My friend Ginny, who is a teacher in Texas, wrote a post today about the No Child Left Behind policy the Bush administration is enforcing. (Read it before you read this post, it will make more sense.) I swear, the more I learn about public school education, the more I never want my kids in it! But, I'm totally a public school girl! What is wrong with this country! I am in total agreement with Ginny, by the way, and wish there was some way to get across to people that WE ARE NOT ALL CREATED EQUAL! On Civil Rights, yes. On our ability to choose to accept these Civil Rights, yes. On basic human principals, yes. As Americans, yes. But on an intellect level, NO! It is a fact that there are just some people smarter than you. And, inevitably not as smart as you. Yes, every child should be afforded the opportunity to do the best that they can to achieve the highest level they can reach. But lumping all children into one category, regardless of IQ level and performance on aptitude tests, is just doing an injustice to all of the kids concerned. Well, at least to the kids on the extreme ends....I'm sure those in the middle end up doing a little better than they would have otherwise. So, not only are my kids (who will be smart, of course! ;o) not going to get grades, not play on teams where there is a 'winner' and a 'loser,' and not be punished in school if they screw up, they will more than likely get less-than-stellar attention from their teachers, because said teachers are too busy trying to get the 70 IQ-ers to grasp basic concepts, while being unable to reward them if they DO happen to grasp said concepts. And, this isn't even the teacher's fault! Great. I'm SO looking forward to having kids and dealing with stupid school boards and administrators who haven't got a CLUE about how to teach my kid! The government needs to re-evaluate their policies on education before we all end up sending our kids to private school.
2 months ago
2 comments:
Good point. I didn't even get started on not having time for the "regular" kids.
Private school is looking better and better. I grew up in public school and always felt that my kids would go there as well. As the dad of a 6 month old, I realize that this is still a ways off at the moment, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about it. My wife has subbed in both private and public schools. Mostly little kid stuff k-4. After hearing her accounts of public school debacles and horror stories. I am genuinly concerned about the quality of the education that kids are getting. And I agree that this isn't from any lack of quality teachers, Ginny and Katie's mom being two prime examples. It seems to stem more from this red tape, PC, all round pegs fit in square holes kind of mentality that seems to bind the hands of the nations really good educators. Just the whole idea that we have to treat everyone the same and if that means bringing the smart kids down and lifting the not so smart ones up to get by...it makes my blood boil. And I could go on and on...but I won't. School vouchers won't fix this, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings a bit, but that is a whole nuther topic.
signed a-guy-that-used-to-work-with-KT, P.E.
Post a Comment