CNN Asks: How do we improve our schools?

First answer, tell our all-important popular culture and the institutions which form it to stop telling our children that this:

and this:

and heaven forbid, this:

should be the ultimate pinnacle to which they should strive. Then we can get down to brass tacks. Till then, every solution in the world won't help us compete against cultures that put a premium on hard work, education, self-sacrifice, and the importance of one's place in society as a whole. But then, perhaps the adults of our country have to stop seeing this as life's ultimate goal first, before we can hope to persuade our children to do likewise.