> It’s public school and peer orientation that’s making what you think of as coddled useless garbage humans, not well meaning parents. If that were true, the crying, whining, moaning generation would have been in 1910 and not 2010. > I was surprised how dumbed down the kids were coming out of school. It’s like my university had to make a class to teach them how to think again. That's the thing. Nothing can make smart kids dumb or dumb kids smart. As the saying goes, "You can't fix stupid." Public school isn't making kids dumb, the sad fact is just that most people are dumb. Since 90% of the population goes to public school you see a shit-ton of dumb people coming from public school. If 90% of people were home schooled you'd see a shit-ton of dumb people coming out of homeschooling. That's one of the great liberal fallacies: that every child is blank slate with equal potential. It causes a huge waste of society's resources trying to realize that ideal. It's simply not possible. Forcing a dumb kid through school and into college will not make them smart. You cannot teach "smart."