As long as American Idol and Dancing with the Stars and Sports are culturally more important than After School Math Tutors...nothing will change...
It may be genetic...It may be a cultural... It just doesn't matter... It is what it is...and it can't be changed...
America has no intellectual tradition...unlike Asia and parts of Eastern Europe... In fact we praise anti-intellectualism as being "Real American"...look at Dubya two terms running the nation into the ground...
Most graduate students in US universities ...in "hard subjects" ...are foreigners...
Most of the valedictorians in American High Schools are the children of foreigners...or "new arrivals" untainted by our American notion that Stupid is Real and Good ...especially Popular...!
Face it you want your kid to be the Quarterback or Homecoming Queen...not the Geography Bee Winner...! I pity the teachers...tenured or not...who are trying to teach kids who really don't want to learn...
So...
Forget the Books...! Get your Pom Poms out...!
Trust me...its all you can do at this point...
