There's an old saying that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. That may be true. But it is imperative that new dogs be taught the basic tricks. By new dogs, we are referring to our children. The future of our world is literally in their hands. That is why education is such a vital part of our world. Unfortunately, in many countries, even advanced countries like the United States, education is greatly lacking in effectiveness. The question is why and how can we fix it?

Neither question is easy to answer. There are many theories on both. The greatest minds in the world think they have the answer and yet education statistics all over are dropping like dead flies. Children are falling farther and farther behind; test scores are falling, schools are deteriorating and the list of problems is endless.

The biggest problem, especially in the United States, is that legislatures can't decide where the problem actually begins. Does it begin with the school system itself or is it the fault of the parents? Nobody can seem to agree even on this point.

Most likely, the truth is probably a combination of both.

With the growing number of single parents or families where both parents work, children are not getting the supervision at home that they need to make sure that they do their homework and keep up with their studies. Students are more or less left to fend for themselves while at home.

On the other side of the coin there's the schools. Most don't pay enough to retain highly qualified teachers as those people are usually out looking for better paying jobs. Many schools are under-funded because of living in poor districts that don't provide enough tax revenue to adequately fund them. As a result, there's not enough books, too few classrooms, causing overcrowding which is not conducive to learning and the list of problems goes on and on. Board of educations are constantly stuck in the middle between properly educating children and staying within budget. Many times the federal aid that they are entitled to is totally inadequate to fund their needs.

The end result of all this is falling test scores and children who are not properly prepared to go out into the world to earn a living, let alone become leaders in our communities. The United States, which used to be the number one country in math and science has now fallen far behind many other countries in the world.

Whatever the reasons for the problems, parents or the schools themselves, money itself certainly has to be a major cause of the problem of education on both ends. Parents can't afford to have one of them stay at home because of rising prices and schools can't afford to pay teachers competitive salaries in order to keep the good ones, not to mention the fact that they can't even get enough books for the kids because of a lack of funds.

As for fixing the problem, many steps have been taken, including standardized testing and "No Child Left Behind", but so far nothing seems to have made a major difference in increasing the quality of education in many areas of our world.