But sometimes they are not expected to work at the same level. Tailored classes and tailored jobs to meet government mandates or public appearances, piss me off. It's such a waste resources and a disservice to individuals who could do better and educators / stockholders that deserve better.:mad:

Don't get me wrong, I agree 100% with you on affirmative action. But aren't these two sentences completely contradictory?

Not when I wrote it at 3am or so ...

Education has been dumbed down in the U.S. to the point where college students are barely acheiving on a high school level, and high schoolers, well, let me just leave it at it's just frightening.

Most people here are probably dealing with reasonably bright people on a daily basis. By preference we do tend to stratify based on intelligence when we choose people we like to hang out with and talk to. If you are working in any type of business or industry, with the exception of the boss' nephew, everybody in your area/department is probably within a couple of points of you in terms of ability and overall sharpness.

When you have to interact with people outside of that, it gets scary.

Actually, the scariest ones are elementary school teachers. Our best and brightest are not in education, not by a long shot. And that is where they are needed most.

I agree with you there. I also believe that most of the worst schools are concentrated in areas with minorities.

The administrations answer to this is 'no child left behind', which works on paper but is tremendously underfunded.

Of course, tying this back to the original topic are attempts to remove qualified gay teachers from schools, showing that fear and bigotry can override common sense.

Common sense and education often get forcibly decoupled by unwise policies, and have been for many decades: recall Mark Twain's comment about school boards.