by Joe Kirkpatrick

My daughter called me today somewhat distraught.  She lives in a house I own over in Murfreesboro, and I try to have all of her bills sent to my address here in Cleveland, but evidently one had slipped through the cracks.  She received a letter from the subdivision's home owner's association stating she is delinquent in her dues, and if they were not paid immediately, she would have to pay interest, and a lien could possibly be placed against our property.  She asked, "what's a lien and interest?"

A couple of years ago, a man who owned a home in an upscale subdivision here in Cleveland had Chemlawn spray his yard and he was mad because they killed all of his grass.  I didn't have the heart to tell him Chemlawn didn't kill his grass - because I had looked at his yard before and he didn't have any grass - it was all weeds, but no one had ever taught him the difference.

I'm going to jump around a bit, but please stay with me - I promise I'm going to tie all of this together.  The other night, my wife who is an elementary school teacher, was overloaded with papers to grade and I agreed to help.  Low and behold, on the first page I graded, there was the age old trivia question I was asked way back when I was in school.  Who invented the cotton gin?  Eli Whitney.  I think I had Eli Whitney crammed down my throat in school more than Lincoln and Washington combined!

Now - back to my daughter.  As soon as she asked what a lien and interest is, I immediately asked, "Who invented the cotton gin?"  She quickly replied, "Eli Whitney - but what does that have to do with anything?" It actually has to do with everything, I think!  What difference it makes is that taking up brain space knowing about interest and liens just seems a bit more important to me than her knowing who invented the cotton gin. 

The fact is, most people who have graduated from high school know who invented the cotton gin, but 99% of those I asked could not tell me what a cotton gin is or does.  A few actually thought it was a brand of gin!  Sadly, most could not only tell me what a cotton gin is, but also didn't know anything about interest, liens, points on a mortgage loan, the difference between term and whole life insurance, and many other things that might be beneficial in day to day real life.

The fact is, only about 35% of high school graduates will attend college, and less than 10% of high school graduates will graduate from college.  It's time education caters to the masses, and practical life related subjects are taught instead of useless trivia! 

"No Child Left Behind" is a joke, because problem children don't need to be made to attend school to learn  answers to trivia questions or how to diagram a sentence - they need to be taught real things about real life they might actually benefit from someday!
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