Counting with Feist

Feist modifies her exuberantly wistful single "1234" into a numerical Muppet sing-along on Sesame Street:



Awww. Awwwww.

Dropping Knowledge on No Child Left Behind

Maybe it's not immediately apparent to us high above the rest of the country in our ivory bubble here, but there's a growing opinion that Bush's No Child Left Behind Act has really helped America's school-age kids only by lowering standards and basing curricula around a series of examination hoops to jump through.

This recent survey seems to confirm the belief- according to that liberal rag the New York Times, American teenagers are not only less literate than ever, fewer than half of the ones surveyed knew when the Civil War was fought or when Columbus landed in America, demonstrating a "stunning ignorance" of history and literature, and firmly indicting No Child Left Behind as a failure suggesting that the education system leaves something to be desired:

...a research group in Washington that has studied the law estimated that based on its own survey, 62 percent of school systems had added an average of three hours of math or reading instruction a week at the expense of time for social studies, art and other subjects.

The Bush administration and some business and civil rights groups warn against weakening the law, saying students need reading and math skills to succeed in other subjects.

A recipe for success, especially in this economy! How do you compare to the majority of America's ignorant teens?