Reply #545: That is one of the reasons

[nadinbrzezinski]

but historically Americans have not a distrust, a disdain for educated people. It is our anti intellectualism and it is very much in the water.

The public school movement ironically, was part of the Working Man's Party in the 1820s... that is where it comes from... (not that most people know this), but they were supposed to be practical places where kids received the knowledge they needed for the trades.

The modern system got the money it got after sputnik, and we have a similar moment in time, but we are missing it, by a long stretch. That is why kids in Bangalore are going to eat our lunch... in fact they already are.

But we distrust book learnin' it is as old as the 1700s and the first Revival. Right now we are in what will be called the Third Revival, and religion (and distrust in secular experts) has taken on a new vigor... and teaching kids these things, or even assigning homework is not something we do... or kids might have to work at school.

The Mexican system goes all the way to the 1900s and the Positivistic movement, (though education and history are seen as critical all the way to the Aztecs)... and it is essentially modeled on a mixture of the German and British model. And kids who can hack it, and finish prep school (public or private it does not matter) can still go to University for mostly free.They believe that in these kids the future lies... now that does not mean that everybody goes to school or finishes it. Literacy is much beter than it used to be... but average schooling is about second grade of Junior High.