Maybe it's my arm-chair-quarter-back mentality to point out the flaws of liberalized America--and as such, I'd like to take a few minutes of your time to talk about Special Education.

I've been working in the public schools for about 2 years now; it's fun because I get to 'keep it real' with my SLP peeps, and it's a great change of pace from the ivory tower. (I also need to do it for professional reasons.)

As an aside, a parent called an elementary school principle today and asked why their kid had to learn about "predicate", and when that became an important concept.

In any event, I've got this middle school kid that I see. He's in special ed. Regardless, of his special-ed status, this kid's going to be a freakin' millionaire. This 13 year old is already hustlin' deals on a daily basis. Each week, he shows me his booty, like a functional cell phone (Moto. Razor) with accessories that he bought off another kid for $11 bucks. He then fllipped the phone for what he really wanted--a 15-speed mountain bike. $11 bucks for a name-brand 15-speed mountain bike? Good deal, I think.

This kid is a freakin' genius. And special ed is doing nothing for him. To me, it's yet-another example of public school failure. The traditional concept of education will be lost on this kid. He's not college material, and that's not a bad thing. The kid's already an entrepeneur--why not optimatize that. (Why continue to offer academic programs to try and remidiate his area of weakness? Especially one that he doesn't even value?)

This one-size fits all approach suggesting that we need to have a college-educated populous is just goofy. Maybe I could come up with a better solution, maybe I couldn't. But I know what fails, and I don't see why we need to continue throwing money at what's broken--hoping for a magical change in results.