Intelligence

In discussions of public education with many of my friends, I have been confronted with a very elitist viewpoint of education. It can be summarized in the following quote.

"The way the system is now is excellent. On one end you have the people that no matter what you do, for whatever reason, they fail. They don't care, they don't have the ability, whatever, they just drop out and fail to the lowest class. Then in the middle you have people who "become organized" as the mission statement said, and then you have people like us who go "HEEEEECK NO!" see the problems in the system, but ultimately still get through, thinking, and are ahead."

As much as I might like to think that I'm better and more intelligent than most people, I just cannot honestly believe that it's true. I'm fairly certain that I'm about average in most every respect. I've only had more opportunity to fulfill my dreams than others. It is not my intelligence or my ability that has brought me to where I am, but my environment and my choices. I have been extremely blessed to live in a loving home where intelligent discussion and wit were prized. I have been blessed to have a family that can afford to put me through college. I personally do not have merits that make me so much better than anyone else, except perhaps my circumstances.

I sometimes come off as highfallutin and cocky, but that is a fault of my personality that is entirely unjustified. When I put my beliefs out in the public forum for picking and pulling and squeezing and poking, I am not trying to say: "This is what is right, listen," but instead simply saying: "Here's something I've been thinking about... I think you should give it a thought or two as well."