NCLB is not at all about the students. It is there to intentionally try to break up the largest union in the country. The NEA. Look at the facts. What happens to a school that does not meet or exceed on state standardized tests(which supposedly by 2012 must be 100% of all students)? After a couple of year of “failure” the Feds can come in and fire everyone and start over. Anyone that understands tenure knows that even the administrators in a school have a difficult time letting go of a tenured teacher who slipped through the system even if they are horrible at the job. Why? The Union will support them no matter what.

Responsibility is also a great factor here. Americans have become a nation of people who cannot take responsibility for their own actions. We are all “sue happy”. If someone falls down on the sidewalk in front of my house I somehow become responsible. I didn’t push them down. They were not paying attention. Take responsibility. Having worked in the public school system for the last 12 years, I have seen this lack of personal responsibility over and over again. It is never the student or parents fault something happens. It is always someone else s fault. This is also why we are depriving our students of using technology in the classrooms. We are afraid that a student might cyber bully another student and the school will be held accountable. Why isn’t the student who did the bullying held accountable? I do not believe that European schools face this problem because they teach personal responsibility early on.

I think it is brilliant that they don’t start academics until kids are 7. I think that a child’s dislike of school comes from the fact that at 5 we are insisting that they become fluent readers. Kindergarten is the new 1st grade in this country. It is a researched fact that some kids will read very early while some will not fully get it until the end of second grade or early third. In American schools by that time they are tagged and labeled as slow or learning disabled and thus “left behind”. And finally, as someone above commented no education is free. However, giving people a chance to educate themselves without going into massive debt will also increase the number of people that are actually contributing to society and paying taxes. People are always complaining about where there tax money is going. This is an example of how that money would be useful and in turn create more money that would help the country.

This sounds like the reason they have free university education…there may be a lack of grants/scholarships to be had is academic achievement is not celebrated by organizations there. Standardized tests, unfortunately, influence a student’s access to those scholarships. Without financial aid, it would seem impossible for many students to afford university.