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	Name:	Buteye -
	Subject:	Copper
	Date:	2/25/2013 5:00:55 PM (updated 2/25/2013 5:05:14 PM)

I keep trying to understand what it is that has brought about such a profound change in the way things are so different than they were 50 years ago. I have tried to make sense out of some of the ways we approach things today compared to earlier times. I am going to try to use just one segment of our society to make my point. Take education for example. It seems that with every new president that we must make some monumental change as to what is the best way to teach our children. With Bush it was "no child left behind". With Obama we now must make changes in "headstart" so that we say it is necessary to start public education for our children at the age of four. I wish to use myself as an example to make my point. As I do so, please don't look at what I am about to reveal about my past education as anything special. I grew up as a country boy in north Alabama and was just your normal "everyday" child. My mother and father divorced when I was about three years old so I grew up in a "one parent" home with my mother. I started to school when I was six years old. My mother was a school teacher and for whatever reason she had me skip the third grade. That meant that I went from "printing" in the second grade to "cursive writing" in the fourth grade. I graduated from high when I was sixteen. I enrolled in college when I was still sixteen and graduated when I was twenty. I majored in chemistry with a minor in math and was on the Dean's list throughout college. After graduating from college in 1961, we were deeply engaged in the Vietnam War. I joined the Air Force, attended Officers' Training School , and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant. During my twenty years in the Air Force I served on a Missile Combat Crew in New Mexico, worked with the German Air Force, taught Air Force ROTC at Auburn University, and worked at AFROTC Headquarters at Maxwell AFB. During my time in the Air Force I received an MBA at Auburn University and a Masters Degree in Education from Troy University. Again I am not bragging, but trying to make a point that one does not have to begin public education at age four to be successful. By the way, I learned to read from the little paper back "Dick and Jane" books. In my opinion, our federal government thinks we have to invent a "new" way to teach our chldren every few years which seems to keep our education system in constant turmoil. Maybe we need to reintroduce "Dick and Jane" to our educators and have our children reading by the time they complete the first grade.