No Child Left Behind...The Football Version
Here's the basics of No Child Left Behind put into a form thats more easily understandable...
1. ALL teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the Championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If after 2 years they have not won a championship their footballs and equipment will be taken away UNTIL they do win the championship.
2. ALL kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time even if they do not have the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. NO exceptions will be made for lack of interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves or their parents.
ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL!!
3. Talented players will be asked to workout and practice on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instuctional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited abilities, or whose parents don't like football.
4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th game. This will create a New Age of Sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum goals. No child gets ahead, the no child is left behind. If parents do not like this new law they are encouraged to vote for vouchers and support private schools that can screen out the non-athletesand prevent their children from having to go to school with bad football players.
I didn't chose to share this version of NCLB to bash the public education system, I have a lot of faith in the current system, and I hope to be able to become a part of that system in the near future, but this law has created impossible standards that teachers will never be able to reach, and it is hurting the educations of the majority of students in schools.
The concept of NCLB is a great one, for too long teacher's have had the ability to neglect problem students, and make them the problem of the next grade's teacher, resulting in students graduating from high school without a sufficient education. No Child Left Behind has just caused teachers to skew numbers in their favor so they can keep their job, and who can really blame them. Now instead of passing problem children along, they fail them, which is probably for the best when it comes to their education, but they are not the other ones being held back.
Many students are being failed, because of their inability to do well on standardized tests. A student could get high marks on all of their work, but do poorly on a standardized test in the 9th grade, and the student will be failed so that they won't take the standardized test in 10th grade that is used to calculate a school's "grade" for NCLB. Good students are being shut down, and turned off of the education system in America, which is not the image we should be showing to our younger generations.
It is hard to believe that such a system exists in an education system that is beginning to stress alternative testing methods, to let so much ride on standardized tests seems retroactive to me. I'm sure that there is a better way for us to educate our young Americans. I don't have the answers on how to make the system better, but its out there somewhere, and I hope that the answer is found soon, so that No Child Left Behind can be abolished, and we can move in a direction that will help America be more competitive in academics world wide.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Presidential Opener
Being a fan of baseball, and there being nothing else on TV today resulted in me turning on ESPN to watch the beginning of the MLB season. The featured games was the Braves vs the Nationals. These are not teams that I care the least about, but I decided to watch the opening ceremonies, and the first inning or so, atleast until I found something else that caught my interest. This is the first home game for the Washington Nationals, and just like every other home opener in D.C., the first pitch was thrown out by the current President. When President Bush ran out to the mound to throw the pitch I heard a sound a did not expect...boo's.
Let me take this time to clarify that I am not generally a fan of President Bush, but that is not why I am writing.
I just don't think that a fan of the game should boo the person that throws out the first pitch. What kind of statement are you trying to make? You don't like President Bush, who cares, his popularity ratings are in the toilet so you're not alone, but Mr. Bush isn't at the park to promote any new proposals, or to ask people to support the Republican Party. He is simply there to do what every President since Howard Taft has done, throw one pitch, and walk away. It's a moment that a baseball fan should cherish, few people will ever get to see a Presidential Opener, and it should be something you should tell your kids about, or if a clip is shown on TV, you can say "I was at that game." Instead the people that decided to boo can say "I'm the idiot you hear in the background."
Not only did the fans boo as the President was introduced, they booed immediately after he threw the pitch. I don't even know what kinds of statement they think they are making by booing then. It was actually one of the better first pitches I've ever seen. Most of the time whoever is throwing the first pitch has to throw from the very front of the mound, the pitch doesn't make it close to reaching the plate, and is usually far wide to the right or left. Mr. Bush threw from the center of the mound, and although the pitch wasn't right down the middle, it did reach the plate, rather than rolling most of the way. I could maybe understand booing if it seemed that he didn't care, and threw a weak pitch, but you could tell that he is a fan of the game, and wanted to make the best pitch he could. As a fan of the game, I applaud President Bush for continuing in this longtime tradition, and I hope that future Presidents will take the event as seriously as he did.
Maybe I'm overreacting, but I don't feel the need to hear people's political opinions at a baseball game. Applauding for President Bush doesn't mean you support him or the Republican Party. It means your ready to see the game get started, and enjoy the game that you payed a great deal of money to see.
Let me take this time to clarify that I am not generally a fan of President Bush, but that is not why I am writing.
I just don't think that a fan of the game should boo the person that throws out the first pitch. What kind of statement are you trying to make? You don't like President Bush, who cares, his popularity ratings are in the toilet so you're not alone, but Mr. Bush isn't at the park to promote any new proposals, or to ask people to support the Republican Party. He is simply there to do what every President since Howard Taft has done, throw one pitch, and walk away. It's a moment that a baseball fan should cherish, few people will ever get to see a Presidential Opener, and it should be something you should tell your kids about, or if a clip is shown on TV, you can say "I was at that game." Instead the people that decided to boo can say "I'm the idiot you hear in the background."
Not only did the fans boo as the President was introduced, they booed immediately after he threw the pitch. I don't even know what kinds of statement they think they are making by booing then. It was actually one of the better first pitches I've ever seen. Most of the time whoever is throwing the first pitch has to throw from the very front of the mound, the pitch doesn't make it close to reaching the plate, and is usually far wide to the right or left. Mr. Bush threw from the center of the mound, and although the pitch wasn't right down the middle, it did reach the plate, rather than rolling most of the way. I could maybe understand booing if it seemed that he didn't care, and threw a weak pitch, but you could tell that he is a fan of the game, and wanted to make the best pitch he could. As a fan of the game, I applaud President Bush for continuing in this longtime tradition, and I hope that future Presidents will take the event as seriously as he did.
Maybe I'm overreacting, but I don't feel the need to hear people's political opinions at a baseball game. Applauding for President Bush doesn't mean you support him or the Republican Party. It means your ready to see the game get started, and enjoy the game that you payed a great deal of money to see.
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