Bubkus? I can only guess the meaning of the word. Where do I begin? Well, first what I wrote may have been lengthy, but it was not a ramble. I did not digress but stayed on point. Secondly, writing about education is not the same as being an educator, so please do not confuse the two. I can write about doctoring until the cows come home, but you wouldn't want me prescribing for your ills. Thirdly, where did I write or even insinuate that poor kids or kids without stable parents can't learn? I wrote no such thing. I made the point that children enter school with different backgrounds and some beginnings are more advantageous to learning than others and this fact needs to be recognized and accounted for. Those who would dismiss this reality are the ones who embrace pernicious untruths. Fourth, I never said that test scores don't matter. I wrote that legislating that teachers be evaluated as being effective or not based on standardized test scores will not "reform" education. Give me meaningful test data that actually tells me what a student can or cannot do and I will run with it! And yes, standardized test scores do matter less than other measures of learning. It would be like a doctor (to go back to my previous analogy), looking at the weight of a patient and declaring him or her to be unhealthy and in danger of expiring without the additional data of the previous weight of the patient, the cultural expectations of weight for the patient, the current life situation of the patient, or the overall health of the patient. Fifth, I am totally lost when you state "And if you believe that, then you ought to believe that we should get rid of public schools altogether." What is the 'that' you are referring to? Sixth, I too expect schools to teach kids whether they are rich or poor. I am not sure what in my writing gave you the idea that I didn't believe this, please do me the courtesy of pointing it out. Seventh, children who are read to will (and statistics backs this up), have an edge up on children who are not read to. The Free Press I believe, does a book drive for children who have little access to books and for good reason. And teachers do endeavor to teach all children in their class. I have never seen a teacher tell a child, who appeared to be unread to, to leave the room. Eighth, yes public schools were created, not invented, to be the great equalizer of society. Created means to cause to exist, to bring into being, to originate. The purpose of public schools when they originated was to produce knowledgeable citizens of good character with leadership abilities. Today's politicians would invent, which can mean to fabricate or make up, schools that do no such thing. Ninth, we agree! You say that schools are not funded properly to achieve all that needs to be achieved. So why don't you take our elected officials to task for that? Hasn't Governor Snyder cut funding to public education drastically? You go on to say that public schools aren't structured the right way either, meaning I think, structured to be an equalizer. How are all of the "reforms" being pushed on public schools equalizing anything? Asking all children to do the same thing on the same day and get the same results or be deemed a failure, is I think, asinine. Finally, you say that the idea that we expect too much of schools and teachers to be infuriating, well I find that infuriating! I will tell you that everyday I witness teachers who give all they have to help their students succeed. I have held crying teachers in my arms as they wonder how they have been unable to help some of "their kids." I have stopped by teacher's rooms long after the day has ended and said "go home, you have a family." I have watched teachers collaborate on lessons in order to make sure they are reaching all kids and giving all kids a chance to be successful. I have prayed for teachers whose health has suffered due to the pressure they find themselves under. And the idea that you find that we should expect too much from our schools to be infuriating, I will go on record to say that a public school is only as good as the community it supports and is supported by. You want a good neighborhood public school, then be an advocate for what it wants to achieve and make your children measure up to its expectations. Now to end this, let me post a link to a very interesting article that will be well worth your time. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/15/what-if-finlands-great-teachers-taught-in-u-s-schools-not-what-you-think/