I am extremely offended by your above statements, Mr. Norman the Doorman. First, how dare you disrespect such an astound award winning author such as Dr. Mark Mathabane with your ignorant words of spite. Dr. Mathabane shared his horrific experiences with my school to show us that no matter what, we can overcome anything and that we need to be thankful and appreciative of all the opportunities and amenities that we have become accustom to. These messages would have been beneficial to any high school across the world but South Lake High School is lucky enough to have amazing, supportive, determined staff that will reach out and bring to us such inspiring speakers. As a student of South Lake, I am deeply hurt by your harsh words from all that you have commented on in the past. My school is just as good as the next one and prepares me for the world and provides me with the knowledge I need to continue on with my education and career. If you can't see that then, I ask you politely to refrain from stating such comments that offend not only myself but everyone that works hard and is dedicated to my school.

I see my comment on here has been deleted for no good reason, and you can't argue that they're not valid points or legitimate concerns.

Back to my original question: And this will translate into raising test scores how? You state ”My school is just as good as the next one and prepares me for the world and provides me with the knowledge I need to continue on with my education and career.” My answer is that it clearly does not; SLHS put on Persistently Lowest Achieving list, bottom 4 percentile: http://stclairshores.patch.com/articles/shores-schools-span-the-statewide-rankings

You also stated, “If you can't see that then, I ask you politely to refrain from stating such comments that offend not only myself but everyone that works hard and is dedicated to my school.” They used to teach civics, but that gets lost in the mix now that they mix geography with world history etc. and call it “Social Studies”. In civics, one of the first lessons students were taught was that a “marketplace of ideas” is the rationale for freedom of expression, and that the truth or the best policy arises out of the competition of widely various ideas in a free, transparent public discourse, and is an important part of a liberal democracy.

lol ^

also, why do you even care? education has obviously changed since the time you were in school and different times call for different levels of education. There are reasons for things like "Social Studies." Those reasons are because its a more advanced way of teaching the subjects. And by the way, if social studies is taught in all michigan schools, even the top school in the state, and civics is supposedly "lost" in the "mix," then why are they still number one schools. You look uninformed and rude and you need to look at your life and look at your choices and ask yourself two things. 1. Am I really goingto argue with a high school student about something she clearly understands more than I do and 2. What am I even doing right now, posting hateful comments online?

It's hateful to discuss how our tax-money is spent? lol^