Class reaction 4/15

One of the questions from last week's discussion was " What is necessary at the "classroom level" for successful reform." One of the responses to this was to set realistic goals. I could not agree with that more. I think there are many times when outside forces, such as government, try to implement changes without looking at the whole picture. An example of this is "No Child Left Behind." I am not a teacher yet so I am going to base my beliefs on this idea from what many other teachers have told me. I know that this is not the majority view, but many teachers I have spoken to do not agree with this. I know some of you reading this immediately responded in your minds that the reason they do not like this is because it means more paperwork for them. This may be the case for some, but the teachers I spoke to had good reason for not liking this act. One example is my older sister who teaches kindergarten in an extremely low SES school in Athens Ga. it is sad to say, but a lot of her students have extremely bad learning disabilities because their parents are drug addicts and did drugs while pregnant. I have observed some of her students in the past and it is almost a sin to compare her students with children who come from better homes. My sister is an unbelievable teacher. She has a masters in special education and has even received awards for her teaching. I tell you this because it is not right to hold her accountable for some of the lack of achievement in her students. She was very upset when the "No Child Left Behind" was implemented because the standards they wanted her to reach with her children were almost impossible. It was incredible to me to see where her children started when coming into her classroom and where they to advanced to when leaving. When compared to other schools though, the ending place of her students, is where a lot of other children begin when coming into kindergarten. I know that this act has done a lot of good things, and I do not want to just focus on the negative. For example I remember in class Cindy telling how much the IEP's helped her children to succeed. So on that note there are positive aspects of it. I wanted to relate this to the idea of making reforms by setting realistic goals, because sometimes what is realistic for one school may be impossible for another. I think that is why when government officials pass laws for the school systems, it should be very individualized to meet the needs of every individual school. Some of our best and most hardworking teachers work in the schools that are not very appealing atmosheres, and we do not want to lose them because of what government sees in their minds as appropriate.