In response to an article about SC education ranking last in America, I offered this response:

I think it's more a reflection of disappearing/definitely-changing social mores and family values, than it is about anything really changing or failing to change in SC education pursuits and standards.

Up to about the early to mid-1970s, two-earner incomes were not the norm in most families. Dad usually went out to slay the dragons, and Mom tended the home fires and was hugely responsible for molding the children. That has all undergone tremendous change, because home values have.

There are fewer two-parent, different-sex households than before. There are single-parent home-lives ongoing. There are grandparents in the child-raising mix. One parent is dead, gone, under the influence of whatever, or jailed. The all-important home stability factor has diminished in its numbers.
Teachers today are sometimes the only people giving students hugs and support. Schools sometimes are the only meal providers. We have police officers in our school hallways, down to the elementary level. These are all signs that societal fabric is tearing at its most important point, home life.

It is NOT the responsibility of teachers to expose children of any age to: basic manners, a love of reading, basic hygiene, basic dress code standards, self-respect, and respect for other children and authority figures. These responsibilities begin at home. They used to, and they need to again.

Classrooms and schools can have computers and SmartBoards and updated software in every room, but if students arrive with dissenting resistant attitudes of me-first, zero empathy for others, and no desire to learn or cooperate, then having them at the river is useless, since they are extremely poorly prepared to drink. There are few teachers available at any salary who can make that happen.

Fix the families, fix the schools. It's that simple. And that difficult. Respect for one's self, first, then respect for adults and authority figures. The Golden Rule, along with Don't Touch and Keep Thy Hands to Thyself, solves/avoids about 95% of every day's events. Parents play such a key role in student lives, and thus school and society as well. What comes out of the home, affects us all. Throwing more money at schools ain't necessarily the problem, although teachers are under-paid and schools remain under-funded, because we don't place high value on education in America. We simply don't.

Fix the families, fix the schools.