First, my super bowl prediction; New Mexico Lobos (Mike Locksley as Coach) win by three in overtime (after coming from a sixty-three point deficit in 4th Quarter).  Seriously, Lobos by 17 against Boise State on 2/4/11. No...40 F at race time (5K) on 2/5/12 (that's it... really).
 I was really impressed with Functionalist Theory (Cookson) and "Kill All The School Boards" (Miller). I'm old having gone to schools in the 50's and 60"s. I can relate to Functionalist education theory. I experienced it. My curriculum stressed structures, programs and especially curriculum that were technologically advanced for that time, in retrospect rational and did produce social unity in those to enter society. I can't remember levels of students "transition" , "learning disability", "AP" and "mainstream", just classes and kids. I'm sure that teachers cared about students, tried to get to know them and even intervened in their lives. I know sexual abuse, pedophile behaviors, alcohol and drug abuse and spousal/child abuse must have existed. I never knew anyone that was affected by those ills of our society. All of the kids I was with graduated on time, some went to Vietnam and give their lives, some got jobs and some went to college, now that generation is retiring as the "Baby Boomers": seems like they were pretty socially adjusted. What has changed from 1970 to 2012?
 Functional Theory says change is to be expected and to be dealt with by schools. It seem to me that the changes we saw were fundamentally much greater than any process by which functional reaction to those stimuli could be affected at grass roots level. I might suggest that we are spinning in a ever widening spiral and will soon be so far from the center that we no longer can see or understand what it means to teach or educate the average kid or normal kid. W e will need to classify everyone in one of a myriad of groups, each of which will require a different curriculum expectations, rules and guidelines, all base upon the individual, rather than the society. Cookson argues that functional theory can no longer account for these differences, as well as the 98 flavors of schools and educational opportunities and so may be irrelevant .
 Miller blames many of today' deficiencies on local education control,especially when it is not optimum in scope and organizational excellence. He suggests that we establish universal National Standards as a means of getting control of the myriad of problems now facing society and one of it's most precious resources, their children. His quote of Twain "In the first place, God made idiots...This was for practice, Then he made school boards". Twain also said "God made man to amuse the Chimpanzee". As Miller asserts, no much has improved since Twain, that the job is terribly complex, more political, it's driven away any competent person who can effectively change any ills that are identified. Frankly, to me a sad state of affairs.
  This is a lot to try and handle; I am left with some basic ideas. Get to know students, become part of their lives, get them to write and read on their own (it's therapeutic and educational) and treat them with respect: In short-Connect With them as people. Maybe that is the only effective way to get some sanity back into the process of education and affect the result-people assimilation into society.