Even when they do what they are supposed to

So about six years ago, Willie got sick for about three weeks. The doctors didn't know what it was. So we drove him to a specialized expert children's hospital. The doctor examines Willie, comes out, and asks, "Have you considered a new school?"  At the time I, an educator, felt like screaming at the doctor "HE'S SICK. CURE HIM. DON'T TELL ME HE NEEDS A NEW SCHOOL." The doctor was right, of course. A few years later Julie found a new school and we enrolled Willie.

Willie's new school is wonderful. Every kid has a laptop. The school is wireless.((Here's Willie and Landon on our roof logged onto the Internet and doing homework)) Homework is posted online. Grades are posted online so we as parents (and Willie) can see what's been done, what hasn't. After the first day, we asked Willie's friend (who also enrolled) how the new school was different. "They don't yell at you" was his answer.  Willie's doing work that would be college level in most colleges. Some 99%+ of students go to college. It's got to be one of the top 200 high schools in the country.

Yet, yet, as Bill Gates said recently, even when schools are doing what they are supposed to, they are obsolete.