We ought to be able to do that without making them sick to their stomachs and school phobic. One of the priceless values of our country is our bone-deep belief that where you come from should not keep you from going someplace better. We have been a country that believes in second chances. We always have been a country that understood the seeds of success are sown in failure. When I speak to business groups on this, I love to ask how many of them would be doing what they are doing now if they had been held accountable for their actions at the age of 13.
Hands never go up.
We know that children develop at different rates and that each of us faces unique obstacles. For us to be a fair nation, we needed to develop an educational system that took that into account. With all our faults and failings in our current model, it has been a system of second opportunities, a reflection of that very real American value of being able to pursue one's possibilities despite early failure. Other major developed countries followed a different model where students were tracked into different vocations at much earlier ages. That might be appropriate for places where social stratification is part of the culture, but it does not fit our American brand of egalitarian belief in the possibilities of the individual.