For all the educational shingling of those we call elected “leaders,” the compulsion to pack pounds on a morbidly proportioned & now illegitimate bureaucracy, is at extreme odds with the pretense of their “pedigree.”

Education is a parental responsibility which becomes individual responsibility; the concern but not the responsibility of government. Government threatens the cellular importance of individuals & families in favor of a destructive “nanny state.”

1) “Children have different abilities.” Thank God & may they / we make the most of them.

2) “Half of all children are below average.” By what meaningful measure?

3) “Too many children go to college.” If so, what does that say about “education?”

4) “America’s future depends on the gifted.” Ordained by who? No! America's future depends on vigilance, and appreciation, for the gift of liberty.

Based on my own experiences in schools a couple of decades ago (full disclosure – most were private schools), I was the kid who teachers could never figure out. I would go to class and do nothing, do no homework, but do well on tests. My teachers would occasionally ask “what's wrong with you?” etc but I had no clue other than the fact that I was utterly bored in class but too polite to tell them. My parents were both very successful but neither could figure me out because they had always studied hard etc so they thought I was very smart, but lazy.

I had read an entire encyclopedia set before I was 13 so I already knew more than was included in most of my curriculums. Instead of spending time at school learning, I spent my time waiting for classes to end – and trying to read without getting caught.

At the beginning of 11th grade we had 3 days of national apptitude testing that was scored from “0″ to “99″. A score of “0″ meant you were ahead of 0% of the other students and a “99″ meant you were ahead of 99% of other students. I scored a 99 at all levels despite having barely passed 10th grade. Within a week of getting test results I found myself placed in all AP classes. For the first 2/3's of that year I aced all of my tests and I did great. The change was good for me, but it wasn't formed correctly. Looking back I can say that I aced everything only to prove that AP classes weren't a challenge either. I did so poorly in the last 3rd of the year that I only advanced to 12th grade because of my earlier performance.

That year I also scored 1470 on my PSAT. Mail started arriving and I was invited to attend pre-enrollment weekends at dozens of colleges including Princeton, Yale, Duke, Columbia, Georgetown, and other prestigious schools. I didn't visit any of them because I knew that my grades didn't complement the incomplete picture presented by my test scores. After a dissapointing end to my junior year I was placed back in regular classes. I graduated by the skin of my teeth, with most of my attention focused on the beach and partying.

Since leaving the education “box”, I've travelled the world representing global corporations, I've had the opportunity to be head of R&D for a multi-billion dollar global manufacturer, I've consulted to NASA on space suits, Pfizer on manufacturing processes, and Ralph Lauren on fabric structures. I'm currently building out an engineering firm and have developed a need for at least 20 new full time engineers in the next 10 weeks, and I'm looking forward to much more in the future. I might even pursue a degree when my kids are older and I have spare time.

With that in mind, here are my comments on the four major themes of the book:

“Children have different abilities.”

This is true. No arguments.

“Half of all children are below average.”

Average what? I spent most of my education at the bottom of the grading curve, but I knew more than most of the kids with the highest grades. How do you define average? To me, that statement is a box that prevents kids from understing how to use their wings. It's also an excuse that allows educators to apply a label to a struggling kid rather than trying to understand what the kid needs. In my case, for example, I probably would have excelled if I was simply given a series of difficult problems to solve (or things to build/create), where the solution (or phased set of solutions) required absorpbtion of required curriculum material. There is no such thing as average when it comes to kids – it's a false measurement.

“Too many children go to college.”

If this is true, then too many jobs require a college education.

“America’s future depends on the gifted.”

I agree. I also believe that we all have gifts to offer. Our future depends upon all of us.

It would be interesting to compare whether there was a close relationship between the decline of educational performance and the decrease in stay at home parents.