# Essay on no child left behind



## legendhunter (May 3, 2012)

No Child Left Alive

          In the midst of childhood, humanity is by far the most unintelligent living race, compared to other living creatures starting intelligence. A child, a human is restricted only by their lack of understanding; therefore education is an important part of society. One day the generation of old will have to give up their throne, and the children of today will be the big shots. Human beings are very malleable, psychologically, and physically. Depending on how a human being is raised it can be the downfall or salvation of the future. Schools at this time do not inspire a better future, because it forces one way of thinking; rather than creativity. This set public education system works much like a gang, you either fit in or you don’t; the difference being if you don’t fit into this gang you are declared stupid and inferior. Einstein once said “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid” The same can be said for judging a student with tests; judge them instead by what they can do, no one would be “stupid” then. Provide students with a personalized education plan for their needs, and then help them grow in all aspects of life.

          Within _"Johnny can read ... in some states: assessing the rigor of state assessment systems." _Written by Hess, Frederick M., and Paul E. Peterson it is said “Some states have risen to the challenge and set demanding proficiency levels for their students, while others have used lower standards to inflate reported performance. Not only is the disparity confusing, but, perversely enough, the states with the highest expectations often stand accused of having the most schools said to be in need of improvement--even when their students are doing relatively well.” No child left behind requiring schools to say their students are doing proficiently well, in order to get financed puts a strain on schools to lower their standards. This leads to an equivalent for our children’s drive to be educated as a communistic society to work well. The passion to learn is dying, and if this fire to learn dies; society as a whole will collapse. Be realistic about what is considered acceptable information learned each year, and take into account communication between students, states, and the government; without this communication there is no real way to tell whether students are really learning or not. Take the level of mastery state standards require into consideration, before saying a school is adequate for finance or not.

“Maslow’s hierarchy of needs” is a diagram created by Abraham Maslow, showing the steps needed to develop psychologically. In the hierarchy of needs there are 5 stages, physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self actualization. The physiological stage holds things like eating, breathing, sleep, homeostasis, and excretion. The safety stage holds security of: body, employment, recourses, morality, the family, health, property. The love and belonging stage is where friendships, family and intimacy develop. Esteem is where a person can respect others, have confidence, and self esteem. The last step of the hierarchy of needs self actualization is when a person retains morality, spontaneity, problem solving skills, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts, and creativity.  A child who fears for their life cannot learn as efficiently as a child who feels safe in their environment, schools over time have been trying to meet this level of the hierarchy of needs due to excessive bullying. The problem is there are still three more levels of the hierarchy that students are not helped with. The families of this age are not as loving and supporting as they were years ago. The argument that students go to school to learn and not to be parented is inconsiderate to those children who lack loving parents. There are children all around the nation who go onto social networks or online games because the internet is their family. Children get into gangs because they are looking for a family. Some argue the internet is the cause of children having low self esteem, when in reality it is their school life and home life that truly affects their esteem. There are plenty of high esteem children who are on social networks; the internet is simply some children’s place to meet their hierarchy of needs. Girls post sexually provocative images on the internet to fill their empty esteem. A child cannot learn when they are caught up in all of these psychological and social problems. Advance children up the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a priority, and then concentrate on their studies.

          The mounting crisis of obesity is creating health issues all over the United States, with diabetes, and heart attacks there are plenty of media to bring the issue of obesity into the light. Awareness of an issue is all well and good, but if you don’t have an understanding of how to solve an issue, the problem won’t get solved. The education system is a direct result of rising obesity, because we are so focused on teaching our children science and math that we forget about health. It is written within "School Lunch Programs May Encourage Poor Nutrition."  By Bornstein, Adam “…superintendents and the school board are left with a dilemma: Find new ways to raise millions of dollars, or buy the types of foods students will purchase. "School administrators know that foods of minimum nutritional value provide a profit margin that makes up for what they're losing from the federally mandated meal," says Dr. Schumacher. "And these products can even give them a little bit of profit to put back into the school. Where is their incentive to stop that? ... One barrier is the No Child Left Behind Act [of 2001]. Designed to improve the quality of education in public schools, it puts tremendous pressure on schools to ensure that students perform well on standardized tests in math and science. But as a result, physical education and health classes have been minimized—crippled, even—since tests aren't given in those subject areas."  Provide schools enough funds to give students healthy food, activities, and all the information they need to live healthy, and happily.

In "No Child Left Behind Is Harmful and Should Not Be Funded." by Hobart, Susan J it is written “I'm a teacher. I've taught elementary school for eleven years. I've always told people, "I have the best job in the world." I crafted curriculum that made students think, and they had fun while learning. At the end of the day, I felt energized. Today, more often than not, I feel demoralized.” I can sympathize with this teacher, because my mother is also a teacher and she speaks of the exact same story. My mother speaks of how the administrators are putting so much pressure on them to put pressure on the students. No child left behind is designed to be one size fits all, but this does not work. It will not work. It will never work, until the day comes that everyone becomes the same, and that day is never coming either. This method of teaching has been used for just a short period of time, and already everyone who actually has to do the dirty work is feeling demoralized. Teach lessons adapted to children’s needs.

In the same article it is written “In an increasingly diverse public school setting, there is not one educational pedagogy that fits all students. We study and discuss differentiated curriculum, modify teaching strategies, and set "just right reading levels" to scaffold student learning. But No Child Left Behind doesn't care about that. It takes no note of where they started or how much they may have progressed.”  Keep track of not only subject progression, but also emotional, and physical progression. Keep track of what matters.






Hess, Frederick M., and Paul E. Peterson. "Johnny can read ... in some states: assessing the rigor of state assessment systems." _Education Next_ 5.3 (2005): 52+._Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context_. Web. 30 Apr. 2012.

Bornstein, Adam. "School Lunch Programs May Encourage Poor Nutrition." _Nutrition_. David Haugen and Susan Musser. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Why Are Schools Selling Junk Food to Kids?" _Men's Health_23.9 (Nov. 2008): 158-164. _Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context_. Web. 30 Apr. 2012.

Hobart, Susan J. "No Child Left Behind Is Harmful and Should Not Be Funded." _School Funding_. Lynn Zott. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "One Teacher's Cry: Why I Hate No Child Left Behind." _The Progressive_ (Aug. 2008). _Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context_. Web. 2 May 2012.


----------



## garza (May 3, 2012)

legendhunter - You have some good ideas, but you need to do learn how to express those ideas in clean, clear, simple,  and direct language. You need to keep two words always in mind - precise and concise. Precise means you say  exactly what you mean to say with no room for misunderstanding. Concise  means you use the simplest and fewest words possible.  

Here's a  suggestion, or a challenge if you will. At present your essay is 13  hundred words. Trim that to three hundred but leave nothing out. Bring  the revised essay back and let's look at it. 

If you own a thesaurus, give it to someone you don't like.


----------



## legendhunter (May 4, 2012)

Thank you, that is what I'll be working on today. Then I will put it into video form to show my education system on a youtube video. This was just a college essay paper that I had to do, and I figured that I should use it as an opportunity to better explain what is wrong with the education system, and how to fix it.


----------

