A science blog with Eric Berger







Some key results:

  • Among the 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, the United States performed below average in 2012 in mathematics (rank 26) comparable with Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, the Russian Federation, the Slovak Republic, Spain and Sweden.
  • In reading, the United States performed around the average (rank 17), comparable with Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.
  • In science, the performance of the United States was also close to the OECD average (rank 21) and comparable with that of Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal and Spain.


What’s really concerning to me is the third column, which shows the share of the country’s population that performed at the highest level of the mathematics assessment. We can consider this to be a proxy for the overachieving scientists and technology entrepreneurs who will start the Microsofts, Googles and Facebooks of the coming decades, in short the engines of our continuing prosperity.

In the high performing countries one-quarter to one-half of students performed at the highest level. In the United States, just 8 percent of students did.

In the summary of United States results the authors of the study point to one key weakness in U.S. students — the ability to apply mathematics to real world situations. This is a problem, obviously, because most of the natural world can be explained by math.

Eric Berger

91 Responses

  1. ScientistMike says:

    Do you suppose it is “genetic”? I.e. the American ancestry predisposes us to having difficulty with Math concepts?

  2. JohnD says:


    You are right; that is the more serious statistic. The others could be explained as a consequence of improving education in other countries to US standards. Once that happens, the relative rankings become effectively meaningless. But the percent of top achievers is a good metric for how well the system encourages learning. Based on our result, we don’t appear to be very good at that despite our higher-than-average spending on students (very little of which actually makes it to the teacher).

    • gabriellyn says:

      We have a problem here in the US – we think if we throw money at a problem it will go away. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite work that way. It looks great on paper, but reality doesn’t correlate.

    • JohnD says:

      Worse, we are throwing money at things that are only tangentially related to the problem (e.g., new high school football stadiums) and neglecting things that we know will help (e.g., Head Start, free school lunch and breakfast programs, higher pay for professional teachers).

    • gabriellyn says:

      @JohnD – Higher salaries for teachers would be a great starting point. Attracting motivated teachers would be a huge improvement! But clearly we’ve outsourced that as well. :-(

  3. Tanstaafl2 says:

    The authors obviously never met my son. The kid’s scary-smart. He’s only in 4th grade, yet he pesters my math-teacher wife to give him Algebra 2 problems to work out for fun. He does standardized math tests in his head and aces them in five minutes.

  4. Chris Walken says:

    While these results are kind of sad and a pretty good indicator that parents no longer have the skills or willingness to help their children, not everyone needs to be a scientist or engineer. It would be nice if education focused on 4 function calculator math and what happens if you borrow too much money. That way the children could grow up and make responsible voting decisions and realize that there is no free lunch.

    • supermonkey says:

      I think your comment is interesting because it presupposes that a person must necessarily be a scientist or engineer in order do well – or even show an interest in – science and math subjects. I would argue that developing a healthy proficiency in science and math leads to increased proficiency in other subjects.

    • Ralph W. says:

      Oh but there is a free lunch, free breakfast, and even free evening meals and after school snacks for some. Kid misbehaves and has to come to school on Saturday? Moe free meals in some school districts.

  5. flypusher says:

    Let’s not forget that there are anti-science influences in our culture/politics and that if you use the degree of education required/ hours you’re expected to work as a guide, a career in science is grossly underpaying. So why bother to take advanced Bio or physics or calculus in high school?

    • Mo says:

      Absolutely. This concept could explain almost everything. Perverse incentives everywhere. Example: fame is good. ANY kind of fame. That’s why you see people go on reality TV and make crazy youtube videos and try to do something outrageous. More kids know who KK is than Elon Musk.

    • Bob Jones says:

      This is disgusting. There are so many things that are wrong with how kids are being taught math and the old dry approach that never seems to (or does not appear to)makes sense in real world applications. Then again colleges expect the student to take all sorts of unnecessary courses simply to bring in more money for the school to pay their bloated pensions and million dollar pay to their football coach.

  6. georgex says:

    One conclusion that Amanda Ripley said from her studies comparing schools in different countries is that the top ranking ones in Finland and South Korea had in common is little importance paid to sports. This is in sharp contrast to the U.S. where the primary focus seems to be on the marching band and sports teams.

    • caibua says:

      School rather spend money to build sport complex than build the science labs. The politicians are forgetting the purpose of the school.

    • Chad says:

      There is IMO more to your point then we are willing to admit in this country. Our academic institutions, from HS through college, are in many corners dominated by very unnecessary and idealistic entertainment oriented options. Our schools have become addicted to the money that sports generates and our students have become addicted to the mindless entertainment that it provides. This country needs to have an intervention with our schools to regain their primary mission and redirect our kids back to learning that leads to careers and pursuits that actually matter.

    • Liberal_Hack says:

      It’s obviously racist.

    • georgex says:

      The Pep Rallies and hysteria of the game diverts the focus of the children away from what is more important to them as individuals. The dream of getting into professional sports is for most just a dream with very short odds of winning.

  7. Wasn't My Fault says:

    Maybe we should take away handheld calculators and make kids do real math the old way??

    • ScientistMike says:

      If we only had time! I was fortunate to take college math/science courses before the advent of hand-held calculators. We used slide rules! You couldn’t function if you didn’t first understand how to estimate an answer in your head. Slide rules don’t tell you where the decimal point goes. You learn that multiplication and division on a slide rule is actually adding and subtracting logarithms. We learned the concepts, not the keystrokes.

      I wonder if the high-achieving societies still teach the concepts?

      Living a life without a good understanding of math is like dragging along an invisible anchor.

  8. Brian says:

    Here’s the key weakness that I saw in my math classes. While the natural world can be described by math, very little of the natural world made it into math class. What I remember is rote memorization of things like quadratic equations, adding/multiplying matrices, etc. I have never used these since high school, and indeed, forgot them soon after the test.

    What I think SHOULD be taught, and people do use everyday, is probability. But then, who’d play the lottery?

  9. Rich says:

    Do you believe there is some skew as to how the tests were administered. I’ll bet every breathing American kid is included in the test results (or a representative slice of every breathing kid). In most of those “higher performing” countries, not every child goes to school. In fact, in some socialist countries, lower performers are shunted to tech schools at a young age. So, one quarter to one half of students performing at the highest level isn’t truly representative of the full population. Where our 8% is representative. Thoughts?

    • TxAg says:

      You are correct. Many countries, such as Germany, segregate children, based on aptitude, to attend academic or vocational schools. The students being tested in math and science are students who have shown a proclivity to these subjects.

      Also, a majority of the top countries are much more homogenous in their societal makeup than is the US and the UK for example. According to the National Center for Education, the number of students who speak a language other than English at home has tripled since 1980 to 12 million students in 2010. There are 40 million foreign-born residents in the US and 17% of those entered the country between 2005 and 2012. English is a very difficult language to master and is full of nuance. I have noticed with my kids who are born and raised here miss more problems in math because of problems with reading comprehension more than anything. How much more would a student new to the language and all of its intricacies struggle with word problems in math and science not because of their aptitude but because of the complexity of the English language?

  10. CFKEvita says:

    Texas pays top dollar for what it wants: athletics. The highest paid government employee in the state is Mack Brown, at $5,266,667. Head coaches have a median salary of $96,002. Texans care more about high school and college athletic prowess than they do about academic achievement and pay accordingly.

    High school and college students only make the front page of the Chron if it is for athletic achievements, which come from years of focused practice and individualized coaching and not just on genetics.

    When academic prowess is rewarded with front-page attention and multi-million-dollar contracts, there will be thousands more high-achieving American scholars.

    • Bob Jones says:

      Agree 100%

    • Lou says:

      That’s because Mack is very good at what he does at his job and the program brings in over 100 million dollars… Do the math.

    • The Central Scrutinizer says:


    • TxAg says:

      Football is just about the only extracurricular activity that is not a cost center but a profit center. Having a quality head coach will bring in much more money than the liability of his salary. Where does this extra money go? Of course it goes in to facilities to further the football program but it also pays for the other sports programs for both boys and girls and, yes, it even makes it back in to the classroom.

      Sports teach camaraderie, teamwork, and perseverance. It provides incentives to do well in class to young men and women who would otherwise have none. Would we be better off if we encouraged our kids as much to do well in school as we do in athletics? Of course, but don’t forsake the positive aspects of athletics in schools today.

    • Not In The Budget says:

      I am huge sports fan… I play, watch, listen, and gamble a little… and I could not agree more. In our house my kids get a constant reminder of what is MOST important… ACADEMICS. As a society we have to find a way to reward kids extravagantly when they achieve in academia while balancing our obsession with sports. I can’t tell you how many dads think if they practice 4 hours a day they can make their kid a professional athlete. VERY FEW ever make it, while the rest of them wake up and realize they aren’t prepared for college. Ask yourself… Do I know what my kids have for homework tonight? If not… you’re the problem.

  11. Lee S. says:

    This is what happens when schools ‘dumb down’ the classes.
    The ‘system’ seems more interested in making sure our students walk away with a diploma rather than a good education.

    • Peter says:

      Absolutely. The schools are, for lack of a better word, penalized when they don’t pass enough students; therefore, they work on passing students instead of educating them. Reduced standards equates to more children passing. Additionally, our “modern” society that feels showcasing exceptional performance is demeaning and hurtful to those who don’t match up, reduces expectations and competition. I have read stories of schools that have cancelled honor rolls and special academic awards because it made other students feel bad. I guess it’s better to reduce everybody to keep from offending a few.

    • Ralph W. says:

      Remember: Every child must feel good about himself/herself every moment, even if that kid just yelled the “F word” in the hallways, kicked a teacher or stole another student’s jacket.

  12. E-Dub says:

    These stats don’t tell the whole story. Having lived and worked alongside engineers in South Korea for several years, I can tell you that while they generally were much better calculators than their western counterparts, they were severly lacking in their ability to create innovative solutions to even simple problems. There is a cultural factor here as well. Thinking “outside the box” is not only lacking, it’s culturally discouraged.

  13. Brenda says:

    I don’t have the time to slog through all this information to see if the answer is there, but I still have the same question I’ve been asking since I first started teaching back in the 80′s. And I’ve never received a satisfactory answer. How are these test takers chosen? Unlike the U.S. where all students are considered to be college material and, therefore, tested, other countries start siphoning off lower performing students into nonacademic tracks at an early age. If the data has not been adjusted to reflect this difference we will always score below the rest of the developed world.

    • Will says:

      Absolutely true. While I think our education system still needs improvement, we don’t weed out kids and force them to drop out of school if they don’t perform well. Take the stats above and then put the % of 17/18 year olds who actually finished the equivalent of high school. Then when you take that # into account do the comparison.

      We have issues in the United States but it’s ridiculous how people want to assume places like China are better. If they were better than why do they have so many poor uneducated people, and why do they steal all the technologies from around the world versus inventing their own. They have tons of smart people just like every other country, but don’t let the #’s fool you into assuming their system is better.

  14. tanstaafl says:

    This past spring I attended a commencement. The principal identified the valedictorian and had him stand. Though most in the audience applauded, around 25% booed him, and more than half of the graduating students booed him.

  15. Karl Heinz says:

    One interesting aspect (which may be fallacious, as so many explanatory theories are: they make a good story but do they really explain anything? but I digress) is the focus of Oriental culture on struggle/hard work rather than intelligence. We Westerners too often praise our children for being smart when they achieve; what we should do is praise them for working hard. Teach them that to be good at anything (except for the genius outliers) we have to work, struggle, fail, then try again and fail better.

  16. rgvguy says:

    So, in a country where money trumps education and in a state where we have to hire outsiders and often times foreigners our scores are low? Wow, who woulda thunk it!

  17. thekida says:

    actually, it is my understanding when you factor out the scores of certain groups (hispanic and blacks) the scores rise up to one of the top five in the world.

    could you provide the scores for American white and asian students? if you did i think you would be less concerned about our competitiveness.

    before people start lobbing out the word racist, it is a question of statistics and not race. the simple fact is that the average white or asian kid is going to be pushed harder in education due to cultural influence.

    don’t bother bringing up your personal anecdotes of kids you know to rebutt my thesis as those are not statistically significant.

    this is from a 2010 link from the NSF on minorities and test scores:

    In mathematics, the average proficiency of Asian students was higher than that of whites and other minorities at grades 4, 8, and 12 in 1992. For example, the mathematics proficiency of Asian 12th grade students was 10 points higher than that of whites, 32 points higher than Hispanics, 34 points higher than American Indians, and 40 points higher than blacks. (See text table 2-1.)
    In science proficiency, Asian students trailed whites by 9 points in grade 4, were almost equally proficient at grade 8, and led whites by 5 points at grade 12 in 1990. The other racial/ethnic groups trailed at all grade levels. At grade 12, American Indians’ proficiency was lower than that of Asians by 22 points, Hispanics’ by 35 points, and blacks’ by 52 points. (See text table 2-2.)

    so no, it is not as grim as you think, at least for whites and asians. you won’t fix the hispanic or black student issue till you address the cultural issues with education and ‘acting white’…

    and don’t tell me its money, i find it difficult to believe those Chinese and Indian students have more money per student the average black or hispanic student. what they have is a culture that places a high importance on education, not sports, not hip-hop and not video games…

    • Justin says:

      The problem is that we can’t even have this conversation.

      There is nothing worse than being labeled a “racist” in America. Just pointing to the data can earn a person that label.

      I’ve had post flagged as racist and offensive on the Chronicle just for linking to’s crime stats broken down by race.

    • Ali says:

      As an Asian immigrant (i.e. an immigrant who came from a country in the continent of Asia — broad categorization I admit), let me say you have hit the proverbial nail on the head. Painful for some to accept, but it’s the truth. Culture trumps race, and generally trumps economics. One interesting anecdote from my experience, the performance of African immigrants (went to school with many immigrants from Nigeria in particular) v. African Americans. Same race / different culture, guess which group performed better. Yes, its anecdotal, but I would bet the stats (if its gathered) would support my thesis.

    • Ralph W. says:

      Ali: A friend from Africa says exactly what you say. He blames our fostering a sense of entitlement & a culture of broken families.

    • JohnD says:

      Given that those gaps are narrowing, it is likely that the difference is nurture and not nature.

  18. Leveut says:

    Yeah, but we feel good about ourselves and feel we are doing great.

  19. jackwagon says:

    There is no money to be made in the fields that require math and science and on top of that this study is NOTHING NEW !
    This has been known for many, many years and its always been the joke that our kids cant add 2+2 but sure can play Football like a Mutha !!
    What did this country expect when the Football coach is paid more than the school principle and more money goes to the Stadium than to new books or teacher salary.
    Give me a Freakin break.
    AND to make matters worse, you see in the news that schools are refusing to teach Cursive writing.
    This is on you America , stop the Double Down on Dumb Mentality ,,,,,jeeez !

    • IANVS says:

      re: “There is no money to be made in the fields that require math and science …”

      Tell that to Larry Page & Sergey Brin & Mark Zuckerberg & Jack Dorsey & Elon Musk & …

      Not to mention Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos & …

    • gabriellyn says:

      Well… you don’t really need math or science to work at Starbucks or Mickey D’s or play sports. Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are outliers and I bet half of their staff wasn’t born here…

    • IANVS says:

      More of your outliers, gabby.

      If you wanna flip burgers or lattes for a living, go for it; the world needs ditch diggers & gardeners too. But if you want to earn a decent living, get an education in the sciences, engineering, technology, medicine, business, & yes, law or accounting.

    • gabriellyn says:

      What’s a decent living anymore? And why work when the government provides everything?

    • IANVS says:

      Even a latte barista can make a spare billion framed in the right educational background.

      “After graduating from a Massachusetts boarding school, he enrolled at Stanford, where he majored in management science and engineering after switching from a computer science major. The Stanford experience proved monumental in Systrom’s trajectory.”

    • gabriellyn says:

      LOL Indeed. And they’re raking him over the coals for “only” getting a cool billion for the sale of Instagram.

      But what does that have to do with the fact that it’s simply unnecessary to further your education any longer? You can make a “decent living” without it thanks to all of the government programs out there. I suppose it all depends on your definition of “decent”.

    • IANVS says:

      re: “… it’s simply unnecessary to further your education any longer?”

      Right, like you don’t want your kids & grandkids & nieces & nephews to get a good education & have a life. The world has rapidly changed, Sweetheart, & if the youth of America doesn’t get serious about advanced degrees & professional certifications, they’ll likely be flippin’ those pitiful burgers at White Castle or stocking hecho en China at the local Walmart for minimum wage until their 60th.

      Or as Clark might put it to Will, “And you’ll be servin’ [Chinese] kids fries at a drive-thru on [their] way to a skiing trip.”

      “UC San Diego’s undergraduate population in the fall of 2011 included 2 percent African American, 10 percent Mexican American, 23 percent Caucasian and 44 percent Asian.”

    • gabriellyn says:

      Of course I want my progeny to do well and be successful. I am only saying they can be perfectly happy and well taken care of even if they should choose not to further their education. Other people will happily work their fingers to the bone and stress themselves into an early grave paying taxes to help support those who want to take it easy.

      Apparently, others can have a perfectly happy life smoking weed at the taxpayers’ expense. No education required! Sure, we’ll be skiing and visiting Mickey, but the other 50 weeks out of the year we have to work for that privilege while it appears that others take a vacation in their mind 365 days a year. It gives me never-ending joy to know we are subsidizing that lifestyle with our fancy degrees.

    • IANVS says:

      And you, Mz. Whiney Pants, have no idea what it’s like to be a global citizen in extreme poverty working your fingers to the bone to survive another day, while your children get insufficient nourishment, no healthcare, or education so they can live a long, healthy, productive life.

    • gabriellyn says:

      We were not discussing global poverty Old Man. The topic had turned to welfare abuse. It’s one thing if you are really in need but it’s quite another thing entirely if are able to work, just unwilling to do so. I do not care to subsidize that sort of abuse, spending 40+ hours away from my family every week while someone else takes advantage of my tax dollars.

      Don’t drop red herrings into the mix.

    • IANVS says:

      No, Mz. Whiney Pants, we were talking about the importance of young Americans getting a good education in order to make a decent living in an increasingly competitive world, at least right up until the moment you dumped a pungent bucket of welfare red herrings all over the place.

      Fact is, current trends in education do not bode well for America’s future.


    • IANVS says:




    • gabriellyn says:

      Hmmm… Guess you felt so strongly about this you had to post twice, eh, Old Man? Not red herrings, just playing Devil’s Advocate here. You know I value education. Sigh… We are in serious trouble and I think we can both agree with that.

  20. Justin says:

    It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is happening here.

    Our demographics are changing…as more and more people pour in from Mexico and Central/South America (Poor performing countries) our AVERAGE scores will continue to drop.

    These cultures historically have put a much lower emphasis on education and academic performance compared to European and Asian countries.

    You will also notice that the average height of an American is also declining…that tends to happen when a bunch of people under 5’5″ pour into a country.

    • IANVS says:

      Racism much? Echoes of what the Protestant White Nativist Know Nothings said about the dirty & swarthy masses of uneducated farmers & destitutes who immigrated from Greece, Italy, Poland, Hungary, etc., not to mention Irish & German Catholics, who became the America we all know & love.

    • IANVS says:

      We want our nation like our soap, 99 & 44/100% pure.

      “The Know Nothing movement was an American political movement that operated on a national basis during the mid 1850s. It promised to purify American politics by limiting or ending the influence of Irish Catholics and other immigrants, thus reflecting nativism and anti-Catholic sentiment. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, whom they saw as hostile to republican values and controlled by the pope in Rome. Mainly active from 1854 to 1856, it strove to curb immigration and naturalization, but met with little success. Membership was limited to Protestant males.”

    • JohnD says:

      The KNow Nothings did have a few symbolic victories.

  21. Lizard says:

    That’s okay, there are still plenty of kids in India and China willing to go to school in the U.S. and take the jobs in those fields here. If parents aren’t motivated enough to encourage their children to excel in those fields, that is exactly what is going to happen. It has already been happening for years.

    • gabriellyn says:

      So true. My husband works in an engineering firm and more than half of them only speak English as a second language. The good news is that we are still attracting the talent, even if it isn’t homegrown.

  22. Robert says:

    None of this surprises me when I went to school the total focus of the schools purpose was to educate me, nothing else, The other day there was a memeber of our school board on the news discussing some incident at another school district and he said the number one priority of his school district was the safety of the students.
    If the parents would raise their spawn properly safety at schools would be gauranteed. But the parents do nothing except scream why doesn’t the school do this or that?
    Two girls go in a fight the other day it made the news and what did everyone say. What is the school going to do about this? The school replied it was not on there property, it was not during school hours, the fight was over a boy nothing about the school. So what do these lazy parents always scream why doesn’t the school do something? They are the are making schools more adn more like a fortress so all the students can grow up safely and be low intelligent beings for all their life.

  23. Trotskii says:

    Unfortunately, we live in a country where it’s cool to be dumb. Look no further than your TV.

  24. Morris says:

    I wonder about these results. I had thought that Israel was a great incubator of technology entrepreneurs, and they show only 9.4% of top performers.

  25. Ralph W. says:

    As a society we have no real interest in quality education. We talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. There are far too many pressure groups who want to use (and do so successfully) our schools for their social/political/religious agenda. Everything is tied to political correctness, from excusing horrible behavior to watering down science education with crap from religious zealots. We excuse damn near anything with “That’s part of their culture.” and “He/She is in special needs.”
    The proponents of all the excuses come from both sides of the political isle. My wife taught for 43 years. She and others like her have NO input. The discipline problem was really created by the ADA, a wonderful idea written with caring hearts. It was not well thought out. It was written in a way that lawyers for certain advocates, via court cases, assured some kids virtually were untouchable regardless of their behavior. Upset parents and society demanded something be done (most were unaware of the problem being the segment of students covered by the ADA as behavioral problems. Most had no idea that these punks are often covered by the ADA.) So the legislators ended up with zero tolerance. (Approximately 45% of school dollars are spent on 8.5% of the kids. And most of that is special needs, but only a very small part covers kids you and I normally think of as special need students. Most people think of kids under the ADA as being those with physical problems, hearing, sight, speech problems etc. BY FAR THE LARGEST ARE THE “EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED” or whatever the latest politically correct name is given bad behavior. That is where our tax money is going, to behavioral problems.) Two populations exist in schools: Those who were untouchable & those who were arrested, cuffed and sent to jail for very minor infractions. CONGRESS, GOP & Democrats, got together and eliminated many of the ADA loopholes with regard to discipline. Then along comes “W” with “No Child Left Behind” or as most educators know, “Every Child Left Behind”. We are back at square one.
    It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know what works. Kids learn well in small to medium size classrooms, in a safe environment, with competent teachers in a structured environment. That demands discipline. AND bringing back old fashioned play breaks for elementary kids would also help.

  26. TheShadow says:

    and we get statistics like these:

    Percent of (Texas) residents who achieved a bachelor’s degree or higher: 26.7 percent

    ( Houston Cronicle, December 03, 2013 )

  27. BringTheRain says:

    I looked at the data but I got overwhelmed with all the scary numbers. Sigh.

  28. Lou says:

    Department of Education happened…

    And probably will get worse with Common Core in parts of USA…

    Face it, mainstream academia in USA sucks.

  29. chris says:

    This is an easy one. In the real world engineers and scientists play second fiddle to lawyers, accountant and other business backgrounds. If you want success in the real world an engineering degree is suicide. It takes longer to get, requires substantially more work and comes with a significantly lower glass ceiling. If you can get through engineering school, you should be able to cruise through business school with a 4.0 and have virtually no limit to your upside.

    • JohnGalt says:

      You’ve got it Chris. If you want to make a difference, be a scientist or engineer. If you want to make money, be a lawyer.

    • IANVS says:

      Well, Chris,

      35 of 55 of our Founding Fathers were lawyers who clearly made a difference.

      Point is, a modern economy needs lots of accountants & lawyers & businessmen & scientists & engineers & teachers to function well. Hell, some of our best businessmen are scientists or lawyers.

    • rick says:

      Most engineers make more than accountants. This includes civil, petroleum, chemical, mechanical and electrical engineers.

  30. rick says:

    The victimhood and entitlement mentality combined with no father in the home and the “glamor” of being in a gang and being criticized for “acting white” (getting good grades and not speaking in ebonics) has a lot to do with it. Others have also pointed out the negative influence TV has on young impressionable minds by glorifying underacheivement and purpously linking caucasians and asians to being goofy, ignorant, clumsy or dumb. Top it off with the incentive to have a higher graduating percentage at the expense of dumbing down the education system and this is the result.

  31. georgex says:

    P.S. Coaches ought never to become principals as this helps orient to sports prestige and away from the academic.