Two people were killed in a shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School (CVPA) in south St. Louis on Monday.

When I look back on my elementary school years, I can easily characterize myself as a quitter.

The stereotypical classroom scene—kids reading from textbooks or taking notes off their teacher’s writings on a chalkboard—is disappearing. All over the country, schools are beginning to replace textbooks with laptops.

This past December, results from the 2009 Program International Student Assessment (PISA) were released to the public. The PISA is an international test in reading, math and science, which has been distributed every three years since 2000. The United States ranked twentieth internationally, and our country’s poor scores have been decried by politicians on both sides of the political aisle.

Here we are, back at school. For some reason completely beyond all semblance of rational thought, we have returned to St. Louis, the city that is cold, unforgiving and—according to my entire family—dangerous as hell.