My NCLB Wish

After reading this New York Times editorial about the recommendations to improve the No Child Left Behind law, as well as other related informative material, it pains me greatly to realize that we may never be able to get rid of this misbegotten mandate and its hugely detrimental effect on our kids.

I’m sick of hearing about how this country, according to whatever bunch of statistics some “expert” can provide at the drop of a hat, doesn’t produce enough college graduates in math and science, and that’s why the United States is becoming a two-bit superpower of a nation. And as a result, we must test and test and test and test and test and test and then test some more, and that will magically close the gap in math and science between this country and nations based in southeast Asia, and then we will reclaim our post-World War II place of dominance in the world.

I don’t have enough time, patience or calories to refute all of this garbage (and please don’t remind me that Ted Kennedy once supported NCLB – somehow I’m quite sure his concept of this law and its hideous reality could not be more different).

There are many reasons why I can attack No Child Left Behind, such as the rigged test scores in the Houston school district run by Rod Paige, the former head of that school district who helped install the NCLB perversion as the first Bushco Education Secretary; Paige used those scores as an attempt to justify NCLB’s “success.”

However, since we’re apparently stuck with this mess, all I can do is plead for an emphasis once more on language and social studies at the expense of math and science studies (all I’m asking for is equal proportions for all).

The reason this country rose to dominance isn’t exclusively because of our investment in scientific research and higher education. It has a lot to do with the fact that school kids were taught about our government and our responsibility as citizens, to say nothing of the need to communicate effectively using the English language (I know that isn’t enough now, and education in another language would be advantageous also). This helped cultivate an educated middle class that could think creatively and perform the basic, elemental problem solving needed in all kinds of occupations, including home construction, architectural engineering and serving multiple customers at a diner, calculating the bill for one, calling for an aisle cleanup elsewhere and managing to deliver dinner entrees to still others at the same time.

This is not a trivial point. I’m talking about thinking and organizational skills, to say nothing of participating in our government which is part of our responsibility as citizens.

I’m going to try and be careful with what I have to say next, since I know this is touchy, but I have the privilege of working with people who have an advanced aptitude in math and can write object-oriented code that enables the operation of highly sophisticated financial computer applications. Most of these people either come directly from southeast Asia or have family in that location, but many other are naturalized Americans and some come from still other countries.

I’m grateful every day that we have these people, and they do truly amazing work. And I hope they’re compensated well for what they do.

But when it comes to problem solving outside of their discipline or knowledge of the world and/or current events, they are sheep.

And somehow, I cannot help but think that that is a consequence that will be made worse by volume over time because of No Child Left Behind.

So, while we worry about how much self-instruction and evaluation is required on the part of the caretakers for our kids (with the requisite freeper teacher union-bashing), and while we worry if little Johnny or Jane only scores 16 out of 20 on a math quiz instead of 17 out of 20, let’s also give some thought as to how many of our kids are going to grow up knowing how to write a Letter to the Editor of a newspaper, engage in a discussion about a budget appropriation or a zoning variance with a city councilperson or township supervisor, or join a campaign to elect a candidate for local or national office or serve as a candidate for such an effort, OK?

(And if I ruled the world, every day would be the first day of spring - sigh…)

Besides, as far as I'm concerned, if Bushco really cared about our kids, it would pay more attention to this story.