NCLB

"How can you say 'No child's left behind"? We're not dumb and we're not blind."

- Dear Mr. President by Pink

That song lyric is ringing in my ears. There are several views on the whole No Child Left Behind Act and while I am not completely set in my opinion I do have very strong emotions about the whole thing.

I see NCLB (No Child Left Behind) fail on a daily basis. Well, let me rephrase that. I see schools struggle to make NCLB work, but fail. In a large district it will happen. Lets me honest with ourselves. School funding sucks! There are so many guidelines, restrictions, and benchmarks put on teachers, yet they aren't given the resources they need to achieve what is expected of them. Let's not get into the pay issue except to say that teachers are not paid what they deserve (I don't feel this way just because I am a teacher, keep in mind I am not in a public school). So we underpay the people we expect the most out of .

I enrolled two 6th grade students last night that the system has failed. The one student will be just fine, but the other the system has failed over and over again. After reading his history (the school gave me a multi-page document) I am amazed that this child has made it as far as they have. Granted, the student has a MAJOR attitude, but after being blown off so many times, who wouldn't? I'm wondering if in a perfect world where NCLB worked would this child have gotten to the point they are at now? How can we really ensure that no child is left behind? Even if money wasn't an issue, could we still help every child? It's sad to say, but I don't think we could. Students these days deal with so much crap outside of school that no wonder they come to school with an attitude. How many students these days come from broken homes or home where the parents are in the system? They haven't been given a fair chance since day one.

I have a student now that has been written off because he is the youngest in a string of family members to be in the system. He is not a bad kid and with some guidance (I like to think we are providing that here) will be just fine. Unfortunately as soon as a teacher figured out who his brothers are, he is labeled as "one of them" from the start. That student will never be given a fair chance and it's not his fault.

Maybe my view is skewed because these are the cases I deal with on a daily basis. If I were in a public school would I notice this?