Do you remember when you were a kid, you thought adults never listened to you? Most of them thought you had nothing of value to offer and told you to go play in the street.

Unfortunately, my “Frogger” skills allowed me to dodge every Buick and my parents had no choice but to listen.

Their nefarious schemes had failed miserably, just like the public education system in the United States.

Educational reform is a hot topic today, especially when the media throws around numbers like “40 percent of American 10-year-olds cannot pass a basic reading test (The Economist, January 22, 1999).”

Adults bent on reform usually proceed with less than all the facts.

For instance, did you know that all the test scores compiled include only public schools and not private ones?

Since private schools don’t accept problem students and pawn off their better scores to parents, they act as a brain drain on public schools and leave a disproportionate number of less-educated students to take the standardized tests. School vouchers only perpetuate this cycle.

Since we were on the front lines of education not too long ago, our input is much more valuable. The university knows this because they pass out those teacher evaluations at the end of every semester.

Obviously, someone thinks we have good ideas and we’d better start espousing them before our own kids get screwed. Apathy will not be tolerated.

The problems facing U.S. education are daunting. Adults have all sorts of dumb ideas, ranging from more money to computers for everyone.

When you consider that students in the top five states in per-pupil expenditure fare worse on the SAT than students in the bottom five states (National Review, Sept. ’98), you can see that throwing more money at public schools is not the answer.

Computers, touted by some teachers as the new method of education, are simply a tool for people too lazy to teach.

I can think of a few ideas that won’t cost society much and would actually improve scores, though some people may not like them.

First, make the material more demanding. This does not translate to making more homework for students.

Busy work just encourages them to spend their time plotting to kill the teacher.

Even though we hate to admit it, most of us do better in more difficult courses. Easy classes promote slacking off and inattention, which can come around and bite us on tests.

Only when we are challenged do we shine. You may ace the tests in an easy course without even cracking a book, but it’s a hollow victory.

Another idea that will improve test scores and go a long way toward mending fences with the kids (you did just make their homework more difficult) is starting the school day later.

If you started the day at nine, I’m sure you would see an improvement in scores across the board.

The scary thing is that adults are just now realizing that students who sleep during class at seven in the morning are absolutely worthless. They honestly didn’t know that we used first period classes to catch up on sleep. Duh!

My last idea, and an important one, is to simply fire the incompetent teachers.

Do away with tenure and break the unions if you must, but get rid of every teacher who couldn’t care less about students or education.

Right now my younger sister has to endure a history teacher whose idea of teaching is to have kids do word searches every day for class.

He’s one of those people responsible for education being in the toilet, and my parents have talked to the teacher and the higher-ups but to no avail.

I realize that my ideas sound outlandish and somewhat harsh, but most problems don’t have easy solutions.

Until someone takes a firm stand, test scores will continue to slide.

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Aaron Woell is a junior in political science from Bolingbrook, Ill. He is a product of public schools.