My books include the novels "Sellout" and "Wink" and several educational titles (subjects varying from drug abuse and its impact on society, a historical look at domestic spying, and a biography of Bill Gates) as well as "Tested XX" - the bestselling history of my rather inbred family, which also happens to be America's oldest family of knife-makers, the infamous Case clan.

FORBES: I seek small stories with big implications.

Working from this point of understanding, educational institutions know what subjects should be taught and when.

FORBES: Why Utah is Forbes Best State for Business (And 10 Tips To Help You Gain These Advantages Too)

The Education Secretary, David Blunkett, said on Sunday that he would be speaking to the Office for Standards in Education about evaluating the effectiveness of single sex teaching of some subjects in co-educational schools.

BBC: Single sex classes 'not the answer'

Aside from that, the focus in most of our educational system is on religious subjects such as hadith (sayings attributed to the prophet), Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), tafssir (interpretation of the Koran) and of course the Koran.

BBC: Saudi princess: What I'd change about my country

As it becomes clear that students cannot thrive in a broad range of subjects without first learning the fundamentals, NCLB is focused squarely on the educational building blocks of reading and mathematics.

FORBES: Magazine Article