Roman is well versed in teaching and having experience in rural Alaska. I have read his book. I too am well versed with Bush Alaska having traveled to dozens of villages and visited their schools and have to agree that many villages fail their children. I have seen too many who have succeeded in making a choice to go to college with most of them returning after one semester. (see UA study-the UA has the lowest graduation rate in the US) I have seen teachers who are there because they want to make a difference but are constantly rebuffed with lackadaisical attitudes from parents and students. No wonder that rural Alaska teachers have a 50% turnover rate. Until we see villagers change their attitude towards raising healthy children and take education seriously, we will continue to see rural kids fail to succeed in our complex society. BTW, I have also traveled to schools outside the USA in Europe and East Asia (China, Japan and Korea) and they take education much more seriously than us.