In reply to Thomas Reilly.

OversimplificationYou're right Bill, my comment was an oversimplification. I guess my frustrations came through in my writing. There are some good and motivated teachers. I'm just tired of fighting the system. For instance, most of the projects that my sons get from school require the creation of a large paper poster. They spend more effort making it look pretty than in doing the research. Due to the lack of resources and connectivity, all research has to be done from our home Internet connection. School is where the assigments are given and then a week is spent in listening to the other students presenting their posters. My issues with this methododology are that it is used too often, that creating posters has little relevence for life today and that schools offer limited access to information.
One project recently completed was on the properties & effects of magic mushrooms. The school's network filtered all web searches on this topic and there were no books available, so my son could only do his research after school. I often feel that school is not for learning but is just a glorified daycare system so that parents can go off to work.
I'm trying to do more than complain, which is why I have set up a list of online student resources for our boys and I'm getting involved with Education Bridges.