And Mediocrity for All...

A few weeks ago I received a notification from my kids' school that it had failed to meet the expectations of the No Child Left Behind act.  I know the No Child Left Behind act was supposed to improve our schools and education but I can’t say that I’ve seen that as a result.

Instead what I’ve seen is the entire school year focused on "how to pass the State test." Not, let’s make sure the kids actually have a concrete grasp of a concept so that no matter how the material is presented they can develop a logical plan of attack to solve the problem. Instead the focus has been “how to write your answer so it’s acceptable for the State test.”

Instead of understanding how to multiply and divide the kids are given a half dozen gimmicky ways to figure out a problem. Is it really better to know five different ways to get the answer instead of just knowing the facts? I’ve never met a problem that straight long division didn’t work for. I’ve never thought, “Oh crap, I can’t figure this out unless I draw it out in lattice format.”  Heaven help them if the question on the test is phrased differently than they way they've been practicing it for the last three months.

Instead of driving the whole group towards excellence No Child Left Behind seems to have drug the whole group into mediocrity. “You can pass the State test? Awesome. You sit over here and read a book or twiddle your thumbs while we try to get these other kids over here to the same level you’re at.” When I was in school you weren’t coddled. You either knew the material or you didn’t. If you didn’t know it, you didn’t move on. Period. If you did know it, then you were challenged again and again to learn something new.

So the letter I got from the school tells me that I have two options because of this determination. I can either move my kids to another school district that has passed the Adequate Yearly Progress determination, or I can hire tutors for my kids at the schools expense.

I live in a little rural district. There aren’t exactly a whole bunch of options for my kids. Moving them to a different school district means figuring out how to transport them there and home daily. How well do you think will go over with my boss? “Sorry Boss, but I have to come in 45 minutes later every day and leave an hour earlier so that I can take my kids out of district and back because their school sucks.”

What the letter didn’t say and what I’d really like to know, is what the hell are they going to do about this? Why didn’t the letter tell me, “this is what happened and this is our solution.”  Not only is my kids’ school falling apart over their heads, but the education they’re receiving is subpar as well?

Funny thing, an article found online about schools that fail to pass the AYP indicated that the failures are usually in poor areas. Personally I wouldn’t consider our school district poor. Nope, not poor, just lazy. A school district where the work ethic of the parents is reflected in the work ethic of the students. A school district where parents are more concerned with the next episode of Deadliest Catch and gossiping about the Bachelor than their kids homework assignments. A school district full of old people too selfish to pass the bond measure to help fix the local school.

As a single parent, it’s freaking hard to keep up with it all, but my kids’ future is riding on the skills and ethics they develop now. I'll keep pushing them and working with them and encouraging them to be better, to try harder, to live up to their potential. As for the rest of them, someone’s gotta work at Walmart and serve up my Whopper, right?

School's back!

The kids started back to school yesterday.  They were all very excited.  New school supplies are so much fun.  Boxes of bright color crayons, the smell of freshly sharpened pencils, the cool, smooth feel of new notebook paper waiting for the first assignment.  New clothes, new shoes, new backpacks.  The rush of the early morning: packing lunches, grabbing breakfast, looking for homework, shoes, jackets.  Then when you get to school there is the anticipation of finding your old friends, looking for new ones, meeting your teachers.

I love school.  If I were independently wealthy I'd go back to school.  Maybe not full time, but just to keep learning new things.  I have such a long list of things I wish I knew.  I'd love to learn a language or two.  I wish I knew more about art.  Computer programming fascinates me.  I know a lot about software, but I'd love to learn about computer hardware.  And then, of course, there is writing.  I find myself torn on that subject.  I did a couple college writing courses.  They were interesting, but stifling.  Shouldn't my writing be the way I want it?  If I write an opinion paper, shouldn't it reflect my opinion?  I never understood professors that marked things "wrong" when I stated my opinion about a subject or article I read.  Perhaps this is why the world is so full of "lemmings" without an original thought in their heads?