[Lizavetta]

Less than half of the nation's public high school graduates have taken the classes they need to enter the least selective four-year college, according to a study being released today.

What needs to be shouted from the rooftops is that even if they HAVE taken the classes, they're still largely unprepared; try finding a public university today that DOESN'T have remedial math and English classes for those 'college-bound' youths who miraculously got in. Thank the dumbed-down, feel-good, grade-inflation high schools for that.

And the concept that most or even half of high schoolers SHOULD go to college at all is ridiculous. It's like saying most graduates should go into the waitressing field, or learn to weld. College today is oftentimes an extension of adolescence and a deferral of becoming self-sufficient, NOT a quest for knowledge and wisdom.

[Podkayne]

An interesting article published in the 1970's stipulated that the drop in SAT scores and the dumming down of American education correlated exactly with the birth years of babies exposed to nuclear testing fallout. After the above ground nuclear testing was stopped it took a period of time for SAT scores to show any improvement.

The effect of nuclear fallout on brain development was cited as responsible for behavioural problems and learning disabilities. The western and midwestern states were the most affected.