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Our economic priorities are so screwed up I don't ever see things changing.
We pay people to entertain us millions and people to educate us and protect us comparatively nothing. New mothers are sent out with their new babies with virtually no support outside their own small circles. College is no longer a luxury or a lofty goal, it's a necessity, yet most middleclass families go into hock or worse trying to get that education for their kids. It has become a competition-no longer is getting even a 4.0 in high school enough-now if you can achieve a 4.25, you might get into a good college or get a pittance scholarship or two.
As a kid, I wanted to be a teacher. After working as a teacher's assistant a few years back, I was glad I didn't pursue that. The beauracracy, the paperwork, the constant badgering by the board of education.....the teachers I worked with barely had time to teach so the one on ones, the grading, etc. fell on us aides. Then when it was decided that being an assistant would only be another teacher or someone with aide "certification", the money spent increased, but the betterment of education didn't.
As parents, we tell our kids they can be anything they want, even President. I've seen little to nothing to back us up there. And what I saw coming from the kids I taught was, "If Mrs. X doesn't care about me, why should I?" This is, of course, not the case across the board, but it is too frequent to ignore.
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