Or rather, Re: would be if I believed the devil actively caused human suffering. (But that's a WHOLE 'nother' conversation.) that it isn't new doesn't forgive anything; it just means we haven't learned. i'm not concerned that education be "good enough" or "no worse than anyone else" or "as good as we've ever been." Education should have an objective standard of what one ought to know and how well one ought to know it -- not that everyone must necessarily meet the standard, mind (again, another conversation), but that we should have some concrete way of determining who is and isn't 'succeeding' and whether or not our schools are doing as they should -- and by that I mean educating our children, not performing daycare or keeping kids off the street (those are accidentals, not primary goals).