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Thursday, November 01, 2007

It's supposed to be No Child Left Behind

As a parent, this has been kind of a hot button issue with me.

There was a school teacher in Wisconsin who refused to take part in proctoring the state exams this school year. He sat out yesterday and today was told he would be fired unless he proctored the exams. This teacher feels the tests are too restrictive and arbitrary, he also feels the tests are used to punish the schools.

For years now, the schools are no longer giving our kids the rounded education they used to get. Now it's a matter of what is called "teaching to the test". "The test" is the yearly examinations, taking up about a week of school, usually followed by Spring Break, where each student is evaluated on how well they are doing academically. And here's where I see red...

If teacher's are using "the test" as a teaching basis, then our kids aren't learning anything else. Does the test ask any questions about Edgar Allen Poe? No? Well then, we just don't teach the kids about one of the greatest macabre writers EVER! Does the test discuss haiku? No? well, then guess what the kids don't learn about? Does the test ask any questions about John Quincy Adams? No? Okay, one less thing to teach. The only time I've ever seen teachers divert from the test is when it comes to teaching Black History. They'll take a week or more discussing great Black leaders and history makers, which is about the length of time my son's old History teacher spent on it, but she spent a DAY on the Constitution.

Wow, once these kids get to college, they are actually brainwashed enough to believe that being politically correct is more important that being educated. At the rate the liberal educators are forcing this crap down the throats of our children, that all they need to know is on a test, the easier it's going to be to convince them as adults to think one way and one way only. Oh, if only life were that linear.

This Wisconsin teacher, standing up and saying no more, well, he should be an example to the rest of the academic world. Instead, he's threatened with the loss of his job by the very organization that should be protecting him and admiring him for taking the stand he took.

Anyway, it's my general opinion that most parents couldn't care less about this and it would take too much energy to take a stand. Most parents are just so happy their kids aren't in their hair and to try to change the thinking of their child would mean engaging in an actual conversation with their kids. Most parents are too busy with their own lives to take a hard look at what their kids are learning, and again, to ask them what they ARE learning would mean engaging their kids in a discussion. So many parents are more concerned with being their kids' friends than they are with being a parent.

Anyway, what do I know? That's just my two cents.