The last few years I taught in the public school system I had a very liberal administration that allowed me to try “free speech” iand “free curriculum development” in the classroom once again and the results were absolutely amazing.

My kids test scores soared, and their attendance was almost 100%. They wanted to come to class because they didn’t want to miss a single day of “open debate”. They began to love my appraoch to Middle School learning because they felt like they were in a “think tank” where we were “searching for the solutions to the big quesions of life” NOT just memorizing old facts.

Obama asked for new ideas about how to cut down the “drop out rate” in high schools and I have them. I discovered that when you treat kids as equals and stop brainwashing them and/or terrorizing them into docile submission – they SOAR and actually begin to do what the Oracle at Delphi suggested – “know thyself.” When you stop torturing and threatening kids, and stop force feeding them the old belief systems of the “military industrial complex’ they thrive !and expand and grow in ways that are absolutely amazing ! They are America’s best hope for the future !!!