Module 6

This is directed in general, but with wording it could go to Obama himself...

No Child Left Behind?
Have you ever wondered if we are going about education in the wrong ways? I have, and I have come to the conclusion that No Child Left Behind is a joke, at best. With this method a label is put on a student early on, either they help the school, could help the school, or hurt the school.
If a child passes there standardized tests then they are not worried about. No attention is given to them, they go through there school years undetected. If a child scores low, but has the possibility of improving enough to pass they are the one’s the school concentrates on. If a child scores low enough they are given the title ‘failure’. These students are the one’s who are hurt the most. Drop out rates are higher than ever, do you really wonder why?
When a child is placed at the low end of the scale and classified as a failure, what are they to do? The resources available for No Child Left Behind are for those that could pass, not those that wont pass.
What does the testing do for us? What does it tell us? That Bobby can pass his EOC, his science, his reading, his math? That he will succeed in the world because he can do this? Bobby is our future, but what about Grant? Grant didn’t pass his tests, in fact he probably never will, he doesn’t find a passion in the classroom. Outside of the classroom he has taught his dog how to sit, bow, stand, speak and a hundred other tricks, if you name it he can teach it. But Grant will never succeed in life, he will drop out because he ‘can’t’ he can’t pass the tests he can’t bring his grades up, he can’t understand why the school system failed him.
Why wont it fail? It’s doomed to. What happened to preparing our youth for the future? I’m so glad to know that our future can bubble in A, B, C or D on a form. This lets me sleep well at night. There are hundreds of thousands of jobs that do not require any math skills, or even reading skills, especially the type of reading and math taught in the classroom.
We do not need high stake tests to figure out who a student is as an individual, what do we need? We need qualified teachers with high morals and understanding, individuals ready and willing to help students be the best they can. From encouraging a dog trainer to the next rocket scientist, it doesn’t matter. A test should not determine who you are.
We are programming our young students to be robots, to obey and test test test. We should be programming them to ask questions, seek answers, be themselves. Strive to be the best they can, no matter what it is. Student’s need to think outside the bubbles! Think for themselves!
Some, like President Obama, says that the funding for the schools have gone to the wrong places. He says the way the schools are assessed is not fair, I think assessing the schools is not fair! He say’s that we need to look at the student as an individual (and I agree with this statement!), but he goes on to say that the student needs to be looked at as an individual to reach the goals that No Child Left Behind places on them. The goals that No Child Left Behind places are useless, and if the goal of No Child Left Behind is reached by 2014 it will be because that many students have dropped out and given up. Obama believes that every child can reach the goals, I don’t think this is practical. Some can’t, and that should be ok. There are other places in this world they can excel.
No child left behind? Lovely words with empty meaning. If we could strive to reach the true meaning of the words, to understand that not every student will do well at testing, to understand that some are happy not being doctors or lawyers or working at businesses… then, and only then will we be reaching for a No Child Left Behind goal.