I have often heard criticism of some of my articles because they offer no solutions to the educational problems that America seems to be facing.

While visiting my son in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area a significant news item dominated the television for the better part of the week that I felt illustrates the problem. The solution, at least a significant part of it, to the reasons why other nations have surpassed us is in educating their youth.

A 13 year old girl was reported missing after attending a Monday night middle school basketball game. TV monitors showed her voluntarily leaving the game, and getting into a car with two adult males. By the time I arrived in the area she had been missing for several days. The parents were on TV pleading for her to return home. It was stated that she was an excellent student at the middle school with no history of running away.

There is more to this story, but let’s analyze these facts first for some clues as to why our education system might not be able to compete with those countries that are beating us hands down.

Middle School basketball game on a Monday night? Who are the “Adults?” such as elected school board members and school administrators that believe that this is an appropriate event for a Monday night? While our competition are probably home, or in a supplementary school, working on the conjugation of verbs of a foreign language these “Adults?” are sanctioning, in fact encouraging, 7th graders to be either “playing” or attending a basketball game! These “Adults?” clearly have priorities that place academics somewhere well below that of athletics. I would hazard a prediction that the GPA’s of middle school, and high school, basketball teams are among the lowest of all athletes, and they are “playing” on a school night! Could it be that the reason for our lack of success in education hinges on these “Adults?” Not bad teachers, just bad “Adults?”

What “Parents?” believe that sending a 13year old girl out, unescorted, to a Monday night basketball game is a good idea either socially or academically? Is it that the “Parents?” are simply unwilling to say no to their children as they don’t want to disappoint them? Are these “Parents?” simply another part of the group I have called “Adults?” I would bet they might not let her go to the library on a Monday evening without an adult escort!

What “Parent?” would have not educated their children about getting into the car of a person not known to the parents? While these parents seemed, tearfully, to be concerned about their child’s future, after the disappearance, they cannot have been giving her strong instruction on proper behavior as a young teenager. More of an “Adult?” problem?

Isn’t there a common theme here? “Adults?” that have placed something other than academic progress at the top of the priority list for our youth. Parents, School Boards, and School Administrators, all who would swear on a stack of Bibles that education is “job one” have, by their actions, sent a quite different message to our youth.

With the help of the TV monitors the police were able to identify the two adults this girl got into the car with and had them arrested. One of them then appeared on TV, from jail, and told us that “They let her go the following morning and did not know where she went from there.” I will leave it up to the readers to decide if that evening was spent in a marathon Monopoly game or something else. These two young men, now identified as being 20 years of age, appeared to be products of this defective education system as well. They didn’t see anything wrong with picking up a 13 year old and holding her overnight. Anything goes! We have been cautioned about teaching any morals or values in our schools. I would guess that these two got that message.

After about a week, usually things like this don’t turnout well but in this case a “Good Samaritan,” “Adult?” found the young girl, according to the girl, wandering the streets of Dallas and drove her to the neighborhood where the girl lived, and she walked home from there! How “good” was this “Good Samaritan?” We don’t know but clearly not “good” enough to identify themself in order to verify this portion of the story.

My conclusion, you probably have guessed it by now, is that the “Adults?” in this young lady’s life, some well educated, some elected, and some whose background isn’t known, just don’t seem to have placed getting a quality education as a high enough priority, yet I am sure that all of these “Adults?” would suggest that they are “working very hard” to improve education! Some have attended, at taxpayer’s expense, many meetings to learn how to do this and yet they have all be complicit in a near tragedy that would have been easily avoided if “Education was Priority One.”

Who is responsible for our education deficit? Teachers? I don’t think so, Students? I don’t think so. “Adults?” You betcha!.