Schools and educators are being called to task so that students will be able to achieve academically and gain basic skills. While few people argue with the need for gradual, reasonable, and proven changes in curricula, the massive infusion of innovative curricula and teaching methods often intended to maximize affective learning may have had a substantially negative effect in that the cognitive development of students may have been neglected. Such innovations as mastery learning may train students on a specific or limited group of problems but may not enhance the ability of the student to generalize to a larger domain. Over-use of objective testing at the expense of subjective examination may be partially responsible for lack of adequate development of writing skills in students. Among the things that educators can do to begin to address these and similar problems are: (1) place greater emphasis on subjective testing and development of writing skills; (2) accommodate low achieving students through guided studies; (3) maintain or strengthen academic standards; (4) primarily emphasize basic skills and cognitive development; and (5) mix traditional education with proven innovative concepts. A solution to the crisis in the schools and colleges will not be attained soon. (Author/JDS)