[DampRobot]

That article was certainly illuminating. Although I never thought of it that way, the author certainly has a point. The fact that are students are falling behind compared to their international peers is hardly surprising considering how they waste their time studying needlessly abstract concepts. When will they ever need to solve for x or use a quadratic equation? We should abandon algebra in order to concentrate on real, concrete gains such as on test scores.

In fact, the view portrayed in the article can and should be applied to many other subjects. Most students will never play the clarinet or tuba outside school, and learning these useless skills takes up valuable time in the classroom. While they could be working to achieve real and positive gains on their SAT scores, they are spending time chasing the rather silly goal of learning to make music and express oneself.

On further consideration of the article, I realized that it could be applied to science as well. A car salesman or an advertising executive will not need to know what chromosomes are or the properties of gallium. They would benefit far more from working towards higher test scores, which would allow them to be admitted to the all important top college. Going to Princeton or Yale will take them much farther in their careers than attaining any meaningless "scientific" knowledge.

In fact, why pursue equally abstract and silly "educations" in the liberal arts or the humanities? Except for the all important Five Paragraph Essay, the mainstay of the SAT and several APs, learning literary analysis or many historical facts will not create more productive, higher testing citizens. These subjects should probably be eliminated as well.

I concluded that nearly all subjects should be eliminated from high schools in favor of concentrating on the holy trinity of tests: the SAT, the ACT, and the AP. Only these will allow the high school student to attain the true purpose of high school: the Ivy League School. Although some weak, liberal intellectuals may whine about the value of an "education" or "creativity," most schools are in fact already slowly coming around to this pragmatic view.