They may be weird, but they're smart?

Our resident religious curiosities received an inadvertant compliment in an Associated Press news story that focuses on all the cultural and dietary issues foster homes must consider as they begin caring for the more than 400 children confiscated from the FLDS compound. Quoting attorneys for the state, the article states, "The children have been educated in a schoolhouse, using a home-school curriculum, on the compound, and may actually be ahead of public-school students their ages."

Self-directed, aka non-government controlled education has its advantages, even in the hands of polygamists, or so it would seem. Wonder whether any state education agency bureaucrats picked up on this.

In related (no polygamy pun intended) matters, the Christian Science Monitor newspaper ran an article on its front page this past week titled "Schools fall short despite 25 years of reform."

Now there's a newsflash.

Those of you not living in Texas may not know about our state's fabulously high dropout rate, the various efforts to manipulate or excuse those numbers, and the many high school graduates who end up taking remedial courses their freshman year of college -- so they can then REALLY start college their second year.

The continued dumbing down of everything from preaching in the pulpits -- can't use the King James Version of the Bible because its language is just too tricky for today's young people to understand -- to the content of newspapers and many magazines is evidence enough that we are falling further behind when it comes to cultivating a learned citizenry.

When celebrity goings on pass for legitimate news -- think the Britney Spears custody hearings earlier this year -- while all around us the economy tanks, our country remains at war on at least two fronts, and health threats from shoddy products made in You Know Where come faster than federal inspectors can investigate them, me thinks our priorities as a culture are in need of review.

Back to the CS Monitor story: It notes that the original alert to the need for educational reform that sounded 25 years ago remains pertinent. "The original report warned that the 'educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people.'"

Ah, that rising tide of mediocrity. The notion that "close enough" is good enough, that our almost good is great.

Is it too late to shift gears?