Ahhhh good 'ol No Child Left Behind...

I started college as an elementary education major. As I learned more about "no child left behind" it really made me rethink. The law, is a joke. There is no way for a decent teacher who truly gives a shit about their students to teach. You ARE teaching to the test, you WILL be judged based on how well your students do on said idiotic tests that they do not care about.

I dropped out of the Elem Ed major after my soph year. My college had a course where 2nd year teachers spent half a day for a semester in a class room observing. I watched a teacher teach to the test. Students fell behind so rapidly, but the teacher kept "teaching" because she needed to hit certain percentages on those tests.

My husband has his degree in secondary education, English. He was hired by a charter school his first year out of college. There were a TON of troubled youths in the classes he had. Many of them were far below their "supposed to be" average. He was demoted to a building sub after the class failed to achieve the levels on the standardized pratices tests. He was not rehired for the next school year. (The next teacher who took over, had even lower actual scores with these kids, and is also no longer with the school)

Schools have already started weeding out the "bad" teachers. Your career is based on how well teens and children do on those tests. (anyone else remember filling in solid lines of just "c" answers in protest to taking those standardized tests? I know I did, and failed them with flying colors, and if you doubt my writing skills, I suggest you go read one of my two contest winner stories here on the site.)

Now anymore, teachers carry so many roles. They're not just there to teach the information. Often they are held to a higher standard than just teaching. They have to watch for the students that need extra help, they become for some students a parent figure, a therapist. I could go on and on.

Now, I know my husband is a great teacher. I know that those students of his were learning, but they were learning slowly, at a different pace than the tests thought they should be. They were still learning. It's become such a "measure" and it's BULL SHIT. The tests do not take into account those students who will never go to college. It doesn't take into account the students with the learning "difficulties" that may not have been discovered or adressed yet. While the standard is diffrent for "certain" schools, it's not good enough.

Life is not comprised on how well do you know your history facts, or being able to write in a complete sentence that is not fragmented. Yes it can help, but if a student is just memorizing facts, is that really learning? It certainly doesn't inspire me to learn. A love for learning needs to be awakened in every child. If when they graduate high school, they can confidently step out into the world, and be prepared to enter college, or go into the workforce and not struggle so much that they just give up, then that is truly what is best. I don't care if the guy working on my car scored high on the test. Can he fix my car properly? I don't care if my "imaginary" child's teacher teaches to a test. Is my child learning, has this teacher given them a love for learning, have they shown my child that education can be fun, and helped them prepare for the "real world"?