Schools need to improve in the way that all institutions need to seek improvement. And yes, they have much to improve upon. But they're not as bad as many think they are, and in some ways, I really think public schools are much better than they were 30, 40, even 50 years ago.

The kids at the top of the heap today are way ahead of their counterparts from previous generations. You take a high school student who has endured Advanced Placement exams in all the major courses, from science to history to literature to mathematics, and I guarantee you that a top student from 1950 would never be able to compete with them. Compare valedictorians from the two eras, and the modern student will be way ahead. I truly believe it would be no contest, in part because there is simply so much more to know today. Technology and the scientific advancements of the last fifty years mean today's students are exposed to so much more than their grandparents were. They can't help but be way ahead.

We may not realize this because we hear so many headlines about how Johnny can't find Mexico on a map or whatever, but we what we fail to remember is that a lot of adults can't pass those impromptu test questions, either, and those are adults who attended schools that were supposedly so much better than the ones we have today.

We have a big problem with the drop-out rate, and we are having trouble maximizing the potential of those middle-of-the-road students. But we're getting better.

Maybe problem isn't so much that American schools are lousy as they are fairly inward-looking (and thus teach citizens to be the same). America has in part become a victim of it's own success, as other nations don't suffer nearly so much from this type of ego-centrism. It's one thing to think that your our country is the greatest on Earth, but it's quite another to disdain and simply dismiss voices from around the world when they happen to follow other social, political, and economic models, or disagree with American foreign policy and practice. For example, hawkish patriots in particular had much to say about French opposition to the Iraq War, and yet they still largely refuse to acknowledge they are now eating crow with their "freedom" fries.

I agree implicitly. The current American sense of entitlement is the crux of our spate of recent problems. Alan Greenspan acknowledged that the flaw he didn't see was that banks were willing to take outrageous risks that would eventually beggar their stockholders and create the massive economic breakdown we have now. He was shocked. Shocked! Amazed that Americans would make terrible decisions in their own interest, and in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Even then he could't bring himself to admit his own culpability.

It's why I was horrified to see the 4th quarter game plan (many very good examples here in The Fray, if you frequent these boards) become tagging everyone who disagreed with the 'speading the wealth' as 'socialist'. Most of this came from people who I am certain have only the vaguest of ideas of what socialism is, why they think it's bad, and can't recognize instances of it already in place in society now.

You disagree that Americans have a misplaced sense of entitlement? Then why in the world is Paris Hilton as popular as she is? She's the poster child for unearned fame.

Let me tell you what I've been thinking for the last couple of weeks. I'm tired of America being the bad guys. I'm tired of presenting logic (see my other posts on these boards about the bullshit Obama citizenship brouhaha) and having it ignored entirely. I'm tired of defining what torture is. I'm tired of it being 'us vs them', whoever 'they' are. We have so much to worry about, and there's no way we can do it if we can't get over this sense of entitlement. This idea that some people are better or more worthy than others. The idea that there are 'real' Americans as well as fake, and some people who live here who aren't good enough to be called Americans. It's bullshit, and in their heart of hearts, everyone knows it.

It's just that, political tactics like this, dividing us up into 'real' Americans and 'fake' Americans, doing anything you have to do to win, that's what got us into this mess. We'll have to get over this for things to get better.

I have so much hope right now. I really do. Please please please let it get better. Let me not be ashamed to say I'm an American any more.