No Child Left Behind - Update

I sat in a 6th grade special ed classroom yesterday listening to how well my middle girl was doing. She's working at 4th grade level.

Believe me, I'm thrilled with that.

They're testing her at 6th for the standardized tests just as they have done every year for both girls.

I have yelled so much about this studpidity I'm hoarse.

This came in my mail from Yellow Dog Granny today.

=====================

>Subject: A Must Read for Educators!
>
>
>>
>>No Child Left Behind": the football version.
>>
>>
>>
>>All teams must make the state playoffs and all must win the championship.
>>If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until
>>they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If after
>>two
>>years they have not won the championship, their footballs and equipment
>>will
>>be taken away until they do win the championship. All kids will be
>>expected
>>to have the same football skills at the same time, even if they do not
>>have
>>the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. No
>>exceptions will be made for lack of interest in football, lack of desire
>>to
>>perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves
>>or
>>their parents. All kids will play football at a proficient level.
>>
>>Talented players will be asked to workout on their own, without
>>instruction.
>>This policy is because the coaches will be using all their instructional
>>time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited
>>athletic ability, or whose parents don't like football. Games will be
>>played year-around, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th and
>>11th game.
>>
>>This version will create a New Age of Sports, where every school is
>>expected
>>to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum
>>goals. If no child gets ahead, then no child is left behind. If parents
>>do
>>not like this new law, they are encouraged to vote for vouchers and
>>support
>>private schools that can screen out the non-athletes and prevent their
>>children from having to go to school with bad football players. Seems
>>like
>>a flawless plan.

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This just came in from Worried American. It's much too good to languish in the comment box.

Ann

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I no longer have children in school but fought battles against stupid rules when I did. Now I have great-grands in school and see their parents still engaged in the wars.

In spite of what the morons who come up with these rules think, not all people learn at the same level or capacity. We are the same basic human model but there ARE differences in us and our brains process data differently. Some have differences that make learning more difficult, such as brain birth defects that slow us,plus ADHD, Dyslexia, Irlene Syndrome, etc.. Some people's brains learn through visual input, others through auditory means, some through both.

Two of my daughters were dyslexic back in the day of "social promotions" and nothing was done to address their problems; the school just kept promoting them even though they were behind grade level (it is difficult to learn when your brain processes words and numbers bass-ackwards. Polite conferences were fruitless; only when I finally went onto the school like a biting sow did my girls get help. Several of my great-grands are hyperactive attention deficit (all are on drugs for the disorder, at the schools' insistence). The younger ones receive special tutoring but at grade level; the school's solution for the older one, who also suffers from Irlene Syndrome, was to put him in Special Education classes, which puts him behind grade level with his peers and even though he is above average in intelligence. After an acrimonious conference, the school did offer tutoring one day a week - for spelling!

Children with learning difficulties all too often fall through the cracks. Too many quit school as soon as they get old enough. Even the most dedicated teachers have a hard time meeting the needs of 25 to 30 children of differing capabilities. Either the slow ones get left behind or the advanced ones are held back and maybe - maybe - the average ones get a proper education.