I agree that you can teach the "three R's" in other subjects. I do in my music classes. It may not be much, but I do touch on some things in social studies and the science of sound. Schools pretty much in AZ, though, just drop the other stuff, since AZ is so low on the education totem pole. As a former student in WI (grade school and high school), I see the difference in educational values all the time. It is night and day from Wisconsin. I'm not saying that the Wisconsin School System is perfect--I'm sure they have their share of parents that don't care, do drugs, etc. like mothership talked about earlier. But it is much more prevalent down here. The state economy doesn't help. And our town is a transient town, being right on the interstate and people moving here to look for a job. Then a month later, they pull their kids out of school and move again because they can't pay the rent. If I've seen it once, I've seen it 10,000 times.