Excuse me but "manners" must be taught at home...I am licensed to teach a given discipline and no to do the parents' job.

Agree on the "Not Religion"

kids need to know how to think more than what to think.

history good and bad and in that history religion must be mentioned but not taught.

Agreed.

I think we desperately need to teach critical thinking skills. We need to teach youth to take a critical look at what advertisers are really selling. We need to teach children about credit, and how much something will actually cost based on interest rates and what they earn. I believe youth should be taught about all religions, not just those in the US but all over the world. Actually I want mandatory class for all high school students called skills you need in the real world. I also want year round school because in the real world there are no 3 month long summer vacations.

I agree with all of the above but I would also add CURRENT EVENTS .It is pathetic how many young ( and old) people are unaware about what is going on in the world around them

The school curriculum should be tailored to the abilities of the students.
To teach trigonometry to a kid who barely can manage finding the 10% of U$S 100 is a waste. If the kid is a wiz in languages, science, geography....then, those disciplines are the ones to be enforced in his case, Ok, hold your horses. General culture is a plus and it should be in every child's curriculum but to emphasize on subjects the students lacks the ability for is ridiculous.

You ask a lot of a school system controlled by the government. In recent decades the dumbing down of students has increased.

I can only speak about what is happening here in Canada. Public schools are not failing any students, not forcing to hand in assignments, all tests are marked a passing grade, and there are no scores kept for sports.

I agree with you, education should be about preparing and learning skills for life as an adult but that is not what is happening. Only the private schools get the best curriculum.

Some good suggestions-how about carpentry/home repairs?

I wholly agree with you here. I think these subjects should be taught in Primary school starting from Grade 1.