A Result of No Child Left Behind

Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math
- Article from NYTimes.com

I found this article quite interesting. Depending upon your perception of Pres. Bush and his policies, I can see where people can arrive at vastely different reactions to this look at where many schools have come as a result of the No Child Left Behind campaign. To my thinking, the overriding issue is the overwhelming number of students who are graduating without the basic knowledge like reading. Why shouldn’t schools reemphasize the basics of reading and math?

In my humblest opinion - school is to prepare students to face the world and, more so than ever before, if so many are “graduating” without what strikes me as the basic knowledge (reading & math), then we are failing our next generations of leaders. School is not for social education or even art training (something I hold dear as an artist). What strikes me in the article is that if so many students can’t even read, how can they learn history or science or even music and art. I may be crazy, but reading is a part of all of those subjects in a pretty significant way unless all the materials are available in podcast form to be listened to.

So I say…it’s good to see positive change taking place. To continue to polish a car with no engine is fruitless. For all it’s shininess, it still doesn’t do what a car is intended to do….take you places. We can discuss better ways or corrections to the current educational efforts but to lambast the effort with no solutions beyond “more money” isn’t fixing the car…

Read the article

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