Today is Nestina's first soccer game. The schedule is killer; three games and one practice every week for the next six weeks. I'm not sure who will drop first; Nestina, or us while we try to keep up with her.

Other than that, not much going on simply because we don't have the time.

I do have to wonder what planet I'm on: Cookie Monster is going on a diet. Who are the freaks of nature that come up with this crap?

Learn how to build a vortex ring generator. Smoke rings on a big scale.

We are definitely on the slippery slope. Expect more of this.

Since education is high on the national agenda, here's a pop quiz that every American should take.

Question: What group of students makes the lowest achievement gains in school?

Answer: The brightest students.

In a pioneering study of the effects of teachers and schools on student learning, William Sanders and his staff at the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System put in this way: "Student achievement level was the second most important predictor of student learning. The higher the achievement level, the less growth a student was likely to have."

Mr. Sanders found this problem in schools throughout the state, and with different levels of poverty and of minority enrollments. He speculated that the problem was due to a "lack of opportunity for high-scoring students to proceed at their own pace, lack of challenging materials, lack of accelerated course offerings, and concentration of instruction on the average or below-average student."

While less effective teachers produced gains for lower-achieving students, Mr. Sanders found, only the top one-fifth of teachers were effective with high-achieving students. These problems have been confirmed in other states. There is overwhelming evidence that gifted students simply do not succeed on their own.

Question: What group of students has been harmed most by the No Child Left Behind Act?

Answer: Our brightest students.

The federal law seeks to ensure that all students meet minimum standards. Most districts, in their desperate rush to improve the performance of struggling students, have forgotten or ignored their obligations to students who exceed standards. These students spend their days reviewing material for proficiency tests they mastered years before, instead of learning something new. This is a profoundly alienating experience.

Question: How well is the United States preparing able students to compete in the world economy?

Answer: Very poorly.

Of all students obtaining doctorates in engineering in American universities, just 39 percent are Americans. According to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, "The performance of U.S. physics and advanced math students was among the lowest of the 16 countries that administered the ... assessments."

Question: What group of special-needs students receives the least funding?

Answer: Our brightest students.

And it's getting worse. For example, Illinois, New York, and Oregon recently cut all state funding for gifted programs.

We must all be equal at all costs. America is most certainly in decline, but like the citizens of the Roman Empire, no one will notice until the barbarians come through the gates.