Response to Angry Floridian

As a future educator I sat with my mouth open, appalled, as a read through the first chapter. It brought on a flood of memories and disbelieving notions of current educators and their stance on not only No Child Left Behind but also on how they view their students as purely test scores. My younger brother was seen as such and was placed in the lower division of junior high and struggled to come to terms with the fact that he was not a failure and was not any less smart than his other classmates placed in the upper division of the junior high. He was picked on for being ‘dumb’ and ‘stupid’ and ‘wouldn’t ever amount to anything.’ It was difficult to watch him struggle through those two years of his life and decidedly attended another high school in which he would no longer be with the students who teased, humiliated and virtually destroyed his educational career within junior high. It was difficult to read about the principle in Florida who viewed his students as test scores and didn’t care what it took to raise them as long as they were making AYP. Derek, the student in the beginning of the chapter, was humiliated by being placed in a remedial reading course that focused on his low scores in attempt to raise them to meet the AYP standard. It was painstaking to read that his improvement after the past year wasn’t seen as good enough, that despite his poverty-stricken family he was defying the odds and improving in his educational career but the improvement he had made within the year was not enough to let him be placed outside of the remedial class and he in turn had to drop en elective course he had originally signed up for. It was heartbreaking to read that his significant improvement was still not enough by AYP standards and was not acknowledged by any teachers and was not congratulated in this improvement. He had improved and his placement within the remedial program made him feel as though no effort he would make would ever be good enough.

                If I was in the remedial teacher’s shoes it would be a difficult position, no doubt about it, but I would have to acknowledge each student’s improvement, no matter how large or small, and would make the student feel as though he was worth something. Each student should feel as though school should be a time in which he is able to benefit himself and the life he has planned accordingly. I would then have to set each student’s learning pattern according to those scores and his participation within the classroom, and would adjust those standards accordingly. Each student should always know that he is worth educating and worth spending the seven or eight hours at school. He should always know that he is worth spending the time with.