Now it is time for a rant.

My eldest daughter is in the 10th grade. She has been in school for 5 weeks. She has only brought homework home twice, and each time it took her less then 15 minutes to complete. Meanwhile, my 4th grader has had homework almost every night except Fridays, starting the first week of school. At least 30 minutes each night, plus 30 minutes reading time a night.

Bear in mind, I do acknowledge the fact that she might be, you know, stretching the truth. But her school does use PowerSchool, which allows parents to see what's going on. And it appears she is telling the truth. One class, Biology I believe, has only 5 grades posted. 5-10 question quizzes. That's it. Oh, did I mention no text book in Algebra?

Couple that with the fact that they allow cell phone (text) usage in class, and some classes even allow mp3 players. MP3 players!

Oh, and when I was in school, an ISS meant 0's for everything that day, even if you had an exam, and just did "busy work" assigned by your teachers all day. Not now, now they bring the work to you.

She has been allowed to use calculators in math since the 7th grade. Now, even after the endless work I did with her back in the 6th and 7th grade, she cannot even do a simple double digit subtraction problem on paper without the help of a calculator and tears. In the 8th grade the English teacher urged the students to use Word for their papers to make sure the spelling and grammar were correct (like Word can even get the grammar part). I cannot even, for the life of me, to get anyone at the school, not the principle, vice principle, not any of the 5 counselors, or the 2 administrators (yes, all from one school, in the Midwest, where the entire student population doesn't even approach the graduating class of an LA school) to return a single phone call.

They spend way too much time teaching the kids how to put condoms on cucumbers and bananas, telling them how much the US is raping from the planet, and to turn off the water faucet while they brush their teeth. Oh, and never forget they are UNDERFUNDED!

So now when you go through a drive through lane and the pimple faced kid working the window cannot figure out how to count change, you know why. Maybe that is why HP, Dell, IBM, and Intel have to go overseas to find talent. Oh, and I think it also sheds some light on how an inexperienced, obviously unqualified person like BS could get elected.

Here's some HØpe and Change for you:

The dead end kids
Young, unemployed and facing tough future

The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent -- a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. -- meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time.
And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults -- aged 16 to 24, excluding students -- getting a job and moving out of their parents' houses are long. Young workers have been among the hardest hit during the current recession -- in which a total of 9.5 million jobs have been lost.