success isn't everything

I was eating dinner last night, and my dad brought up the topic of the whole "education thing". you know, how the united states is ranked with other countries. in a round-about way, i think he was trying to pin this one on me... ya, it's my fault that asians go to school for 35 hours every day, 445 days a year. So this all got me thinking---> i've come to the assumption that a lot of our habits are genetic. i've never given our genes the credit they deserve. i've always thought that people were really individuals and so on. anyways, here's what i've come up with.
something like 5000 B.C. the chinese (and egyptians) were coming up with really complex math equations, and writing systems, and science achievements and bla bla bla. The middle eastern countries were working hard just to survive in their harsh environment. skip ahead a few thousand years, and you have the creation of america. starting like 100 years ago, schools started to become more and more popular (in the united states at least). All the intellectuals started going to college, while the country boys were still working down in the south. With soooo many scholarly students attending schools, the country's scores were sky rocketing. other countries catch on, but the U.S. has a head start with the school system (in general). Our scores remained high for a while, but they slowly start to drop. why? good thing you asked! i'll tell you!
some jackass decided that ALL people should attend school. College was no longer just for college-boys. Now all the country boys attend school-- they bring down the scores of the intellectuals, and our rank drops. Presently, it's the law for everyone to go to school! People don't even raise their kids with the idea of giving them an option-->work vs school. Now parents have pretty much all decided that their kids should be forced to go to school (even if they are as dumb as a rock) and then they can join the work force. There's really no place in the world for all the people who were born and breed to do labor. now 'work' takes place in an office or cubical.
You may say,"well, why doesn't this happen in other countries?" who these are some really convenient questions: because i'll answer them right now!!
Asian countries (like Japan) tend to have a very homogenous population. -ya that's right, not much diversity there. therefore, if some people happen to be good at academics, it's likely that the rest of the country will all be good at the same thing. This isn't just true in asia though. The Irish tend to be strong and hard working, Arabs tend to be focused on staying alive in their crappy environment, and so on.
This brings us back to America. we're a country of diversity! yay! so doesn't it make sense that we are only average when it comes to academics? or that the american's work ethic isn't the best or the worst.
Last thing i swear: i'd like to say this is probably all bull shit, but i still want to say that all the disorders like a.d.d or obsessive compulsive disorder, or whatever--> well it's all because of schools! Some people were just meant to use their hands. if you force them to sit in a class room all their childhood, and a cubical all their adult life... well it's no wonder so many americans are so screwed up. We just don't have enough real problems to deal with, so we focus too much on our eating habits, or relationships, or whatever.
Ok that's it. that's the source of all america's problems...ever. now it's your turn to comment on how to solve these problems.
- i would also like to say that diversity has it's benefits. The U.S. is very successful, and that's because we have the best of both worlds (Brains and Brawns)

-steve

ps i know i'm not really as smart as i pretend to be, but i sound like i know what i'm talking about. right?