For various reasons, I went to 11 different schools in my 12 years of "standard" education. Much of it was Catholic, but my last 3 years were public.

When I went from private in 9th in Utah to Public in 10th in Michigan, I was offered to bump up a grade because my credits were so far ahead of their standards.

Then I came back to California. 11th was nothing special, although I will say that my attempt to ace Algebra II was thwarted by a teacher who didn't seem to interested in helping me make up for a lost week due to illness. Up to that point I was 100% perfect - didn't miss one question on any test, quiz, homework, etc... Ended up failing the first semester, but got an A- in the second. Go figure.

Then came my senior year at a different CA school. Since I had failed the first semester of AlgII I had to retake it. Passed the first semester and didn't have to take the second since I already had the credit. So I thought I could drop a class and go home early. But nooooOOOOOoooo.

Due to that one year in Michigan I was now short on my phys ed credits. MI didn't have a big PE requirement. So guess what? I had to take two concurrent PE classes. I did PE, went to lunch, then PE again. Both classes by the same teacher and took the same course - Archery & Backpacking.

That was late 80's. (80's rock!!!)

Now, I'm quite the fan of Richard Feynman and have many of his books. Seems he had a run in with the CA education board sometime back. He reluctantly agreed to be on their book review board for new math books. True to Feynman's form, much of the discourse in his book was about how all the salesmen were trying to 'bribe' Feynman into voting for their book. Feynman, of course, threw it bluntly back in their faces.

Unfortunately, Feynman's arguments against the "new math" were ignored. Kids were now taught in a way that brought the smart kids down to the same level as the not so smart. They were also taught things that had very little to do with math or helping to understand math concepts.

Feynman really had a lot to say about the education system. And I agree. After having read his comments I began to understand why I struggled so hard in school, and often got in trouble - I was simply bored.

Brian