We have in a town near us a school district (which shall remain unnamed) which has “failed” the No Child Left Behind measures for the elementary students for the past three years. Clearly a school in difficulty.
So what is the system doing next year to help this failing school system? For grades 1-6 the state is requiring them to drop all subjects beside reading and math. Yes, all other subjects! No science. No art. No geography. No history. No writing. No physical education. Children (elementary school children, mind you) will spend all morning every day reading materials geared to help them pass the state test. Then they will spend all afternoon (the worst possible time) on math. In addition, the school system will be “helped” by a board of state “experts”, none of whom has ever taught a classroom of students!
This is a solution clearly aimed at solving the state education bureaucracy’s political problem, not the student’s educational problems. I can think of few other regimes so well suited to teaching a generation of children to hate education for the rest of their lives.
I have written before about the absurdity of the No Child Left Behind initiative, but this level of insanity boggles the mind! I don’t understand why the parents of these children aren’t in a full-scale revolt against the system.
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