Thanks for the clarifications Mike. See comments inline.

>>PMFJI Mike, but could you define what you mean by "All American kids"?
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>Children who are brought up thinking that its not unusual to drive a huge SUV to pick up a gallon of milk, eat fast food more often than not, watch ridiculous amounts of television, and become a good consumer and corporate cog.

Wow, I hear these comments allot here (not that we are much better, BTW), but it's rare that I hear that from an American.

>>While I agree 100% with you about education, I wonder which parent will intentionnally say "I dont want my kid to be smart"?
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>The one who plops there toddler or adolecent in front of TV or video game console.

I agree that too much of TV or video games (or too much of anything in fact) is not a good way to get our kids smarter, it's not entirelly bad neither. The solution is the amount of time spent to those activities. But given the choice, I'd rather see my daughter play outside with her friends than to watch her laying on the couch watching TV.

OTOH, some parents don't have the chance of spending much time with their kids, because they have to both work long and/or non standard hours to meet both ends. I would not judge the value of a parent just by the amount of time their kids spend watching TV or playing video games.

>>I guess we all want the best for our kids, but it's often lack of education and/or lack of money that prevent parents to give a good education to their kids.
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>Libraries are usually free and most of these homes pay for internet acces (which is typically used only for Instant Messenging and more video games).

Good points, while I'm kind of sceptical that a lot of familly with little education will invest money in a computer.