No Child Left Behind?
The reality is that we are leaving fewer children behind on paper but are leaving increasing numbers behind in terms of actual education? When my children went through school there was a huge emphasis on obtaining a quality education and molding ones self into a quality, contributing member of society. In recent years this very same school has become more concerned with just passing the students through than they are to challenging the students in the learning process. To illustrate my point a child that I know of, at this point in the year, is missing multiple assignments, tests, projects and presentations in almost all classes. In one class the child was even missing work from the first semester. In prior years this work would have to be made up in it's entirety prior to receiving a grade whether that grade was a passing mark or not. The cards fell where they fell.
In the situation I speak of the child only has attend one after school session, complete a very limited amount of representative work and then gets passed along. They will even change the first semester grade for answering a few questions relative to that classwork/testing that was delinquent. What is going on? In addition to this abhorrent process, through the year the students pass in their work and if it's not satisfactory, within a two week period ,they can redo it until it's right. This includes tests! If they don't pass they are schooled on the specific questions they got wrong and can retake the test so they can get a better grade. No incentive to study. Just take the test. Whatever you get wrong you can just study those items and retake the test for a better grade. Have we not just created the Cliff Notes version to learning? Looks great on paper, the schools get their funding, which by the way is tied directly to those numbers on paper, but the quality of the education and the work ethic of the students continually erodes.
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