I just stumbled on an interesting blurb on my Gawker feed: http://gawker.com/5924728/school-is-too-easy-say-americas-illiterate-incompetent-students.

The first thing that sprang to mind was the students find their busy work too easy, meaning the mind-numbing worksheets, etc. that come with most lessons that teachers just turn around, copy, and hand-out to students as classwork or homework. These activities aren't created for higher level thinking skills, they are made for students to spit back the day's content. I can see why students would say work is easy, but then bomb achievement tests. This just goes to reaffirm what I have been reading up on this summer. Developing those 21st century skills are a must! Creating engaging content that allows students to impart their own knowledge and work both sides of their brains should be the main priority as our education system is slooooooooowly overhauled!