[Griff]

Lil' Pete is looking at degree programs now. There are a lot of course of study options depending on the profession you're looking at. She is into visual arts, design, architecture that sort of thing. She could go the straight professional route with little or no liberal arts study or flip it and pursue liberal arts first then focus on professional development. American education is very flexible at higher levels, which can mitigate the inflexible primary and secondary education, but only for the college bound.

NCLB is at it worst mandating that kids who should be in a construction program somewhere are repeatedly tested for things which they cannot do. The Special Ed kids I serve are particularly susceptible to getting beaten down by all the government testing. I do assessments on all my kids for placement purposes and to spot weaknesses to mitigate. A lot of them dislike it but it serves the purpose of guiding instruction. The government testing does not serve them at all.