Although it can be, there's no reason it has to be. I was making a different point, which is that public schools are the places where we as a society come together to figure out what we stand for and what we need to pass on to the next generation. These are the big questions facing us, and we need lots of us to be engaged in this discussion. If most people turn their backs on this debate, believing that education is purely a private matter, then we as a nation will have lost an opportunity to help shape our present and future. But I am not going to deny the truths in Ms. Rose's letter.
Bullying can still be a problem in schools.
And she's absolutely right that too many subjects are taught in a scattershot way, sometimes by teachers who have little expertise in the subject matter and little expertise in how people learn. I'm just not willing to give up. Homeroom is a forum for you.