Posted by An employee of mine is about to graduate from college, he is 19 years old I believe. We were talking yesterday about history, both world and American, and he expressed how little he knew. I shook my head and said “its tragic to me that your generation can use practically any technology based device placed into your hands, but you have no idea how to think or reason and have little to no knowledge of history.” Even more tragic is that I have spoken to many people around his age and many have no interest in history, but they explain why, as my employee did.
Employee:
“My generation got screwed man. No child left behind, created by Bush, basically screwed us out of learning anything in school. Everything was about practicing for some stupid tests, that if we didn’t do good on the school was punished with less funding. Think about that, we did poorly, meaning we needed more help, and the no child left behind would cut funding so that we had less help. They also cut any classes that actually kept any of us interested, history being one of them, all history. Given that I sort of checked out, as did almost all of my classmates.”
My niece said the same thing – she went to high school in Florida.
“My school was incredibly violent and the teachers and staff did nothing, and really, none of the students blamed them. Why would they? The administration wouldn’t back them, and blamed them every chance they had. None of my friends cared, and most of them ended up dropping out.”
She dropped out as well. She went to a private adult school and got her diploma in like 6 months or so. Think that one through. The thing that kills me is that in her generation the rate of high school dropouts has exploded. I wonder why. Maybe because the no child left behind left everyone behind in things that mattered. Congratulations Bush on another job well done – you have managed to deliver into the world the most helpless generation to date, and they know it, and they aren’t happy about it.
I wouldn’t blame the No Child Left Behind act totally, as it has been poorly implemented at best. To me at least it was an effort. In reality, primary education has been marginalized for years in the U.S. – way before Dubya came along, which prompted No Child Left Behind. Here is a good article about it and suggested changes:
http://www.slate.com/id/2187680/
No offense to “employee” but history has never been inherently interesting to teenagers. The subject has always depended on the teacher. Thrax, do you remember that kick-ass history teacher we had at Jr. College? His passion made it a good class.
Furthermore, are you saying that knowing intimate details of the Magna Carta is more important that basic math and reading? Because students are graduating without basic reading skills. List the top 10 necessary skills/knowledge a student should acquire before graduating. Would history be on that list? As for reasoning, a lot of that is common sense. Even you or I didn’t learn much of that in high school. Maybe the parents should take some responsibility for that.
I didn’t, and don’t, blame it totally – I am merely pointing to the fact that there is some stuff seriously wrong with it. For istance, did you know that under no child left behind, most kids that aren’t ready to go to the next grade are put there anyway for financing reasons?
My wife is a teacher and said that she, and the teachers she works with, noticed that since they were no longer to teach the “non essential” classes and focus only on “fundamentals” that kids are losing interest.
Think about it: Math you are REQUIED to have a calculator. Reading you just sit and read the same stuff over and over again.
With those non essential classes, you know history and science, you actually do reading and math in an applied field, one that is different and helps keep the interest of students. your use of the word NEVER is a pretty big word – you may want to rethink your generality of the teenage population as said employee’s interest defeats your grandiose statement.
As far as the teacher, of course that matters, it matters for all subjects.
All I know is I haven’t been directly involved with No Child Left Behind at all, and the only people singing its praises have been politicians that I have heard from. Teachers, students and parents all seem to think it has had no good effect on the students.
Considering the pantheon of school subjects I firmly stand by my grandiose generalization. However, I agree that reading and math is applicable to classes like history. Although I am unsure of your point. Mine was if kids are graduating without basic reading and math skills, then that should be a primary focus of many schools in certain areas. THEN, history and science should follow. A kid will definitely lose interest in Physiology if he or she can not read those big words.
As for No Child Left Behind, I think we can agree that it was probably dreamed up by some bean-counting control freak that thought teachers have too much leeway and students have too much free time. I too have no direct experience, but it is my understanding that “the” major problem with the current primary education system in the U.S. is that it does not recognize students that excel. These students often get lost in the system. NCLB does not solve that issue – it probably exacerbates it.
AAAND this is why I will not teach at a public school! I’m more than happy to take a pay cut.