No Child Left Behind: Is it Working in our Schools?

The government has decided that this No Child Left Behind will be a great way to ensure that all of our precious children here in the USA get that wonderful education that is their right. On the surface, this seemed like such a great plan. Every kid will get an A++ education, just what our country needs! No children will have to endure being put into the "dumb" classes and be embarrassed around their peers. The teachers will go at a pace that the whole class can follow. What could possibly be better than this?

I remember back when I was in school. We had different groups for different learning levels. My school tracked it as track 1 for the smart kids, track 2 for the regular kids, and track 3 for the slow kids. Of course, that's now what they actually said, but we all knew it. Now, call me crazy, but I don't really see what was wrong with that. Yes, I was one of the track one kids. I learned at a quicker pace than most. By the time I graduated high school, I already had a bunch of college credits under my belt. As for those track 2 and 3 kids, they did just fine. The "dumb' kids got the help they needed at a pace they could follow. I think that by the time they finished school, they weren't really dumb people...they had learned the basic skills that they would need in life.
Here is the problem with no child left behind. The majority of kids are those track 2 "average" kids. They are the norm...and if we were to simply teach to reach the most children, we would teach to them. But no...this is not the case. Teachers must find a way to have all the students work on the same thing at the same time, while making it challenging enough for everybody, yet easy enough for everybody. Honestly, how many people really think that that is happening? It is impossible.

I have talked to a few teachers, and here is the reality of our school systems today. Number one, all the school really cares about is the standardized testing so that they can continue to get money to fund their school. Classes become geared towards making sure the children do well on the testing, and regular studies are being neglected. When they are actually learning something, the teacher must make sure every child understands it before moving on. Again, in theory, wonderful, all or our kids will be smart. In practice, you now have an entire class spending three days on a topic because one child didn't understand right away. That means that the rest of the kids missed out on two days of new learning experiences. Number two, teacher's are not allowed to fail any children. It reflects on them that they couldn't teach, not taking into consideration that perhaps the child has learning disabilities that can't be addressed in a full class situation, or in the case of older children, just refuses to do the work. Teachers just keep dumbing down the work so that the whole class can pass, instead of challenging students to push themselves. How is that supposed to make our children any smarter or better educated?

It is time for this country to rethink our educating practices. We are being surpassed around the globe. Are our ego's so fragile that we are willing to sacrifice our children's education in order to spare their feelings? Let us not forget that the youth of today are tomorrow's future.