I agree with a few things stated, but...... just because you have experienced something does not make you an expert on it.

On the other hand, he wrote an essay/article based upon his reasoned judgments about subject he was taught poorly by people

that didn't know anything about it while claiming that this education provided no means of making the argument he just made.

If you only knew what really happens in the classrooms today.....

I'm not sure how helping doctors turned into crapping on teachers and how they do their jobs. When children are not learning, everybody likes to blame someone for it. Teacher's unions have nothing to do with how a teacher teaches. They just keep the public from railroading teachers every time someone is not happy about something in education. The problems with education have nothing to do with teachers, unions, funding, or any of that. The biggest problems are: 1. The current cultural belief that being ignorant and stupid is OK and possibly entertaining. 2. That all society's ills, that have nothing to do with education, can be cured at schools. 3. That somehow teachers can educate students that don't want it or don't show up to class. 4. That homogeneously mixing children is going to improve the education of low performers by mixing them high performers, and is not a detriment to both. 5. That everybody who has experienced the educational system is an expert on how to teach in it. (a big one for me) 6. That teachers or unions have any control on how or what they teach. 7. That someone is to blame for a crappy child's behavior. 8. That children raising children makes for responsible parents. 9. That every child is entitled to good outcome even if they didn't work for it or deserve it. 10. When parents learn that schools are not a free baby sitting service. 11. That not every person who graduates from high school wants to go to college. 12. That the country should actually decide the purpose of education, besides college prep. 13. Don't move a child onto the next grade or educational level after failing so that their self esteem will not be damaged. It only makes matters worse. 14. Give up the idea that teachers are not your child's parents, psychologists, or entertainers. 15. That some people actually believe that EVERY child can be educated to the level of college readiness in exactly a proscribed amount of time and methodology. Assuming of course that all children can be educated to that level. **Shall I go on?** EVERYBODY loves to blame teachers and unions for all the crap in education, because they don't want to admit to their contribution to it. The detriment to education comes from the outside, not from within.

You mean that the ads with Jerry and Bill didn't clue you in? Seriously, MS is in a dynastic cycle (like the US). They are passing from their golden age into the age of famine and corruption that will break down into civil unrest. Eventually a new dynasty will rise from the ashes (Linux possibly?). MS is like IBM in a way. A self importance pervaded and colored their decisions. At one time, they mandated the standards until it became too hard for the public to accept. The big blue faded away as the foreign invasion swept away the masses by superior force. In other words, MS will screw with their customers to the point where their disgust will drive them to anything else.