The despair, frustration and the lack of hope I feel in Donna's post asking for sweeping change in the educational system makes me sit up and take notice. IMHO, that type of frustration; although justified and based on proven facts, sometimes leads to the wrong kind of change.

In her post Donna hinted at the ruination of our educational system by the ineptness of tenured teachers and the greed of unions. To criticize her, IMO, for the broad sweeping comment made out of frustration to get rid of all of the teachers and to start over is the pot calling the kettle black.

I don't think Donna deserved the comment. Donna, like me, you and tens of thousands in this country are frustrated. If our frustration is vented amongst our families, friends, coworkers and on forums like TOV and stops here it does serve a purpose. But it shouldn't stop there.

After we educate ourselves and are justifiable riled up, we have to express our opinions through our right to vote. Not just on the state and national level, but more importantly, on the local level. I can't give up on a world that my grandfather worked to build and my 90 year old father fought to give me and the lifestyle that I and my hardworking husband work to substain.

My grandfather, born in 1893, was raised on a farm in Virginia where the railroad had never even laid a track. His family, like most in that generation, were strong-willed, hardworking, and self-sufficient. He dreamed of being a school teacher. He managed to get educated and borrow a neighbor's horse to get to a railroad station to ride for days at the promise of a teaching job in the coalfield in the Common School system.

To quote Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education , "I have not changed my fundamental belief that all children should have a great education that includes not just basic skills, but history, literature, geography,, civics, the arts, science, foreign languages, and physical education. I have never changed my wish that all children should have well-educated teachers who love their subjects and are well prepared to teach them to their students. I have never changed my skepticism about fads, miracles, and silver bullets, which come and go with great frequency in U.S. education. I have never abandoned my respect for the men and women who teach children and do the daily work that others (including me) talk and write about."

We must go back to the days when our teachers were taught to teach our children.