On Sun, 02 Apr 2006 05:37:25 -0400, Cliff wrote:

60% have never read even one book.
Only about 6% read a book a year.
63% think man & the dinosaurs were living together.
70% believe in the existence of angels.
40% of American adults did not know that Germany was our enemy in
World War II.
50% of seventeen year olds could not express 9/100 as a percentage.
53% said the earth revolves around the sun in either a day or a month.
21% believed the sun revolved around the earth (don't ask them to
add 21 & 53).
91% were unable to state what a molecule was.
12% of Amercians, asked who the wife of the biblical Noah was, said
"Joan of Arc".
Motorola Corporation reported that 80 percent of all applicants screened
nationally failed a test of seventh-grade English and fifth-grade math.
56% said electrons were larger than atoms.
Almost half the population reads at a fifth-grade level or less.
42% of Americans can’t locate Japan on a world map.

Of the 158 countries in the United Nations, the United States ranks
forty-ninth in literacy.

The republican answer?
Tax cuts for the already wealthy, cuts in education.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs...19new_prod.asp

Educators can only offer education and try to motivate. Parents,
regardless of political affiliation, aid and abet their children's
attempts to "get a break" by reduced standards for performance.

The answer is not political nor does it lie in politics; it lies in
leadership and responsible parenting. There have been effective
leaders from both parties in the past, and damned few if any from
either party in recent years.

Citing statistics indicating a problem and immediately blaming a
political party for the problem is an excellent example of
unwillingness to address a problem and deal with it effectively.