[THEFERMANATOR]

Well my wife is also a teacher, so I see both sides of this arguement. No child left behind has turned into a monkey F$$KING A FOOTBALL as far as eductaion goes. The administration could care less about kids learning life skills so long as they can pass teh FCAT and get that gubment money. Schools now get there budget dictated by how well they do on the statewide standardized test(FCAT down here). If they do poorly they get less money, but if they do better than average, they get bonus's. It's all come down to test scores now down here. My wifes school she is at noww gives her timelines on when everything has to be done so that every student in the whole district is at the same place every day now. It pretty much comes down to the district as to how the teachers can teach, and the kids now have the control in the classroom. Parents are mostly to blame, and my own mother is no exception to this(In hidsight I'm lucky my father was the one that brought the hammer down, but at the time I hated it).

Most parents now believe it is up to the teachers to motivate and educate to make the kids want to put down there phones and Playstations and learn. If the teacher doesn't motivate them properly, then why is it there responsibility to do anything(or at least this is how they see it). Our educational system has dropped off to but a glimmer of what it used to be even 15 years ago when I went. Now kids graduating high school barely know how to ad, and there are some who don't even know how to read and comprehend the English language. Why should a high school teacher need to be educated and certified in reading comprehension?

Wasn't elemenetary school around to teach kids the basics? Wasn't Middle school for teaching life skills? And wasn't high school to teach a person the basic skills to get through life and survive? Now elementary school is a large state funded day care where some kids learn letters. Middle school is where they get a basic understanding of letters and numbers, and High school is where you teach them how to comprehend the english language and pass the state mandated tests so that the school system acan get that gubment check. And yet many parents(at least down here) are screaming saying they are putting to much pressure on kids, and that the standards should be changed even more.

So it is a sad state of affairs all around that boils down to we the people, who most of anymore just don't seem to care. Theer are many good teachers out there, but for every good one there are 10 who just don't care and are working the system.