Of course, we understand that parents wonder why they should pay for a Pre-Algebra class that does not give academic credit when there are plenty of Pre-Algebra classes offered by reputable universities that also offer credit.

To receive credit for a class, the student must be assessed and graded. Here parents have to stop and analyze what they are actually purchasing: the class, the knowledge imparted, the design of the instruction or the grades? Because, obviously, nobody likes to pay for a class and get a C+, let alone fail it. Among the hundreds of students we have met who have taken credit classes offered as supplementary education, we have never encountered someone who graduated the class with less than an A. This stands to reason: in a commercial operation, the purchaser wants to see progress, results and, ultimately, a good grade.

At Goods of the Mind, we sell instruction, not grades. We do not believe in selling both instruction and grades as a 'package deal'. We believe people should buy their instruction at some institution and then get objective grades from another, non-affiliated institution. It may look like a bit more work for the client, but it would be much more beneficial for the students and much more honest an educational process.

This is one of the reasons we focus on contests; we perceive them to be the best source of independent, unbiased testing out there. Another source of testing are the SATs and ACTs. Unfortunately, the quality of these tests has decreased over the past 10 years. Meanwhile, the quality of the major contests has remained the same or has improved.

If we offered testing and grading, we would have to comply with "No Child Left Behind" policies. These policies have resulted in many educational aberrations over the past few years and we do not plan to comply with them. What we teach is what we believe is essential in developing observation, creativity and logical reasoning and we do not want to be constrained by the roster of policies that suffocate the 'accredited' education system. Let us take a look at some of the consequences of NCLB, as we encounter them in the field.

To comply with NCLB, textbooks and assessments have been considerably watered down, from previously watered down editions. In class, almost completely scripted instruction teaches by example and tests by imitation. The student is told that "2+3=5" and, on the test next week, is asked how much "3+2" is. Hardly any effort is required to get an A. At the learning center next door, the student is given a page of "3x0.1=0.3," "4x0.1=0.4," "8x0.1=0.8." We have seen students who, after completing several of these sheets, do not know what place value is and cannot solve "0.3x0.1," as no model has been provided for that specific variation. These students 'solved' the problems pictorially! They simply imitated the visual aspect of the operation, without any actual understanding. In the end, after combining all these pointless classes, most students who have even a slight desire to get ahead, crunch classes like peanuts. By the time they are in grade 9 they are already in pre-calculus. In grade 10 parents tell us "My child has finished all the math that can be learned in school. Now he is taking AP Stats. He is also coaching math for middle school and was part of a research project at Such-and-Such over the summer. He wants to ace AIME and perhaps be on the US team at the IMO. Would 4-5 lessons with you achieve this?" Such a student typically has difficulty calculating the length of a median of a triangle when given the lengths of the sides. In most cases, he even has no idea 'where to start.' This student is not 4-5 lessons away from ranking among the top 500 math students in the USA.

The above situation is occuring more and more frequently. As the years go by and the NCLB students get into high school, more and more of them come to us at surprisingly early ages with a 'resume' full of credits for classes 2-4 grade levels above their age level. Many parents believe in the reality of these credits, but so many Einsteins this nation does not have. The ability, creativity, observation and courage of a good scientist or engineer are the result of sustained work over the years, honest assessment and feedback as well as interest and dedication. NCLB is unfortunately not only inflating everyone's grades, but also giving everyone a distorted image of their own academic fitness and competitiveness.

How do we, at Goods of the Mind, know how "it should be taught?" Take a class to see exactly what we mean. The way we present any topic is always from a problem solving perspective. Does the topic enable us to solve a problem? We teach it. The problems may be completely abstract. We are perfectly aware of the fact that humans must not learn only what they are sure to be using tomorrow. Humans learn in order to survive changes in the environment - much of what we learn will probably be useless during our lifetimes, in the same way most of our genes remain unexpressed. But what we teach at Goods of the Mind is not only the information, in its as unabridged form as is level-appropriate, but also the skills needed to make sense of the information, to control it and use it creatively. We do not teach for tomorrow, for a credit or for a job. We teach for whatever will be out there decades from now.