I can fly without an airplane. Really, I can. However, you have to count jumping into the air as "flying" but it's true if your standards are low enough.

I first spoke those words about lower standards back in the mid 1980s when we were trying to get the Consolidated Space Operations Center (CSOC) at Falcon AFB (now Schreiver) activated. I called it "CSOC's Law". We were pushing hard to get the place declared operational but it almost involved Clintonesque wordplay on the order of "It depends on what the definition of 'is' is." We did get the place operational (over a year late). As to actually being functional, well, that came later.

I'm a former high school teacher who teaches college level computer science classes. I'm not just some outsider who chooses to bash teachers. I speak as a former teacher, a current teacher, and as someone who raised two stepsons.

I sometimes hear people talk about how the graduation rates have risen over the past couple decades. It seems there is some funny stuff going on. First, they count the GED as being equivalent to a high school diploma when it really isn't. However, a person with a GED is often counted as a high school graduate to help inflate the stats. Second, they've lowered the standards in so many places for graduation that a diploma is little more than a certificate that the person didn't drop out rather than one of accomplishment.

Anything is possible if you lower your standards far enough. Keep that in mind when you're standing in line while a cashier tries to count change (even when the register tells how much change to give) and can't handle the most rudimentary tasks. Sure, we have a wonderful education system - if you lower your standards for "wonderful" far enough. You betcha.