No Child Left Behind: Keep the School Buses Rolling!!!

Yesterday I wrote a story about teaching some problem students that had somehow fallen behind, maybe this was before the infamous "No Child Left Behind" policy.  I think we need to be honest with ourselves and admit that the only time that policy really works is when the last bell sounds and the buses pull out.  Otherwise someone is always a little or sometimes even quite a bit behind.  But when the yellow buses leave No Child is Left Behind!   Not everyone learns at the same pace and if we slow down too much all the GLEs (grade level expectations) will not get covered, then everyone is behind...Vicious Circle.  I hate it.  The professional educators I know and am associated with love their jobs and strive to do it well.  None of us actually want to see ANY child behind or lost.  We would like to see all excel and shine in their own way.  I believe they are all gifted, they just open their packages at different times.  Sometimes I get to see it and sometimes it happens after they leave me.   I know educators have wrestled with the problem of student "mastery" for years, perhaps forever.  Different teachers use different strategies but all have the same ultimate goal:  draw the absolute best out of each and every student.  One fellow teacher I worked with years ago, believed if you didn't master a concept he owned all your free time.  He kept them in from recess, P E, computer class...ANY free time a failing student had or anything that looked like fun he owned until that student had mastered the concept.  It appeared to me both student and teacher were a bit frustrated in this effort, but I left it ALONE.  Until...remember that class I spoke of...remember Lil' Richie...he knew the cursing phone number...One day Lil' Richie came into my class so very upset.  He had Mr. O'Hand for Social Studies, and had yet to master the Amendments to the Constitution or some such.  My "secret" answer was learn where to find them in the encyclopedia or such, but no one asked me...Until Lil' Richie came in that day, so very upset because he owed that particular teacher his recesses and his P. E. for the week.   I think his question to me summed it up well, "Mrs. Evans, Is it right to keep a boy inside all the time just 'cause he don't know nothing?"  Now what are you going to do with that?  Keep those school buses running!!!

Even brilliant children need a break!!!