I\'m not saying that they\'re living in absolute squalor either, just that the situation that they\'re in isn\'t ideal. like what you said about schooling in north america. missouri is an educational bad joke.
hehe, education in missouri is really behind. back in california, I was getting beggining algebra in sixth grade. we moved to missouri and early algebra was a sophomore class in high school. I was thinkin \"What the f**k, that\'s four years difference.\" Not only that, but I was taught wrong here. they didn\'t teach us the order of operations, they taught us, multiply before adding, and always work left to right. I didn\'t learn the proper order of operations till I got to college. and this is stuff I should have known as a kid.
and other areas are a joke as well, the sciences(earth apparently is more like a giant cube), history (I once had a teacher who tried to convince us that George washington was from missouri.) even health(somehow I don\'t actually beleive that it could be healthy to drain the blood of a turkey over a vat of strawberrie juice and drink the contents *a ward against STDs*)
missouri probably has the worst public schooling program in the united states. when my kids go to school, I\'m sure as shit going to make sure to talk to my them about the things that they learned.