Flexibility of mind; need I say more. A developing mind can be taught to either regurgitate the thoughts of others, or create those of its own - there seem to be many more of the former than the latter, which may be a godsend. Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. It may be, however, that the human bio-computer runs software derived from both genetic pre-programing and experiences had during stages of imprint vulnerability. Neither of these seem to have a monopoly on determining behavior, but one seems to be more susceptible of being controlled than the other. As parents, we can only hope to exercise a any iota of effect on the later, as far as the former goes, we can only hope that the child is successful in spite of our own contributions.

The formal education system in America seems to have taken a turn for the worse over the last hundred years. Very likely few of us could pass an eighth grade final exam from one hundred years ago, which gives new meaning to the phrase, "my grandfather ONLY had an eighth grade education." While todays so-called higher education has become so technical and specialized that no Ph.D. from one hundred years ago would be familiar with the material covered, it not having existed in his time. Things are changing rapidly in our culture and we have an obligation to raise children who have a solid basic education (in spite of their schooling) and minds capable of adjusting to a world where information grown exponentially at an ever accelerating pace.

I say in spite of schooling, because many parents have placed far too much trust in the ability of the free public school system to educate and train their children, and are getting exactly what they paid for. Samuel Clemens once said, "In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards." One should never let schooling interfere with education. Not that the elite of our country have any interest in actually educating our children; a people trained beyond the minimum level necessary to become good worker drones would not be in their interest at all. So it seems that we as parents must take full responsibility for raising intelligent children.

Intelligence is an important concept when raising children. What is this elusive principle? Merely the ability to think on ones own, to question, and search for answers. For decades our school system has been moving constantly toward a definition

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