http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/ame...
http://www.ams.org/notices/200502/fea-kenschaft.pdf
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/ind...
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/math/pdf/0503/0503081v1.pdf
for the idea that proper mathematical education includes learning certain facts by heart through practice, but also includes a lot of flexibility of thinking and making deep connections between seemingly unrelated subjects.
Doesn't matter the color of the student, EVERYONE should be getting pushed right now.
Bravo wsprague
I tend to think of myself as intelligent enough, and I know for sure that I would never survive school with drilled exercises and a classical education (I find most of the classic authors dull and naive; latin is an overrated language; the greek philosophers, specially, only sound smart when read with tons of allowances like one reads the bible). Also, any sort of education focused on getting exercises and drills "right" without discussion will only breed conformists and people without creativity.
I don't know. The way it sounds to me is that there is a worship of some sorts of classical culture and discipline that I find deplorable. What I would change in american schooling would be: more geography, real history (without turning famous people such as the founding fathers or Ben Franklin or Abe Lincoln into mythological images and instead studying them in their socio-political context with all flaws included), less emphasis on pseudo-cultural non-academic activities (debating club, etc) in admissions office.
Then we won't have a goddam brain drain -- it is an embarrassment to the American people that we can't educate ourselves.