Soapbox...I've been egged on!

A few of my friends have asked me to continue with my soapbox on the current state of our educational system. Let me say that I love where I work and I think we are very fortunate to have our kids in school in this area as a whole. This area has faced major growth problems, but with a thriving economy to support it. That in no way compares to the problems inner city schools face and the national news backed that info up with some scary stats tonight on the graduation rates. Mollie is getting a solid foundation and again I love where I work.
Having said that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is flawed and creates a lot of paper trails and not a lot of help. And come on, the title...really do you think any teacher intends to leave a child behind. That alone is just plain insulting to any teacher who went into the profession for the right reasons. I'm not expert on the laws, but bring it up and you will be able to hear teachers groan down the street. It doesn't seem to matter what side of the voting isle you are on the answers seem to be the same.
My other big beef is testing. Do you realize that people who know nothing about planning quality education on a daily basis make these decisions. We start testing every child in the state next week and my darlings are included in that. Can I just say I hate it. Some of the little ones don't realize what is going on and that is a blessing! What is the most painful to watch is when they are smart enough to realize they don't know the answer. I know that some testing is a necessary evil of education, but what could we do to improve it if we had just some of that money to lower class sizes. I could only begin to guess how many millions we spend on testing in this country!
I love my job, my school and mostly my kids! They are why I do what I do!
One last thing to leave you thinking about...voting for president. I realize that the war and the economy are what we hear the most about. I agree that they are important. I will be the first to gripe about the cost of gas these days, but I don't feel like I know what any of the three remaining candidates will do with the current state of NCLB and the educational system as a whole. We need to ask more questions, because when the war is over and the price of gas has evened out our children will still be living with what we teach them and they will be our soldiers and economists!