Quote:

Dwight,
We don't need to know about the boring sport. Run hither and tither - then score one point every 40 minutes? I prefer basketball, and least it is a year round sport, and they score 110 points in 50 or 60 minutes. Has the NBA playoffs started yet?
We (americans) already know everything and don't need to learn geography - All these polls are from inner city folks. All they know is when the next government check comes, how many more kids they need to increase that check, and who made the NBA playoffs.



In too many "Small Town, USA"s, the only criteria for being promoted to the next grade level or graduating is how well one can run the ball up the field, put the ball into the hoop, or how fast one can run around the track, etc., as the school boards, though elected, only run for office voluntarily, and are often parents of school children themselves.

Administrators (not elected, but hired and fired by the school boards) have to heel to the whims of the powers that be. Things can get quite political, and corrupt, in a "Small Town, USA" kind of way.

Kids get promoted from one grade up to the next, and haven't learned a thing about the 3 Rs (reading, riteing, rithmatic), and of course it lowers the standards of the whole school/school district, meaning even non-athletes pass muster when the really may be 2-3 grade levels behind in their learning.

As corrupt as some of these situations get, it still is quite tame compared to other countries political corruptness where only bribery and "gifts" get anything accomplished. And when I say that, and I know this will stirr this pot up a bit, I'm referring mostly to Eastern Europe, and Western hemisphere south of the U.S. border. Scary stuff, to be sure, but no less scary, in reality, than turning out high school graduates here that can't read or write, only perpetuating poverty in our small towns and big cities, alike.

Keith
Houston
Ridin'Texas
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