Wow what a thoughtful comment, thank you so much! This is exactly the type of feedback I was looking for! You beat me to it, too, as far as seeing all the art/wood/metal/auto shops go, I do feel that has had a negative impact on the youth. I definitely intend to be focusing on that in particular for a later entry in this.

It was strange you mentioned how the youth in that group were supposed to be top of their game, but were really lacking major skills. A lot of my kids, even the top dawgs, are seriously lacking basic academic competencies!

Finally, you also mentioned where I'm kind of going with all of this. I'm not going to outright make a conspiracy claim, but due to what I'm gathering, our education system isn't meant to make people smarter anymore. I feel like it's designed to keep people in their place; nice little cogs in the system.

Thank you so much for your time in reading this, and offering such awesome insight from your own experience! Cheers @jjhawg