[fusiongyro]

I agree, but regarding foreign language instruction I have to bring up Mark Rosenfelder's article on why people learn foreign languages: http://www.zompist.com/whylang.html

In high school, I was in "honors" classes but had been passed over for "gifted" classes because my parents refused to have my IQ tested. The gifted classes had a reputation for spending most of their time planning parties.

I don't have a clue how to "fix" America's schools, though I suspect standardized testing belongs more to the problem set than the solution set.