... just pisses me off. Why? First, and foremost because Edwards -- who voted for No Child Left Behind -- makes no apologies for his vote, but says instead that he's seen over several years how it was poorly implemented and underfunded. That statement perpetuates the myth of NCLB: that the problems with it lie with implementation and funding.
Bullshit. (Yes, you heard it from the lips of a kindergarten teacher. BULLSHIT.) NCLB was BAD POLICY from the start. Like virtually everything that has ever oozed from the Bush Whitehouse, NCLB has never been about improving schools and has always been about maximizing profit for Bush relatives and family friends. It has done more to harm schools than any other education policy I can think of. And most members of Congress (Kucinich too, sad to say) refused to listen to educators who called it out from the start, and instead went for it hook, line, and sinker.
Yet every single politician continues to talk about "revamping" NCLB, when it needs to be thrown out permanently. (Mr. Ether -- who just guessed correctly that I was posting about this topic; maybe it was the vehemence with which I was striking the keys as I typed? -- said that revamping NCLB is a little like buying fire insurance for your Ford Pinto. Ha. Good one, Mr. Ether.) Policy makers need to listen to the people who know best: professional educators.
What else? Universal preschool? It sounds nice, probably looks nice on paper too. What about universal supporting parents and other caregivers, birth to 3? Oh my God, now it's starting to sound a little too much like -- gasp -- welfare! Backpedal, backpedal ...
I am also sick to death of the assumption that education is broken and needs to be fixed. Or reformed. That somehow the "problem" is that there isn't an "excellent teacher" in every classroom. That "excellent teachers" can only come from a West Point-like academy. I'm sick of being dumped on, by the well-meaning and the not so well-meaning, alike.
Sure, Edwards makes some good points too. Read about it here, if you like. But to me, this is disingenuous grandstanding and I'm not buying it.
(By the way, in the same newspaper, the $200B more that Bush is asking for and likely to get to continue his cowboy adventures in the Middle East is pretty discouraging.)
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6 comments:
Suzy, I feel validated that a kindergarten teacher (you!) thinks that NCLB was a bad program from the start. I'm "just" a parent (and former elem. teacher), and I see educational standards going down, down, down here in south TX because of the pressures placed upon the teachers to have their students pass the stupid state tests. They are forced to teach the test and not their subjects. I will not be a public school teacher here with the way things are today.
There have and will always be excellent teachers. It would be nice to have one in every classroom. This NCLB is forcing good teachers out of the classroom, by helping to decrease budgets. That puts pressure on the excellent teachers that remain, and that pressure leads to burnout and so on and son..........as I've gone through the school grades with my son, I've seen this. Teachers who are really gifted and passionate with their students, get burnt out and say "This is bullshit". Seems to me, a good educational system would teach kids when something really is "bullshit".
SCRAP IT. Throwing this chunk of money at it won't fix it.
Progressives, do NOT vote for any candidate who is not for SCRAPPING NCLB comepletely. No "revising." No "revamping."
Dumping.
Flushing.
Getting. Rid. Of. It.
And John Edwards is a fraud. Not nice to say, but the truth hurts.
You are so right. "No Child Left Behind" was a fiasco from the start. My Daughter-in-law (2nd grade teacher) and other teachers that I know are very frustrated by it.
John Edwards comes from Moore County (the county where I live) in NC and, altho I don't agree with him on this and he probably has no chance in the elections, I still have to say that he has worked very hard in this State to help the poor and those without insurance or work.
I have a very hard time supporting people who are now "against" something when before, they were all gung-ho in favor of it.
Edwards supported the war. Now he's against it. He supported NCLB. Now he wants to "fix" it.
Yes, he talks a good game on poverty issues. Who knows what he might say next week, however.
I still like his wife, though. HER I'd vote for.
Suzy, before I read this post I commented on the Seeger one above and said that what "you give kids is immeasurable".
And that is of course at the heart of evil of NCLB - trying to measure education as if we were making widgets.
Earlier today I was speaking to someone about my support of Dennis and they remembered that I had at one time been interested in Edwards.
It was this and so many, many other things that have driven me away from him.
You are in a unique position to be saying this and I bow to your expertise. I only have a step-daughter but I watch the education system that she is in deteriorate further every day.
And at the expense of good teachers who want to teach but can't and kids who are kept from real learning.
Thank you.
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