Thanks, Mr. President...

Well, I got on here to update my blog more recently than I did last time...and while I have a thousand witty things to say, none seem to be worth writing. I've had some great conversations lately about No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Bush's drive to have all students reading on level by next year or something. In fact, in it's purest form NCLB is fantastic for special education...but all the crap that has come with it like standardized testing and Annual Yearly Progress (AYP), Grade Level Expectations (GLE), and State standards make it such a nightmare for the teacher and the student.

I predict that in 12 years the students that will graduate from high school will be well equipped to take tests....anything else, I'm not so sure! They sure will be able to take a piece of text and get the answers to questions that come after it (does this actually happen in real life?? When was the last time you read a passage and answered questions about it, on the other hand, when was the last time you read something because you wanted too? These kids can't do that). They sure will be able to eliminate at least two out of four choices. They will be able to use words like analyze, predict, assess, estimate, summarize, trace, infer, evaluate, formulate, describe, support, explain, compare, contrast, predict---god, I could go on forever. And while most of those kids will have higher level thinking skills......they won't be able to relate to real life....you know, the one you get thrown into after college.

And I have to ask, what about the kids in the 'hood'? While they are having to predict and infer, they'll also be collecting guns..selling drugs..who knows. What I do know is that they have to know how to protect themselves, and describing what a poem is about using at least two examples from the text....really isn't going to help them make it through. And while I totally believe in educating and intellegence--these kids are kids to begin with and someone has to teach them how to play, and teach them to get along with others, and teach them how to be kids, teach them to imagine--because that's part of growing up too. I can't summarize until I know how to read and comprehend. I can't read and comprehend until I know the sounds. I can't know the sounds until I know the alphabet.

What you didn't know is that we are teaching our kindergartners (who go to school full days now) these words (the higher level ones listed above)....we're already starting them in kindergarten... were giving kindergartners the ability to test. They've barely lived 5 years....and we are already building them for NCLB success. Beautiful.

By the way, we're doing district wide tests this week. I'm ready for this week to be over...Friday afternoon will be very very welcome.