John. I do not agree with you, but you are sure making a great argument.

I have a low-performing teenager. His teacher have said that he is not that disruptive in class. While he is sitting in school, he is picking up some skills.

I had a cousin whose Grade 9 teacher send this note to his mother: "Rob has no ambition and will likely never amount to much in his life". Rob did scrape through a high school diploma. I think he saw high school more as a social gathering for kids with long hair and smoked cigarettes than a learning opportunity.

He tried truck driving for a while, and it led to heavy-duty mechanics. He just retired as the mining truck maintenance supervisor at an oil sands plant, probably earning $150,000 a year. Rob keeps his teacher's letter handy.

Sometimes we have to wait for our low performers to come around. Maybe schools are not the best place. Maybe we need a different kind of school.

But then when we put all those kids together, their negatively reinforces each other. Having higher-achievers around kind of provides some positive peer pressure.