This is S.M.A.R.T.'s first blog.
 It is about and for the children.
Let's start with the first point:

1) Too much is "for the children" and they are used as a pawn to get you to do whatever the person using them wants you to do.

Done; did you get the idea?  Are you guarded against the next things I am going to say?  Good; you should be.

Our children do need to come first, but as long as we continue to think with political and ideological catch-phrases, we will never be able to help them effectively.

Like parents faced with a thousand-dollar credit card bill by our teenager for music and other toys they bought on a binge, we are trapped between, "He's our child!" and the far more important phrase of "How do we help him become an adult."

Because that is the point: We are not raising children; we are raising adults.

It may be one step at a time, but we forget the goal.  At one time, children worked for the family; they went to factories, and before that, they went to the fields to work.

Do you want to return to that time?  I don't.  Nor do most of us.
But the change lost us something; the goal is raising adults.

In future posts I will point out some of these, and suggest reformation projects to change them.  Our goal at S.M.A.R.T. is to reform education for the 21st Century (another catch phrase, be on your guard - that will serve you well).

Let's set a new standard, shall we?