I like the title of my blog. I think it says it all.
Some of you may want me to elaborate, but I don't have the time. I am too busy trying to invest all my heart and mind into teaching fifth graders, work on the side for a little extra money, prepare my students for the asinine and mandated No Child Left Behind (NCLB) testing, and work on covering-yer-ass, jargon-driven governmental regulations that could impress the hell out of a bumpkin but to an educated citizen make no real difference in the classroom.
I don't want to complain about any of my fellow citizens who voted for the present idiots in office; hopefully they've learned their lesson. I do want to complain about the Republicans my fellow citizens voted into office. I was a Republican long before most of my readers were, including a stint as a Young Republican in the 1960's, fer cryin' out loud.
Iraq and the national deficit surely concern more Americans than NCLB. Not me. What impacts my life and the kids I care about? No Child Left Behind! I am more concerned about governmental regulations that vainly attempt to improve our children's education yet are nothing more than monumental boondoggles that remind me of President Lyndon Baines Johnson's "Great Society" and "War Against Poverty." I don't know whether to gloat because I did NOT vote for the Republican Party in the last election, or whether to cry over its shameful decline.
I haven't got the time to complain about some of the details, the precise problems that NCLB saddles our educational system with, but I will complain later, and you'll get an earful. As soon as I have time.
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3 comments:
I am with you Walter! And I don't even teach. But I spent an hour or so in my son's 5th grade class...and he has one who is purportedly one of the better teachers...and I heard F-Cat referred to at least 15 times during the math lesson. So it's less about explaining the relevance of math to one's life and more about explaining how it's going to appear on the F-Cat.
AND, I just learned that my 13 year old 8th grader who can have a hissy fit over deciding which color Abercrombie shirt to wear tomorrow is going to be REQUIRED TO CHOOSE A MAJOR NEXT YEAR!I think I chose my major as a sophomore which would have made me 19. My husband, who excelled at the 7-year degree plan, probably chose and changed his major four times before the age of 24 (when it started to look just a little silly that he had not graduated yet).
I won't rage about my conclusions about this new requirement which they are using my kid as a guinea pig to test (don't even try to diagram that sentence...I've only had two sips of coffee)because if anyone read your post and agrees with it, they don't need ME to draw conclusions. And if they don't agree they are the stupid Republican lawmakers who came up with this crap!
Di
I am so with you Walter! Because of the NCLB, as a parent all I see is the insane amount of homework for our kids that seems to be rote stuff with no actual learning. To top if off the school wants ME, the parent to sign that yes indeed my child did their homework. Can't you tell if it is done or not without my signature?
All this drives is busy kids, busy teachers and busy parents. Everyone is so busy, but is it on anything of substance?? I write this as I am putting together a handbook for the parents of my son's 2nd grade class. As the room parent I am starting to wonder why I "volunteered" for this job.
I am so glad I went to school when I did where you came home after school, had a snack, did about 15 minutes of homework and then you went outside and played with your friends for the rest of the afternoon. I feel like a dinosaur, how I long for those days for my kids!
I, oh, I, oh, man, get so...upset...on...this..subject. Can't talk, can't breathe...
Just nursed my son, who threw up because he missed school from being sick. He was so worried about making a bad grade in homework he vomited.
I just get feel the kids are getting age inappropriate tension and not a decent creative education.
I don't have answers though, so I am scared to complain.
Sigh.
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