We need to bring back grade schools staffed by mean old nuns. We had 45 to 48 kids in each grammar school class run by one nun without a college degree, no assistants and she taught us all the subjects. There was not one kid past the 3rd grade that couldn’t read or write sensibly. Sure, a lot of us wound up with all kinds of complexes, but we could all read and write, and we all knew how to sit still and pay attention. None of my old gang ever wound up on drugs or going to prison either.

A teacher at my grandson’s 4th grade class last year asked the kids to name countries in Europe. My grandson said, "Greece." The teacher told him he was wrong, that Greece is in Asia and was adamant about it, even though my grandson was born in Greece and came here as a baby. Sad.[:(] Luckily the geographically-challenged teacher wasn’t his regular teacher. She was his music teacher. She should stick to notes and scales.

The younger teachers are the products of our eroding educational system, so the overall quality is not going to get any better until we straighten out the system and quit teaching kids to pass tests to raise school scores and teach them what they need to know to make it in this life.