Weekly Wire Austin Chronicle Letters @ 3AM  By Michael Ventura
NOVEMBER 10, 1997:  Last spring, in an Oakland public high
school, there were only 16 graduates in a class of more than
150. Such numbers are not uncommon in our urban schools. And
what of the graduates, in any of our schools? From community
colleges to the Ivy League, we know the freshman year is often
wasted teaching skills that should have been learned in high
school. Worse still, many college grads find themselves not at
all prepared for the world they will face. They end up in jobs
for which they are, in our brutally ironic phrase, "over-
educated." The truth is that no matter how many term papers
they've written, they cannot really be said to be "educated" at
all if they still know next to nothing about the world they are
supposed to inherit, and are unable to use their gifts, their
hands, their minds, their hearts, to contribute to that world.
An education, to be worthy of the name, must give the young some
means to decipher the bombardment