After subbing in classrooms for the last 4 years, including 3 long term positions, what strikes me most is how most kids stop caring about learning. Whether they tune out and get bad grades, or tune in to seeking only the grade, the lack of interest in knowledge is appalling.
The funding issue is a tough one for me to swallow because I have witnessed the innefficient use of resources in a dozen schools over the last 4 years. It is no one persons fault but rather a function of the system. Lets use the "bucket analogy", but instead of looking at the bucket as the kid, see it as the whole system. When that bucket starts leaking from holes, you fix the bucket, we shouldn't only keep pouring more and more water into it.
My other question about the education system is why it takes so long to learn what we learn? Further, how long it takes to become a functioning participant and contributor to society. I believe that by the time kids start reaching 5th or 6th grade that they are thirsting to creat things that are valued and have value. A fellow teacher candidate said that "school has been removed from Life". It is compartmentalized with hard boundries that kids seem to begin to sense about half-way through the average k-12 education.