My brother had written a blog about education, and how the school system is slowly lowering the bar for expectations. But its not just now, schools have let plenty of people slip threw the cracks. I have been told it has happen to me I passed along instead of being held back one more year and maybe having a better chance of understanding things. Also one of my boss's kid was passed a long from 1st grade up to 5th grade, and her reading level was at a 2nd grade level when she was in 5th grade. That's INSANE that means she probably didn't know what was going on with homework or following kids readings in class. And the teachers just pawned them off to the next. Im sure its not there intention to pass them along, but I am sure that they look over certain things so that they don't have to deal with the kid, because it would be too time consuming. Also after reading his blog I started to look at older people in my classes (older = 22 +). Some of them can barely read a paragraph with out the teacher stepping in and helping them at least 3 or 4 times. Im not saying that I am the best reader either, I have to read a page about 3x before it sinks in. But I can go threw a paragraph or 2 with out being helped with "big words" I don't know something to think about when the next time your in class and hear the person reading.