You don't have to be a rocket scientist

I am in education and I agree whole heartedly with this article. Teachers are also being bogged down with so much "data" driven paperwork that it is impossible to teach the curriculum, teach the test, and ensure little johnny has fully comprehended what he has already been giving. Bush created No Child Left Behind because he was left behind and daddy Bush had to pay for him to pass.

Reg Weaver writes good words, "There are many children in our schools today who have the potential to contribute great things to our nation, but we can't tell who they are on the basis of standardized tests in one or two subjects." During my teaching career I witnessed closure of many much needed programs. I was disheartened by closure of Industrial Arts, such as metal shop, wood shop and drafting. Music, photography, home economics, even typing classes are discontinued. Perhaps most damaging to the physical health of our younger American children, removal of physical education classes and shower gym rooms at the middle school level, what you and I, Reg, once knew as junior high school. Fortunately, most of our high schools still have physical education classes, however, many of our kids are fat if not obese by the time they hit high school. Almost all of our classes which require planning and working with hands and bodies, are gone. Administrators argue high tech is the way while our children never learn how to drive a nail nor learn how to remain healthy, slim and trim. These standardized tests you mention, Reg, as you know, do not test for hand skills, do not test for thinking skills, do not test for creativity nor test for imagination. These standardized tests only test for what teachers are mandated to teach, which is restricted to very few subjects, typically English, History, Math and the sciences. Rote memorization teaches very little. Kashia writes, "Teachers are also being bogged down with so much "data" driven paperwork...." This is most certainly true. Administrators are enemies of education and have no place in a classroom. A good fourth of my teaching time was wasted on tasks forced upon us by administrators. Should administrators be made to take care of their business, should administrators be removed from classrooms, standardized test scores would leap up ten percent or more. Administrators do not support teachers and administrators only serve to lessen the quality of education. Kashia adds a thought, "Bush created No Child Left Behind...." This No Child Left Behind law is an assault on education. This act is amongst the most stupid and the most damaging of education related laws coming out of Capital Hill. I swear those wrote and lobbied for this law are high school dropouts. This No Child Left Behind act is leaving our children behind. This act is one of the primary reasons for our degrading educational system. The foremost reason for our falling educational levels is lack of parental involvement in their children’s educations. I fault parents more than any others. Yes, an argument can be made parents have little time to educate their children and little time to assist in their children’s educations. My common sense retort is, "You should not have children until you are fully capable of dedicating yourselves to your children." People should not have children until in a life position of being able to fully tend to their children. My husband and I elected to have only one child, our girl, knowing we are responsible for her and knowing we must dedicate our lives to her. We brought her into this world, we are fully responsible for guiding her through this world; one child is enough and all we can truly handle. During my teaching career, based on requests for parent-teacher conferences, notes sent home and similar events and devices, to my dismay I learned only about ten percent of parents are willing to be highly active in their children’s educations. We need to keep government out of education, we need to keep administrators out of education, we need to hold parents legally accountable for their children and above all, we must fund our schools and must pay our teachers decent wages. Education begins at home, education ends at home and failure in education can be lain directly upon the shoulders of parents unwilling to become actively involved in our education system and unwilling to become involved in their children's educations. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Excellent article. I am a school counselor working in Oakland, CA. I am on special assignment meeting with the students who have not passed the California High School Exit Exams. They cannot get a diploma even if they have completed all of their classwork successfully. The students who have not passed the exam fall into a few categories, as far as I can tell. 1. English is a second language. 2. Special ed. 3. Undiagnosed special ed. 4. Kinesthetic, artistic, ADD types who just aren't the kind of students who do well on tests or in the school setting, but are trying to cope as best as they can and are overwhelmed by the pressure of the tests. These are the students who stayed in school to complete their credits. Half of their friends have already dropped out because they are tired of feeling like losers all day long. Those are the ones that are smoking pot or whatever) all day long, stealing things from others, and/or hanging out with friends. Everyone needs to feel that they are good at something. What happened to the kid who could be the class artist or star in the play and no one cared if he/she just got by in school because he/she displayed genius in other ways. And the kid who is good with his/her hands and can make things and create. There is no opportunity for self-esteem building for these students now. Nowhere for them to plug in-to shine during the school day. The high drop out rate is not mysterious in the least. Some of the students who didn't pass the exit exam had already gotten into State College and completed financial aid applications. They cannot follow through on either of these options. They cannot walk the stage with their friends at graduation. They are completely demoralized. One student who had already gotten into college (didn't pass the English exam because it is not his native tongue) pondered to me that maybe he isn't college material after all. My heart is breaking as I watch how the state can destroy the hope and dreams of our already disenfrancished youth.

Alice adds a sad note, --- The students who have not passed the exam fall into a few categories, as far as I can tell. 1. English is a second language. 2. Special ed. --- This is one of the most frustrating aspects of this idiotic "No Child Left Behind" act coming from those dimwits on Capital Hill. During summers, I taught English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to all kinds of kids, ranging from Vietnam to India to Mexico. We can test these kids with tests written in their languages but there are still great barriers to their understanding those tests. We can translate words but we cannot translate cultural differences. Many problems are encountered by those kids because their cultural context is different than what we intend in translation. Special Education kids, now this is very sad. Many of those unfortunate children simply cannot write, or cannot read, or cannot comprehend what they are reading. Their test results are tossed in with "normal" kids. These test results pull down the overall average test scores of a school. Some schools are critiqued, even punished for not meeting the standards. There are times this is result of student test scores of those who do not speak English, and sometimes this is result of a school having a high percentage of disabled children. Our stupid No Child Left Behind act does not consider these differences between disadvantaged children nor disabled children and those kids who are normal and typical; all are treated as equal. There are incidents of excellent teachers and excellent principals being dismissed from their jobs because they refuse to administer these unfair standardized tests to their students, their students who are disadvantaged or disabled. These are examples of how this Capital Hill idiotic illiteracy in education is causing harm to our children rather than causing benefit for our children. We can do better and we must do better for the sake of our children. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation