The educational system offers self-serving educational professionals, teachers, principals, administrators, and supervisors a fine set of theoretical concepts. As a result, some well-placed people in the system can survive in their positions. However, it also means that some soft-spoken parents and their children will suffer. Under the system, only those parents who forcefully demand their rights will survive.

The schools have thus created a monster – a generation of parents who fight for their children's rights, versus an educational bureaucracy that has learned how to survive and protect its own needs. It's a case of survival of the fighters, and of forgetting those who are quiet and polite.

One element seems to have been forgotten in this power struggle: the children.

This series of articles will demonstrate the various elements in this system. We'll begin with one of the major problems faced by parents: how to select the best educational system for their children's needs.

Parents face the following options:

• Give up on the system and try home schooling.
• Try out theories that they glean from friendly teachers or administrators
• Look for an online resource that may help them determine the best way to educate their children
• Accept an existing school, even though it does not meet their needs.
• Accept an existing school, and force it to meet the parent's demands.

We'll discuss only the last two options, although none of them are ideal.

Although the discussion on these pages may not offer all of the answers, they should help parents realize some of the problems that they are about to face. That reduction in parental naïvété may be a useful first step.

We will study the situation from the point of view of the teachers and that of the parents. We will also review the children's role.