A scandal is brewing in the hallowed halls of Academe. It has to do with test scores given to our young people. A West Virginia doctor noticed sometime back that all 50 states claim that their students score above average on standardized test scores. That, of course, is impossible ” for everyone to be above average. Someone has even given this scandal a thoughtful name ” the Lake Wobegon effect. Lake Wobegon is author Garrison Keillor's mythical town where "All the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."

Obviously, by definition it is impossible for everyone to be "above average." Average is what most people are. Nobody, though, wants to admit it.

In a General Electric survey some years ago, the average person surveyed placed themselves in…