Great points, Val.

I completely agree about parents. I am no longer paying for education for my children because they are intelligent and I am involved. Those are the factors that contribute most to their academic success.

I attended a private schools in the 80s and 90s, and my children attended private school for a few years starting in 2007. As a kid, I had half day Wednesdays where we left before lunch. We had art, music and Spanish where we not only did arts and crafts, sang and learned Spanish words but learned about art history and how to read music and about different cultures. My kids got out of school one hour early on Wednesdays but were getting a watered down education. Their art was just arts and crafts, they just sang in music class and there was no foreign language. This certainly contributed to my disillusionment.

I will say there was one year of private school for my children where they had an exceptional music teacher. This particular teacher fostered a love of music and introduced reading music. Both of my kids became interested in music after one year with this teacher and my son taught himself to play an instrument. More parent involvement and rock star teachers like this one music teacher are necessary to bolster our education system.