This morning I heard the most incredible story

lampar, the government can only get away with what we parents allow. So far, darned few are interested enough to read the books being taught, demanding that the latest stupid rule where nasty words like dinosaur, birthday, dancing, halloween, wealthy, rich, poor, poverty, divorce, etc. are being removed for insipid reasons from the curricula. Until parents get interested and say "Hey, if my kid is failing, let him fail or make sure I get him a tutor - do not push him to another grade he will also fail" and until we tell them "Hey, if my kid gets a bad grade or makes mistakes on a paper, red ink is fine. Hurting his feelings now may make him a real man or her a real woman when they are adults", we will continue to dumb down our own children.

Once in this country we had some of the best schools in the world. Now I am worried that we are dumbing down our children if they do not have the determination of this boy. Teachers can no longer write on a paper in red or give a failing grade because it hurts the child's feelings. Ridiculous. How do you ever succeed if you are never allowed to fail? How do you understand the joy of succeeding after a previous failure? I remember in one job I had within three weeks my boss was ready to let me go (be fired) because I was sub-sub par. I told him if he would allow me to attend classes that he would never again see that kind of performance. I attended six classes trying to cover everything from how to dress to how to properly fill out government forms and put together an 8-copy letter (no computer, just a typewriter) to telephone answering to the naval filing system. Within two months I went from pitiful to Exceptional in my work performance. Talk about proud! It was awesome. We are afraid the little darlings will have too much homework. Personally, I am afraid they do not have enough and that they are not pushed to do that on a regular basis. Our youth can come out of very expensive colleges and be unable to write a proper sentence or spell. They can figure math on computers and calculators but they don't have a clue how to figure out the change from a sale. There's something very wrong in our education today. I sincerely hope this young man continues to push himself. The world will be his oyster if he does.

Actually, he has a full social life and like most kids he's looking forward to turning sixteen and getting his driver's license. He has the ability to interact with kids his own age or college kids. When he wants to take about world problems, etc., he turns to his college buddies. His parents are proud of him, but were shocked when at age two HE picked out college books to read. AGE TWO!

You will be happy to know he is exceptionally well balanced in his personal life outside school, looking toward getting his driver's license at age sixteen like any other teenager. The biggest difference is that he can talk about the interests of a fourteen year old, discuss politics with adults and handle friendships with his fellow college students.

Like I told the other mylotter, it is not his brain that fascinates me as much as his determination to do as much with his life as is humanly possible and allow nothing to stop him. I wish all our kids had his drive to learn. But most of them are being dumbed down by insipid rules that parents allow to happen without so much as a peep of protest.

I cannot get over the fact that this child opted to read college books at AGE TWO! Amazing beyond belief.