For those that like to bash the jobs American Public School teachers are doing, here's some food for thought.

UNICEF just came out with its report on the children in major indusrialized nations. While the U.S. had its highest score in the area of "Educational Well-Being" (12 out of 21), it had the lowest score in "Health and Safety" and next to lowest in both "Family and Peer Relationships" and "Behaviors and Risks".

Now what does this mean to the state of education? For those that need a refresher in Maslow's Hierarchy, a student that's worried about having enough food on the table at home or who is afraid of catching a stray bullet probably isn't going to be overly concerned with studying for that state-wide assesment in the Spring.

I really hope this links...

http://www.unicef-icdc.org/presscentre/p...c7_eng.pdf