I managed to watch about 15 minutes of the State of the Union address least week before I had to turn it off. I really didn't want to watch it in the first place but convinced myself that I ought to find out what the President thinks the state of the union is.

Alas, 15 minutes was all I could take.

My first clue that we were in deep ka-ka was the inference that somehow the Internet and technology were the cause of our economic crisis. Excuse me? The Internet and technology? You mean - I had it wrong? It wasn't the billions of dollars stolen by financial institutions or the trillions of dollars of the debt the United States owes the Federal Reserve and the International Bank of Settlement or the additional trillions of dollars we just printed out of thin air based on nothing?

Imagine my surprise! If we had just stopped that darn ole Internet back in the 70's everything would be fine!!! (First disco, now this!!!)

Now, I realize this President Barak Obama is in the business of "spinning" things (which basically means lying - great euphemism "spinning") - but really! For someone who's supposed to be very smart, even this is so far away from a "real why" my dead grandmother would notice. (You know - he must have a painfully low opinion of Americans if he thinks he can say something like that and we won't notice).

Next was the President's total conviction that "American Innovation" will come in and save the day. Like the calvary of old, suddenly us small business people are going to come up with the new ideas and technology (whoa - technology? I thought that's what got us into this mess!!) that are going to catapult the United States back to the top of the global economic standings. (Anyone for "King of the Hill"?)

He actually mentioned Edison. Edison, Mr. President? Edison has been dead for 80 years. And there hasn't been an Edison since, well, Edison.

You know what has been passing for American Innovation? Sub-prime mortgages - that's innovation. The boys at Merrill Lynch - more innovation. And OMG let's not forget Enron. Now - there's American Innovation!! Recent American innovation seems to have been mainly concerned with new and exciting ways to "spin" the books!!

I except from all this Steve Jobs and the folks at Apple. Who have truly been innovative and have made billions doing it. And I tell you, it's like I want to say "there is a god!" Because, you know, finally the good guys really made it. There are others of course. But there really need to be more. Lots more.

Anyway, as you can tell, I've been on a bit (bit?) of a rant here but there is a point.

We are not as innovative as we used to be. I think my generation was the last one that was able to get some sort of education in the public school system. Since then it has declined rapidly.

I graduated high school in 1971. We didn't have metal detectors at the entrances. Kids didn't bring guns to school. The idea that someone would go crazy and spray a cafeteria with machine gun bullets was so insane no one would even conceive of it. Yes, there were some drugs around. Yes, there were a couple of folks who would bring a knife to school. But the whole time I was in high school no one died at the hands of their schoolmates; no one was killed on school grounds; no one was hospitalized as a result of a fight; there were no drive by shootings. I think you get the idea.

Interestingly enough, no one had ADD or ADHD. Yes, there were "slow" students and every so often you might hear of dyslexia. But no one (out of all the kids I knew) was on some sort of drug for some sort of learning disability/mental illness.

Now suddenly we have 6 million kids in America on Ritalin to treat ADD or ADHD? What's this all about?? Did we have hidden, unknown learning disabilities and mental illnesses?

I think not. I think we were pretty healthy. I think we were pretty smart. One thing for sure, we could pretty much all read at the high school level when we graduated high school.

And sorry to sort of repeat last week's blog but here's the rub: when you put millions of kids on drugs that monkey around with brain chemistry - things are going to happen. And based on the past 20 years, I think we can now very safely say that they are NOT good things.

Most places in the country, sending your kid to public school is like throwing them to the lions. And not because of the kids. No. Because of the psychs. At some point, your kid can be pulled into an office, asked 10 questions, diagnosed as ADD, ADHD, bipolar, etc, etc, etc and put on a drug.

But really, I'm diverting from the real scene because the ADD, ADHD, etc. scene is just part of what is happening and isn't a real why on education in America. Nope, the sad truth about education in America is that it doesn't educate.

And if you want to get to a real why, here's a real why. Here's the basic that is missing from schools: No one teaches these kids how to study.

Think about this: teachers assume that a child can go home, read 40 pages of material and understand it. This does not happen. In fact, forget about 40 pages, try 5. Unless this person has like a 20,000 word vocabulary, it's impossible.

This is so ridiculous you would think someone would have figured this out a long time ago. (Well, someone did, but not in the educational system).

So if you want a real why - there's a real why. And why aren't kids taught how to study? Well, because the teachers don't know how to study. So, of course, you can't teach something you don't know about.

The result has left us where we are now. Sadly, putting your kid in private school is only a partial solution. They don't know how to study any more than the public school teachers.

I am all for bringing back innovation in America. Wow - think about how fantastic that will be.

But it has to start with overhauling our educational system and getting in the basic of teaching kids how to study. (In fact, all of us could benefit from that. Not just kids).

Fortunately for all of us, someone did figure all this out and you can find out about it at Applied Scholastics International. And if you have kids, I highly recommend that you check this out. It's the difference between freedom and slavery. Real education gives one the freedom to be, do and have whatever they want. And it starts with knowing how to study.

Malcolm

P.S. If the President said something redeeming in the remainder of the State of the Union, my apologies. I did miss it.