The definitive comment (from a reader):
Herding a bunch of kids together against their will to try to teach them the same thing at the same time is one of the dumbest ideas the human race has ever come up with. I say it’s collectivism, and I say to hell with it.
Incidentally, the May 2008 issue of The New Criterion has a special section on education with more concentrated good sense in it than you’d hear from presidential candidates if this darn election were to go on for 100 years. Which it seem like it already has.