Trying to make a long story short.  We had a group from Seattle come do a forum on education with the goal of finding a common consensus point to recommend as a starting point to reform our system.  Not knowing exactly what to expect I tried to prepare by asking teachers, parents, and some older students to give me a couple of pros and cons on things as they are now.  The responses I received are on the web at our store site www.academictoolbox.com under local links.  What those comments do not share are the 3 teachers that starting crying before their response, or the many who became teary eyed while answering, or red faced as they responded.  Which by the way, I interpreted as anger.  I actually was not surprised by most answers as I had heard them before in conversations.  I was surprised though by the students that said they were not challenged and that there is a lot of "down" time when education is not happening.  Please read the comments on the web site and let me know what you think?  On a positive closing note I have met some fantastic teenagers the last few months and will share about those later.  Blessings!