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What does No Child Left Behind mean to all of us? How does an unfunded mandate for standardized tests affect the teachers and the children? I hope after I point out a few things somebody besides me will start looking for answers. Not just the professionals or politicians but the mothers, fathers, grandparents and the common John and Jane Does. In other words the people, who have been influenced by, met or heard about a great teacher. Even more important perhaps we should find out what the children who are going through the boring, hard process of growing want and need from the educational experience.
1: A good teacher doesn’t teach. He or she guides the children to discover their strengths and how to overcome their limitations. He or she can’t do this if they are busy teaching a standardized test.
2: A good teacher doesn’t force material on the children. He or she finds a way to make the child interested then guides that interest.
3: A good teacher is not their to make the children into cookie cutter robots to fit into the workforce. A good teacher helps the children to discover what they want to do and gives them the tools to do so.
4: A good teacher more then anything makes the children feel good about themselves and others. Installs a sense of we can do this instead of look at me doing something.
This then is a call to look at what No Child Left Behind is doing to our teachers, our schools and most important our children and our society. A big thank you to the teachers who continue despite all the obstacles thrown at them by a poorly thought out and poorly designed system.
