This is from today's Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/21/private-schools-can-teach-state-sector

The writer discusses the motivations of those in elite schools, the effects of their class on their futures and the ramifications of the lack of intellectual competitiveness on a society. Of course, she is right; children who are smart and are born into an elite do better. Children who are smart and are not born into an elite can do better. But the school system is currently designed so that children who are not smart and not born into an elite get, at least, a modicum of education. And, as there are more and more of them, for reasons, I think, that are economic, pure and simple, the bar is falling lower. People who have little time for their own intellectual development hardly have time to encourage their children's intellectual development. But here is my problem: do parents have a responsibility to educate their children? That sounds like a rhetorical question. But I am not being facetious. Here is an article about the affects of computers on children from today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html?em

Parents are responsible for purchasing computers and monitoring their children's computer time. Studies show children who are on the computer too much (they defined the time in the article) suffer socially and academically; this has nothing to do with school. But on another level does say something about the direction of current intellectual inquiry; to have unlimited computer time is to have a degree of wealth and children with unlimited computer time have decreasing academic scores. So, I guess, my question is are parents making their kids dumber? Are they being irresponsible in the quest for education? Do the elite realize their children are also part of the growing group of stupid children? I gather schools are having a difficult time with children less and less able to do the basics; the elite want their children sheltered from ignorance, but are they doing anything to actually limit the growth of ignorance in this society? Or are they participating in its spread?