<p>look, from my perspective this is a no-brainer: until the standard american curriculum changes to be much more inclusive of the contributions of all of its citizens, kids are gonna tune out. no, it’s not important to know the silly little standardized test factoids. what’s important is TRUTH in education. until we stop dumbing down (sugarcoating) the story about the so-called founding of this nation, get real about slavery and the slaughter of the first americans, and have serious, in-depth discussions about all sorts of other topics, then… we get what we ‘pay’ for. it truly is that simple. kids sense that they aren’t being told the whole story, and they get resentful. why pay attention when you feel as though your teacher is telling you a bunch of lies???</p>