Against NCLB act

First off:
When the pledge of allegiance takes place, I stand for the fallen soldiers. But I refuse to pledge to a country controlled by that man.
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“What's going on? And why care? The latter question is easy: The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act puts enormous weight on state-level academic standards, with more emphasis yet to come as a result of the President's new high-school reform and testing initiative. It's crucial to know whether those standards are up to the challenge. The wildly discrepant judgments being rendered across the land, however, reveal key differences in criteria and education values, a wide gap in what one might term "standards for standards," as the two recent studies made vivid. This is no purely academic dispute; a state that's told it's doing fine when in fact its standards are lacking is apt to wind up giving children a poor education even as it thinks it's "reforming."“
-Chester E. Finn Jr.; a tale of two studies
The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act is a very stressful subject for most people that are actually following it. I’m a student at Arts and Technology High school, a currently failing student in three out of her six classes. Quite honestly, I know it’s mainly my fault. You won’t see me pointing any fingers here, just blurting out random thoughts on this piece of lovely paper!(internets in this case)
When the school board turns up grading standards, it makes it a harsh decision to make decent distinctions between students. We’re not just percents and scores! We’re your future! Despite these consequences, many teachers and administrators continue to inflate grades. They cite the need for improved self-esteem, financial aid policies based on GPA, and competitive college admissions as compelling reasons to change their grading style. But if schools want to change the way they grade without creating false expectations, they must be clear and open about it.
“What do you think? Is grade inflation a problem? If so, what can be done about it?”
Well, me being a student…I think it’s a load of bollocks! Inflating grades is hard on students working their feathers off! I recently started getting my grades up little by little and realized how much harder it is when you have a no ‘D’ policy at your school. It’s either a 75% C- or an F where the usual pillow ‘D’ would be. The no ‘D’ policy at my school was just a piece of the pie! A lot of the inflation ensued teaching little bits and pieces of useless garbage for most of the fields students are seeking these days.
Math; for example is a pretty pointless class. We just re-learn everything and a few new things here and there that are very constricting when you don’t find them needed subjects. Somebody who’s planning on being a worker for the local video game company might need some of the ratio, proportions, and arithmetic skills; but will an aspiring artist in the field of fine arts? I don’t think so…unless they’re doing taxes, in which case they have a calculator. “But your brain is better then a calculator!” I think not! Calculators are precise! Your brain eventually fades into a grey lump of putty in your skull. Calculators don’t age, they just need new batteries! :D
English; another raw wriggling subject! I personally, love the subject. But a lot of the things we’re taught aren’t needed sometimes. Sure conventions and sentence fluency helps with speech, but what does knowing what the theme of a story do for you? Not all students in school tend on joining the local book club and discussing the best scene from their smutty romance novels. “You need to learn how to spell things, and understand them.” We have something new and magical! It’s called a dictionary, children! “Well, you need to know longer words!” Excuse me? The district is paying to teach us MORE words? Ok kids, 1) There’s a thesaurus now, both in book form and on the internet. 2) There are kids in parts all over the world that have no idea what the word education even means. They can have some of my words if they want.
Do those two subjects really need to have so much in them for how high the grading standards are for them? I mean, if the school district keeps inflating the way they grade things, soon nobody will be considered smart enough to work for the local McDonalds! And that would be just terrible! WHO’LL FEED US?!
But seriously, if the grading scales keep going up, your fancy “No Child Left Behind” act won’t have worked very well, now will it? All of the children who are stuck in high school would have made great software designers, but little Billy got an F in English, therefore he fails at life; let’s torture him for another year or two until he gets it right. He wants to be a software designer, the programs he creates will be more sociable then him!
Daniel wants to be a rapper, but his math skills lack. Let’s keep him locked away while he learns the true meaning of 2+2; while his homies are out spittin’ mad beats! The kid wanted to rap! Half of the words used in most music incorporates the words: “get crunk” and “fo shizzle”. Are those even words?! I highly doubt somebody that’s not only going to be eroding the English language, but also poppin’ some caps will need to know what the ratio of how many thugs he’s rappin against times the square root of how many bullets lost in the battle.
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