Americas public schools are in decline and in need of urgent reform. Once the envy of the entire world, the American public school system now struggles to keep pace with other industrialized nations and is falling further behind with each passing decade. This disturbing trend raises two important questions: Why did our schools decline? What must we do to make our schools great again? To answer these questions, Misguided Notions goes back to the roots of human civilization and retraces the development of education over the last ten thousand years. Along the way, a wise reformer offers warnings based on his eyewitness accounts of the collapses of historys greatest civilizations. The evidence is clear: when schools discard tried and proven principles of education and when society abandons its core values, both will collapse. The commonsense solutions offered in Misguided Notions combine proven old-school educational principles with the advantages of modern technology. Teachers, principals, school board members, parents, community leaders, and politicians perplexed by the lack of answers to the current dilemma in public education can find enlightenment in Misguided Notions.