The New Government Education Plan: Every Child Moving Forward
The Obama Administration has a great new Education program for the United States. No Child Left Behind, has been universally praised and despised for years. Beyond that, and despite whatever good and bad components it possesses, it simply has a negative connotation focusing on the child being “left behind”, rather than moving forward (and it had that negative word “no” in the title). For this reason alone, a new program was necessary. However, this bold new educational program needed to emulate the goals and policies of all the other major Obama Administration's initiatives. It needed to include fairness for all, but most of all it needed to represent change.
So, how can this be accomplished? First and foremost, a new grading policy will be implemented across the country, in every public and private school. This is the central component to the new plan. Henceforth, all students with a 100 (or higher) grade average in any class will be taxed 25% of their scores, and those points will be taken by the government. Then, those students whose grades are below 75% will be awarded points from this pool, to increase their grades to a passing level. This way, everyone will have the same grades, regardless of how hard they may work or how intelligent they may be.
After all, some kids may not have a work ethic or good study habits, and they should not be punished. Those who have exceeded the "average" standard need to learn to give back to those less fortunate and quit being so greedy and driven by success. This will ensure all students will receive a passing grade and keep them "moving forward" in our education system.
However, there is another crucial component to the plan: standardized tests, the bane of educational evil. To show the administration is not simply parroting for the National Education Association, the new plan will keep the tests, but with one major change in their measurement: as long as a student puts an answer on any question, they will getting a passing score. After all, they tried.
Lastly, the Obama plan to guarantee everyone graduates has to cope with one final hurdle, dropouts. To achieve this final goal, anyone who ever attended school will be given a diploma either upon graduation or upon applying an application at the Department of Education after reaching the age of 19.
So, this bold, innovative plan will help make America the land of opportunity for more, as everyone will graduate, everyone will have the same GPA and there will no longer be "kids left behind" and "overachievers", just graduates. America will immediately vault to the top of the industrialized nations in producing the highest percentage of graduates.
So, everyone graduates, no negative program names or labels given to students, and America, indeed the world, is flush with scores of new graduates to help fuel a global economic recovery. And most of all, life will be fair for all kids.
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Satire and parody are wonderful tools for illustrating points. I continue to explain and teach my children why we believe in certain principles in our home, and sometimes more easily understood metaphors and lessons which include things more in their day-to-day lives help.
I care deeply about the sorry state of education in our country today. Personally, I think the federal government has nothing to offer education except perhaps dollars. More accountability and responsibility for education should come at the state and local levels. More parents should pay attention to the quality of their child's education and learn about the policies of their local school boards. They should examine their children's class work and stay involved.
I certainly don't have all the answers, but I have seen some great ideas over the years which should be more widely utilized. In Oklahoma, a bold idea has reaped huge benefits. Every day, Kindergarteners come to 2 classrooms in a Senior Living Facility across the street from their school, and the residents there volunteer to read and work with the young children every day. Reading skills from those students have increased dramatically, at an even higher rate than those students who attend the local Pre-K programs offered by the traditional school system there. As an added benefit, the level of medication and health ailments afflicting the senior residents have dropped substantially too. You can read more about the program here: http://www.edutopia.org/grace-learning-center-prekindergarten-community and http://nieer.org/psm/index.php?article=113 .
Another leader in the arena of educational ideas gave a presentation at a TED conference a few years back and shared his ideas with the world. It dealt with changing the focus of education from simply grade centric “university” skills, to including the arts, fostering creativity and helping students find their passions in life. Ken Robinson’s presentation is one of the best ever at Ted. See it here: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html .
So, maybe some more great ideas will fall forth, and now my kids can relate better to some of the stupid, misguided policies our government continues to put forth on a daily basis.
So, how can this be accomplished? First and foremost, a new grading policy will be implemented across the country, in every public and private school. This is the central component to the new plan. Henceforth, all students with a 100 (or higher) grade average in any class will be taxed 25% of their scores, and those points will be taken by the government. Then, those students whose grades are below 75% will be awarded points from this pool, to increase their grades to a passing level. This way, everyone will have the same grades, regardless of how hard they may work or how intelligent they may be.
After all, some kids may not have a work ethic or good study habits, and they should not be punished. Those who have exceeded the "average" standard need to learn to give back to those less fortunate and quit being so greedy and driven by success. This will ensure all students will receive a passing grade and keep them "moving forward" in our education system.
However, there is another crucial component to the plan: standardized tests, the bane of educational evil. To show the administration is not simply parroting for the National Education Association, the new plan will keep the tests, but with one major change in their measurement: as long as a student puts an answer on any question, they will getting a passing score. After all, they tried.
Lastly, the Obama plan to guarantee everyone graduates has to cope with one final hurdle, dropouts. To achieve this final goal, anyone who ever attended school will be given a diploma either upon graduation or upon applying an application at the Department of Education after reaching the age of 19.
So, this bold, innovative plan will help make America the land of opportunity for more, as everyone will graduate, everyone will have the same GPA and there will no longer be "kids left behind" and "overachievers", just graduates. America will immediately vault to the top of the industrialized nations in producing the highest percentage of graduates.
So, everyone graduates, no negative program names or labels given to students, and America, indeed the world, is flush with scores of new graduates to help fuel a global economic recovery. And most of all, life will be fair for all kids.
************************
Satire and parody are wonderful tools for illustrating points. I continue to explain and teach my children why we believe in certain principles in our home, and sometimes more easily understood metaphors and lessons which include things more in their day-to-day lives help.
I care deeply about the sorry state of education in our country today. Personally, I think the federal government has nothing to offer education except perhaps dollars. More accountability and responsibility for education should come at the state and local levels. More parents should pay attention to the quality of their child's education and learn about the policies of their local school boards. They should examine their children's class work and stay involved.
I certainly don't have all the answers, but I have seen some great ideas over the years which should be more widely utilized. In Oklahoma, a bold idea has reaped huge benefits. Every day, Kindergarteners come to 2 classrooms in a Senior Living Facility across the street from their school, and the residents there volunteer to read and work with the young children every day. Reading skills from those students have increased dramatically, at an even higher rate than those students who attend the local Pre-K programs offered by the traditional school system there. As an added benefit, the level of medication and health ailments afflicting the senior residents have dropped substantially too. You can read more about the program here: http://www.edutopia.org/gr
Another leader in the arena of educational ideas gave a presentation at a TED conference a few years back and shared his ideas with the world. It dealt with changing the focus of education from simply grade centric “university” skills, to including the arts, fostering creativity and helping students find their passions in life. Ken Robinson’s presentation is one of the best ever at Ted. See it here: http://www.ted.com/talks/k
So, maybe some more great ideas will fall forth, and now my kids can relate better to some of the stupid, misguided policies our government continues to put forth on a daily basis.
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