Middle-school and high-school children often have to learn subjects they can’t relate to, are not interested in, or that frustrate them, such as history, trigonometry, or foreign languages. As a result, many students get bored, watch clock, and wait for school day to end.

Classroom “learning” usually consists of forcing students to read dumbed-down textbooks, memorizing facts from these textbooks, and then regurgitating these meaningless facts on dumbed-down tests. Students go from gym to math, to chemistry, to English literature, to American history. Their day consists of disconnected lectures on disconnected subjects. Each class lasts only fifty minutes, so their train of thought breaks off at sound of bell.

Young children in elementary school have natural high energy, and each child has his or her own unique personality. Most teachers simply don’t have time or patience to teach different material or use different teaching methods with each child. Just being cramped into a classroom with twenty-five other children and told to learn certain tasks by an adult they may not like, can annoy or frustrate many normal but emotionally immature children with a will of their own.

Overworked teachers are under a lot of pressure today. They must teach many students in their classes, cover curriculum, test and grade students, and prove to parents and principal that their students are learning and doing well in their studies. Even worse, a teacher’s job may now be threatened or she could be disciplined if her students do poorly on new standardized tests The No Child Left Behind Act puts pressure on teachers and principals to make sure students pass these tests because school can lose funding or even close down if students’ test grades don’t measure up to minimum standards.

The No Child Left Behind Act tries to solve this problem. The federal government is pressuring public schools to set minimum standards that each student must pass before advancing to next grade.

However, in spite of these new laws, many states still have semi-automatic advancement based on student’s overall performance. Many schools consider a student’s "portfolio" of work, attendance record, or other mitigating factors. Based on these factors, school may advance students to next grade, even though they do poorly on their tests or read at a previous grade level.

For example, a dedicated California 7th-grade math teacher wrote to Dr. Laura Schlessinger, radio talk-show host, about this problem. She said that about 30 percent of her students did not do their daily homework assignments, but she could do nothing about this. That is because California Education code forbids teachers from "punishing" students for failing to do their homework.

She also said that students are "not retained" if they fail one class or fail all their classes. "Not retained" is a polite way of saying not left back.