RM> Who are the rich people going to exploit if they get rid of
RM> the normal people..   B)

DW>They don't want us all gone.  Just less of us.  Easier for them to
  >control us and they think that there will be more stuff for them.

It would probably do all of us good if there were fewer of us, and
excessive poor people are an obvious issue. The problem is our
system is set up so that more and more workers are required to
pay enough taxes to support those who are retired or not working
for whatever reason.

DW>For me the tipping point was when English class had us read Lord of
  >the Flies which showed us what High School actually was.

I got that one too..

DW>1. At least my school, actively tried to discourage me from exploring
  >different choices.
  >2. I will argue that students today have much fewer choices, at least
  >in school, than I did.

I obviously haven't been in school for a long time and I didn't have
kids so I don't have their experiences to fill in the blanks either.

As for different choices, in our schools you took a 4 year course if
you were not planning on University or the 5 year course if you were.
(The 5th year was grade 13 which eliminated one year of University.)

But.. I wanted the 4 year Tech courses so I'd learn how to work
on cars and machine shop for building stuff and welding and
wood working, electronics and such..

BUT I wanted the 5 year course because there was always a
chance I'd end up going to University so the school went nuts
trying to schedule half the one course and half the other.
Likely they wouldn't go that far out of their way anymore..

I benefitted from both though.. I built a few muscle cars and
custom motorcycles over the years and renovated houses but I
was also pretty good at the tougher subjects, mainly math.

When we were taking very complex algebra in grade 11, I didn't
like the time it took to do a question taking up half a page.
I started thinking about it and one Sunday afternoon when I didn't
have to work I started working the questions in different ways and
came up with a way to do them in a line or two that worked every
time. Later I got caught doing a question that way by my math
teacher and he asked who showed me that. I told him I'd come up
with it myself, so he wrote down a Super long Algebra question
and told me to try that one. It took me a minute or so longer
than usual but I did sort it out, and he informed me what I'd
just done was 2nd year level University Calculus.

I'd never even heard of Calculus before that. (It was a Grade 13
math course at that time.) It was actually rather disappointing.
I thought I'd invented something new..  B)

---
 * SLMR Rob  * Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names
 * Origin: Capitol City Online (618:250/1)