Billy wrote:

Fantasy?

Hellooo, what 'chew smokin' boy? We're not an agricultural society any
more. Things changed after WWI. Weapons were mechanical and we needed
soldiers who could read the damn manuals. Before WWI, most people were
lucky to finish the eighth grade, which was fine for plowing fields,
tossin' hay, and building fences. Done any DNA analysis with
electrophoresis lately? Uh-huh. In the 19th century high schools and
Colleges were rich folks prerogatives. These days you need a PhD. just
to assure your self a slot on the day shift.

Heh! I have a 5th grade math textbook, published in 1905. I've also got two
degrees in mathematics and I'm hard-pressed to solve some of the problems
(and it's not just because the problems involve rods, pecks, and mules).

The former president of Boston College was asked what single thing could be
done to improve the quality of education in this coutry? His answer: "Close
the colleges of education."

It's almost criminal that no single, living, Nobel Laureate is legally
permitted to teach in the public schools of my state (and probably yours);
Nor can a retired engineer, nurse, physician do so either. No Pulitzer Prize
winner is permitted to teach middle-school English. I could go on and on,
but you get the idea:

The inmates are in charge of the asylum.