Left Behind, Way Behind

I read the article “Left Behind, Way Behind” by Bob Herbert, a columnist for the New York Times.  His article was about the United States education crisis. He states that many children do not graduate high school, when a diploma and a college education are almost mandatory for a middle class lifestyle today. He gave statistics for the amount of children who do not have the adequate reading or math skills that college requires. He also explained a survey that was taken by fifteen year olds in the United States on reading and math skills and over the world the United States ranked twenty-fourth out of twenty-nine nations. The solution to this crisis that  he gathered was to lengthen the school day and even year, provide better teachers for rural and inner city schools, and higher curriculum standards. He believes that this is a crisis that is not getting near enough attention. I agree with this statement. I am from a small town and the school I went to had only two hundred people including staff. I thought the education I was getting was no different than other students from other schools, but compared to a larger school I did not have the options they did. At a larger school I could have taken more than one foreign language, more math, and higher sciences. I was prepared for college, but I can see where larger schools have an advantage. I also believe that many inner city schools do not have the adequate teaching staff. Many students from small schools or poor schools are not prepared for college but a longer school year or higher standards might be the boost schools need to better prepare their students.