In an enlightening article by writer April Shenandoah, on March 20, 2002, the reality that Americas' education system is in real trouble becomes clearly evident. The writer feels that when a child in America attends school, he is, in fact, more at risk than if he did not attempt to attend. This is because, of late, it has become obvious that most negative influences that children are faced with are being increasingly found in the public schools that they attend, and it is during the past few decades that the situation has worsened even further. In a simple comparison between the situation in public schools today and that during the 1940's, it is indeed amazing that punishments were given for 'offences' such as, for example, running in the corridor, chewing gum, talking in the class, and at times, unfinished homework, whereas today the top offences are drunkenness, drug abuse, assault, rape, and many other similar crimes, including murder. (Shenandoah, 2002) .

             What has made the system even worse is that not only does the child have to cope with drugs and the immorality that is generally associated with them, but he would also be forced to study in the 'second rate' education system of today. This is evident in the fact that from the year 1963 onwards, the scores for the 'Scholastic Aptitude Tests' have been constantly dropping. This has developed into yet another problem, and this is that since the grade have been dropping, students are not able to cope with the existing syllabus, and today, newer textbooks have to be written for students at a lower grade level, so that they may cope better. It is the truth that today's newspapers and magazines are written for people at about a sixth grade level, and this is the standard of the average American citizen. What is even worse is the fact that many students are not at all aware of how little they are actually learning, and when they apply for University education elsewhere, it is then that they are forced to accept the fact that they have not received a good and solid education.