NCLB and other things...

After reading these two passages I came to the striking realization that the education system in this country (or any country for that matter) will never be perfect no matter how hard people try to make it be perfect and that if do try to make it better, there will be more people that criticize your efforts than who agree with you. In the first reading, all Carus did was criticize the education system and had little advice on how to improve it. The next reading was all about NCLB; an act that was passed to help reform the "failure" that it is the American Education system according to Carus. However, this article only criticized the act and did not uplift it. So first we read about how our education system is terrible,then we read about something that was actually done to correct it, but then find out that that is failing also. It seems like in today's day and age all we are taught to do is think critically. Now don't get me wrong, I think that critical thinking is very important; however it seems that we put these skills to use by criticizing everything and do not use them to fix what is "wrong" in our society. No wonder there are more pessimists than optimists in today's society.

It seems to me that NCLB is not the horrible act that everyone is making it out to be. Does it have its faults? Absolutely, but what piece of legislation doesn't? Carus says that we need to make our teachers more accountable for what they teach their students. Isn't that what NCLB is all about? That all children be taught properly? Yes, the main goal of it is that every child will be proficient by 2014. Is this probable? Of course not! But think about all the children are receiving a better education as a result of it. Schools that would have given students less-than-adequate schooling are now being held accountable for what they teach their kids. I don't think this is a "failure". But according to most critics, NCLB is failing. Well do they have a better idea? So far I don't see Congress coming up with one. Perhaps we should put our effort into teaching our students to be "proficient" rather than complaining about NCLB. I know that's the kind of teacher that I want to be...