A,B,C....1-2-3

Scott Uria

Professor Warren

ENC 1102

April 15, 2012

ABC…1-2-3

            Welcome Students! This is normally the greeting students receive on the first day of school. On that first day, every student is on the same level, with a clean slate. Expectations are high from the educators, students, and parents. After that first day, the learning capabilities of students begin to separate. I recently had to opportunity to view the film, Waiting for Superman. I must admit, this film was a true eye opener. This film covered kids and the educational system, and how reading and math scores remain low. Although parents are extremely important with their child’s learning, I feel most of the responsibility falls on the educators. Let’s be honest, some have the dedication and the gift of teaching, while others just have a degree.

            I wanted to research and find out what makes a person qualified to be teacher within the educational system. As a person decides on their college of choice, they need to select and focus on a field of study, which in this case is a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. For one choosing to be an educator, the first choice would be whether or not to pursue elementary education, or middle and high school education (Education-Portal). During this program, a student must meet the required field work, which consists of help or teaching a class under a licensed teacher. After the degree has been earned, the final portion required is the completion of a teacher education program, and completion of a basic writing and math skills test. There you have it, a person qualified to be employed in a school district. The requirements obtained should be enough to help our youth to be successful in advancing to the next grade. Unfortunately that isn’t happening. Many teachers are not teaching a well-rounded curriculum, and there are some who are not passionate about their job, and the only motive is to only receive that paycheck. But I can’t put the blame solely on our teachers; there is plenty of blame to go around.

            Our government stepped in with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. I would like to believe this Act was put into law to better our educational system. As with most things, there are some pros and cons. According to Carleton.Edu, the pros and cons seem to equal out. A couple of the pros show the positive outcomes to the NCLBA. Since this act took effect, there has been an increase in student test scores, and classes are being taught by more highly qualified teachers, which overall the best thing a student or parent could ask for.  Some of the cons that caught my attention are that teachers are teaching “to the test.” What this basically means is that each year the schools are required to test the students, usually covering 3-4 days, and each class, grade, school, and district is evaluated and compared to other schools. Obviously no teacher wants to have the class with the lowest scores, and no grade wants to be lower than others, no school wants to be the one with the overall lowest mark, and each district wants to shine over others. So instead of the students being taught a curriculum that covers many aspects, teachers are spending most of the school year focusing on the math problems and comprehension points. During this test, students are held to the same achievement standards regardless of their ability level. The con to this is every child learns differently. This directly affected my home two years ago.

 My daughter is very intelligent, but she seemed to continue to struggle with math. She could read very well, but would lose focus on what she just read. We took her to a psychologist who put her through a series of tests, covering about four hours. After doing our own research, we came up with exactly what the psychologist did. The psychologist asked if she easily gets side tracked at home when given chores. We acknowledge and confirmed that she did. The prognosis was that my daughter has a non-verbal learning disability. We were shown the results of some of the tests that she was given. My daughter scored off the charts in certain challenges, some in the 86 percentile, higher than 20% above students of her age. The psychologist said that she will always have a struggle with math, even up through the college years, and recommended that paragraphs not be read in full, but to break it down in 3-4 sentence intervals, which has helped drastically. Although we submitted everything to the school, she was held to the same standard as one without a learning disability. Once the FCAT results came back, she missed the required line score in the subjects that her disability most affects. Although her grades throughout the year were passing, she was not allowed to advance to the fourth grade. At that point, we enrolled her into a private school, with smaller classrooms, and no FCAT. For the past two years, she has maintained high grades, and continues to expand her knowledge. I’m proud of that kid!

Yes, I seemed to put a lot of responsibility and blame towards unwilling teachers. But let’s keep it real, education and the mentality to learn starts in the home. We as parents should never be too busy to help our child with school work, and take the time out to read to them. Our children are like sponges, they will absorb everything we put into them. After 23 years of being out of school, I decided to enroll back in 2011, and I am proud to say that I made the Dean’s List last semester. That is the example I love setting for my children. In two weeks my oldest daughter will be graduating from Charleston Southern University with a B.S in Biology. Being actively involved with her and giving lots of encouragement goes a long way. Yes, education starts in the home. Let’s encourage success at home, so they will have success in the class.

           

Works Cited

 

"No Child Left Behind Act of 2001." : A Private Liberal Arts College in Northfield, Minnesota. N.p., n.d. Web. Oct.-Nov. 2009.

Waiting for Superman. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. N.d. Documentary.

Education-Portal.com