Wrong. You are assuming the information is "presented but often ignored." Flunking out will always occur when people grow up without learning self-discipline and determination. And Harvard admission policies don't reward merit in intelligence or achieved learning. They are heavily biased toward preferential admissions for children of wealthy alumni and those termed "socially disadvantaged" (whose tuition is paid for by multibillion dollar endowments.) High school achievement is only relevant in filling the leftover slots needed to fill the classes. In the vast majority of colleges and universities, administrators are happy to swell their enrollments with anyone who is able to pay the exorbitant tuition and fees, regardless of merit. The bottom line is that modern education is a commercial business, concerned not with preparing students for a successful life, but with maximizing income to the institution and self-praising themselves for their "enlightenment."

Today, it's the school administrators and the teachers' unions that have too much control in education. They promote fashionable, politically correct theories that slight the fundamentals of knowledge and critical thinking needed in life achievement.

I witnessed such clap trap with my own kids in one of the most highly rated school systems in the country. The school had a very expensive, attractive building and campus with a sophisticated computer lab (to teach emailing and what we used to call typing) and offered such student-popular class choices as drama, fashion design, and multiple sports. But the fundamental education in proper English (including clarity in communications), Geography, History, and Government was inadequate. Some of these courses didn't even have textbooks because the school spent the money on sports equipment instead. And don't get me started on "new math," which was an inferior substitute for real math.

The only hope for recapturing America's former excellence in general education is for parents to hold the schools accountable for results instead of attendance.