Forgive my cynicism, but whoever thought up NCLB should die...

Have you ever had an issue that just drove you absolutely crazy? I wish my answer to that was no, but alas, that is not the case. A couple things in this world drive me absolutely nuts. I don’t think I’m an especially cranky person, and I’ve sworn not to use my blog as a place to rant and rave, but I’m seriously bugged and want some feedback.

I am a senior in a secondary education major. Any of you who knew me in high school ought to appreciate the humor in that. I wanted nothing more than to get out of the public education system as quickly as possible and never look back (As attested to by my 182 truancies senior year; quite a feat with only 164 school days). Unfortunately I had my share of terrible teachers who taught me nothing more than to loathe scholastic environments.

Long story short, education was my last choice of occupation (after medicine of course since I can’t handle the sight of blood) but after a lot of prodding from others I decided to look into it. The first class that got me into the schools motivated me and gave me a love for teaching that I thought was impossible for one as cynical about public schools as I. This semester I finish my sciences and then just have 6 or so teaching classes before I can student teach. I’ve been so excited about reaching this point, and now I just want to scream.

With every class period of my educational psychology class I am less interested in teaching. There is just soooo much to stress about and it is soooo emotionally draining. The prospect of being home with Aeryn as much as possible after returning to work has been worth it though. Today we talked about the No Child Left Behind act. Seriously, whoever thought of that monstrosity of legislation had better be childless. There is no other possible explanation.

I definitely understand that teachers have great power to influence the motivation and success of their students. I also understand that teachers, by nature of their influence upon our posterity, ought to be regulated (to an extent). I also agree that the theory of providing every child with access to quality education and opportunities for success is admirable, good, and right.

What I don’t understand is how anyone thinks it’s realistic to have everyone succeed at the same standard. How is this possible? Not everyone has the same abilities, drive, or opportunities. Surely, it is easy to see that not everyone can reach the same level of success in a subject such as math, unless the standard is reduced to the lowest common denominator. And then, what does that prove? Where is the value of everyone reaching an A? In such situations an A is no longer a standard of achievement but rather a measurement of being average.

Lowering the standard ensures that a percentage of the students (potentially a high percentage) are able to reach it effortlessly. Bright, intrinsically motivated students get bored, have nothing higher to reach towards (or limited opportunities because the focus is so often on the lower achieving students), and completely lose interest in school.

This may not seem tragic; after all, they aren’t the ones who need the help. They are the ones, however, who in large part because of their internal motivation and desire to succeed go on to career paths that make our world better. They are the geohazard engineers, neurosurgeons, physicists, chemists and other such things. They dream up the big things we don’t think about like life saving medical equipment, prescriptions that help with debilitating illnesses, alternate fuel vehicles, laboratory grown "minerals" for use in lasers, watches, and other electronics, and how to alter our daily lives to reverse anthropogenic contributions to global warming. Even little luxuries like ipods or HDTV.

We are creating a generation trained to avoid brilliance.

In addition we are punishing teachers for factors outside of their control. There is simply not enough time to share everything that bugs me about this ridiculous policy or the details of its structure. I do understand that many teachers and administrators do like the way that NCLB requires them know each student on an individual basis. How does this all play out in the cost/benefit analysis? Are the benefits worth the cost?

Seriously, I am struggling to remain committed to teaching and I haven’t even gotten there yet. I just keep thinking about that school in Vegas (sorry to not have the specs) that didn’t reach its NCLB standards so the government took control and fired every single teacher. So much for the state’s power to govern education within their borders. So, for any of you with any teaching experience or anything to say whatsoever, is there any reason to not be discouraged about this and change my major? At this point, it's just a degree to me - Not something I want any part of actually doing, which is sad.

(I'll choose to ignore my complaints about the NCLB test-happy climate and predestined failure for now. I'm done thinking about it.)