You've got the "smart kids" — the corporate executives and political activists — sitting up front, taking copious notes and getting most of the attention from the government/teacher.

Then, there are the "average kids" — most of the working public — who pretty much just sit there, but every once in a while get interested enough in something to frenetically wave an arm and shout "Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!" like Arnold Horshack on "Welcome Back, Kotter."

Finally, we have the "dumb kids," that growing mass of potential but unenthusiastic voters. They slump in the back of the room, passing notes, dozing off, chewing gum and hoping not to be called upon to answer any questions — or know what they're voting for.

My favorite recent example came in July when the Newark Star-Ledger reported on a New York Mets flight from Philadelphia to Montreal as Major League Baseball's deadline for trading players was getting close.

Mets players on the plane were cheering news reports that two of Saddam Hussein's ruthless sons, Qusai and Odai, had been killed in the Iraq war. A flight attendant asked why everyone was so excited.

"We got Qusai and Odai," pitcher Al Leiter answered.

"I'm sorry," the flight attendant said. "I don't know baseball. Are they any good?"

According to the Star-Ledger, even the normally non-political ballplayers howled.

"It was hysterical," catcher Mike Piazza said. "It spread through the plane in a nano-second."

Yup, pretty funny, except that flight attendant could be canceling out your ballot by entering a booth and going "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe" and voting the straight "meenie" ticket.

Most teachers will tell you the biggest challenge they face in fighting ignorance is their students' indifference and boredom.

Whether by design or not, the "smart kids" then benefit from a lowering of the learning curve and a lack of competition for scholarships and other goodies.

As they grow up in this society, the "smart kids" don't have to bully the "dumb kids" for their lunch money. The "dumb kids" part with it willingly because the "smart kids" tell them it's a good idea.

After awhile, the "dumb kids" discover that they're hungry and wonder what could have happened.

On Nov. 21, an extraordinary PBS edition of "NOW with Bill Moyers" told the story of how corporate greed prevailed against the efforts of the conservative Republican governor of Alabama to reform an utterly unfair state tax system.

Gov. Bob Riley sought to change a tax code that makes the lowest earners pay more than 11 percent of their income, while the state's wealthiest 1 percent pay less than 4 percent of what they earn.

Under Riley's progressive tax plan, nearly half the state's population would pay much less income tax or none at all, but those poor people who would have benefited most voted overwhelmingly against the initiative.

In all, two-thirds of Alabama's voters rejected the tax-reform measure in September.

The reason was a massive, misleading media campaign by the "smart kids," including large landholders such as the Alabama Farmers Association and the Weyerhaeuser Paper Co., whose property taxes would have gone up.

It's not just in Alabama. By not paying attention, the nation's "average" and "dumb kids" continue to willingly give up their lunch money.

In the year 2000, some of the "smart kids" told voters they should vote for Ralph Nader because there wasn't any difference between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Enough believed that nonsense to draw crucial votes away from Gore and elect Bush president of the United States.

After awhile, many of the grown-up "kids" began to wonder:

• why our men and women continue to die in Iraq;

• why much-needed government stem-cell research money has been taken away;

• why a doctor who makes the choice to save a woman's life with an emergency late-term abortion might have to go to prison;

• why, for that matter, the next Supreme Court nominee could send women seeking an abortion back to butchers using coat hangars;

• why more than 2 million jobs have been lost in this country since Bush took office;

• why record budget surpluses have been turned into record budget deficits;

• why the United States has become so despised in so much of the world;

• and why our personal liberties are being eroded each day in the name of national security.

In 2004, President Bush will have a $200 million political war chest and scads more money from rich "smart kids" who want to become even richer, if not smarter. They will tell the "average" and "dumb kids" to vote for Bush because of how wonderful things are.

And it will work, as long as the "average kids" and "dumb kids" continue to let the "smart kids" do their thinking for them.

Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or (607) 432-1000, Ext. 208.