Conspiracy of dunces or...

...a conspiracy to create dunces? But first, some housekeeping: this is an open post. Link to this post and trackback. Now, to the topic of this post. Jerry Pournelle is no wild-eyed conspiracy nut, but he does note something interesting about America's broken system of public education: Of course if the goal is to see that the children of people rich enough to send their children to private schools, or to have a stay at home parent to home school, will get far ahead of everyone else regardless of intelligence or merit, we may achieve that goal. So, what are our choices? That all the "smart" people who tell us to just do more of the same that has resulted in sub- and illiterate high school and college graduates over the past 30+ years-just spend lots more doing it-are too stupid to pound rocks and too prideful, greedy and power-hungry to admit their educratic edicts have made a ruin of public education? Or, is it really a plot by self-designated elites to breed serfs? Of course, Pournelle also mentions "...Vonnegut's wonderful story Harrison Bergeron..." (IMO, one of the few really good Vonnegut works). Yep. Harrison Bergeron is definitely where the dark side of "No Child Left behind" seems to point... Kept after school at The Uncooperative Blogger. And "writing lines" on the blackboard at