigorous and relevant to kids and
] ] with supportive relationships for children. (MSNBC is a
] ] joint venture of Microsoft and NBC.)
] ]
] ] Americas high schools are obsolete,� Gates said.
] ] By obsolete, I dont just mean that theyre
] ] broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be
] ] made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean
] ] our high schools — even when theyre working as
] ] designed — cannot teach all our students what they need
] ] to know today.