Candidate Bush once asked, "Is our children learning?" He answered that question today with, "Childrens do learn." Before you ask ... yes, he was speaking at an education event -- desperately trying to sell No Child Left Behind.The WaPo reports:
The setting was, yes, an education event where the president was taking credit for rising test scores and promoting congressional renewal of his signature education law. To create the right image, he summoned the city's school chancellor, a principal, some teachers and 20 eager students from P.S. 76. [...]
His latest misstatement masked a serious issue, of course. As Bush's first-term No Child Left Behind law comes up for reauthorization, critics in Congress are attacking it from both left and right. The president is trying to preserve what he sees as one of his most significant domestic achievements. The latest report card released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress gave him some ammunition. [...]
Democratic lawmakers offered a more measured assessment of the results and saw them as justification for modifying No Child Left Behind. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), a key player on education legislation, said, "With an improved law and better funding, I believe that we will see much stronger achievement gains among all students."
Someone please check the countdown clock (in the sidebar) and let me know when I can resurface. I'm not sure how much more of Bush I can take.
2 comments:
My new catch all is "no child left behind unless they need to go the doctor."
Can this be happening? Oh yes it can. And it is.
Scantron tests are a fucking joke. Monkeys can memorize (Most of them at least. Chimpy's an exception).
Memorizing does not teach people how to think, which is how you get through life. Knowing what happened April 5, 1731 doesn't do much for a person in the real world.
If you want to know how well "No Children's Leaved Behind" and the testing we do in general work, ask employers.
What you will hear is, "Young people cannot think for themselves, they cannot problem solve, they cannot complete an assignment unless they have their hand held the entire time, they cannot handle stress, they cannot adapt, and they expect to be praised for everything they do no matter how inane."
In layman's/laywoman's terms, they're idiots.
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