A Rhode Island school district cancels their annual spelling bee, claiming it runs afoul of No Child Left Behind, in a very literal sense:
The administrators decided to eliminate the spelling bee, because they feel it runs afoul of the mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
"No Child Left Behind says all kids must reach high standards," Newman said. "It’s our responsibility to find as many ways as possible to accomplish this."
The administrators agreed, Newman said, that a spelling bee doesn’t meet the criteria of all children reaching high standards -- because there can only be one winner, leaving all other students behind.
"It’s about one kid winning, several making it to the top and leaving all others behind. That’s contrary to No Child Left Behind," Newman said.
A spelling bee, she continued, is about "some kids being winners, some kids being losers."
As a result, the spelling bee "sends a message that this isn’t an all-kids movement," Newman said.
Furthermore, professional organizations now frown on competition at the elementary school level and are urging participation in activities that avoid winners, Newman said. That’s why there are no sports teams at the elementary level, she said as an example.
The emphasis today, she said, is on building self-esteem in all students.
"You have to build positive self-esteem for all kids, so they believe they’re all winners," she said. "You want to build positive self-esteem so that all kids can get to where they want to go."
A spelling bee only benefits a few, not all, students, the elementary principals and Newman agreed, so it was canceled.
(I found this article on the Corner at National Review.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I'd guess that this is a hoax, but my husband teaches. Ergo, I know how true this stuff is. C-R-A-Z-Y is all I can think.
I need to hear these things, though. It keeps me heading in the right direction (-:
Diane
The key phrase in that bit is, "so they believe they’re all winners". Yeah, let's just lower the standards until everyone's an A student! And then, when they get where they want to go and either can't get a job b/c they're unqualified to do, well, anything, or they cannot keep a job b/c they have never had to work to accomplish anything, eh, let society deal with that, right? And of course we wouldn't want them to waste all that time studying for the spelling bee. P'shaw! They couldn't all get the shiny medal and all they'd be left with is that pesky knowledge!
OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!
What maroons! Reason #784,665,736 to homeschool.
Dy
Well, I just went through the effort of signing up so that I could type my own little rant about this, but...
What Dy said. :D
I thought that this one was laughable! People are NUTZ!!
Post a Comment