Re: [arn-l

[aburke5054@aol.com]

Interjecting dog-fighting and Iraq into a discussion of educational 
policy simply demonstrates intellectual immaturity.  It is not as 
repulsive or morally blind as interjecting the Holocaust, but it comes 
close.

NCLB does not tell teachers and principals to cheat on tests, to 
dumb-down the curriculum, or to ignore some children and focus 
attention on others.  Principals and teachers do those things because 
they have a screwy idea that they can make their lives easier by doing 
them, because their culture tolerates it, and because they can get away 
with it.  If you found out that teachers and principals were doing 
these things to your child, you would tell them to stop, you wouldn't 
go running to Washington to change federal education law.  Yes, tests 
could be better, teachers should make more money (some of them, 
anyway), and teachers and principals should have more tools.  But none 
of those things will necessarily help parents and kids.  The best way 
to protect parents and kids from being screwed over is to give them 
more clout.  Simple as that.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: monicalucido@comcast.net
To: ca-resisters@interversity.org
Cc: arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 9:04 pm
Subject: [arn-l]


Hello, all. This is a column I wrote. Don't know if anyone will print 
it, but I
sent it out nationally.
Hope it stirs up some stuff (even you Art..)

The Broken Heart
(a heart is a terrible thing to waste...)



The world to me is always an amazing place. I am frequently intrigued 
by the
emotional reactions that the public has to the realities of horror. The 
latest
insanity has been the Michael Vick case where it has been alleged that 
his
property was used for dog fighting. Vick and his cohorts have been 
accused of,
“knowingly sponsoring and exhibiting an animal fighting venture.” (AP) 
When
these animals are not prepared or aggressive enough to fight, they are 
often
disposed of. The report states that dogs were “killed by hanging, 
drowning
and/or slamming at least one dog’s body to the ground.” Can you imagine 
the
reality of actually seeing that happen? To watch a dog suffer in pain 
and to
physically see its life ended in such a grisly manner? And thus what 
has
happened almost immediately: PETA and the ASPCA held demonstrations 
demanding
for the immediate firing of Michael Vick from the Atlanta Falcons for 
his
involvement. They organized to show their outrage.

Another situation that I have seen the public grow in strong levels of
discontent over the last few years is the Iraq war. So far, the United 
States
has lost 3636 soldiers and has acquired 26,558 casualties since the 
invasion.
Outside of the extreme sadness of death, the injuries sustained by some 
of the
soldiers include lost limbs, eyesight, and brain damage from severe 
head
injuries. Whether its been Fox, CNN, MSNBC, or CBS, the pictures of 
destruction
and mayhem have been graphic and disturbing. Many times, these images 
make
imprints on the brain that last forever. Although some may disagree 
with her
plight, Cindy Sheehan began a crusade to end the war because of the 
death of her
son in Iraq and her belief that the war was started under false 
pretenses. She
has felt the pain and seen the results of the carnage as a parent. Her 
anguish
has been mirrored by countless others who have experienced the same. 
Thus, she
and many others have marched around the country, demanding ju
stice
from the government and congress. The ultimate results of her efforts 
will not
be known for some time, but the dialogue has at least initiated in 
congress to
pull out of Iraq.

One might ask, then, what do these situations have to do with each 
other? The
answer defines much of who we are as humans. It is our nature that when 
we
physically see or hear of extremely painful situations, our gut 
instinct is to
protect that which is valuable to us from it. Whether it be our 
children at war
or our precious animals who are often defenseless, the notion that they 
could be
“next” is real because the pictures, sounds, and graphics have proven 
the danger
to us in the media. The question is posed then: WHY HAVE WE NOT, AS A 
SOCIETY,
RALLIED TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN FROM AN UNJUST EDUCATION LAW? I propose 
that the
main reason is that not enough parents have SEEN the pain, HEARD the 
cries of
their children, and FELT the hopelessness that many teachers have felt 
since the
inception of the No Child Left Behind education law. If they saw their 
child
sobbing the day of the “big” exam, or crushed because they were labeled 
as
“basic” on some bar graph hanging for all to
see, o
r knew their school could be closed, the masses of folks would be out 
in droves.

Human thinking and emotion is often silent during times of distress. It 
is kept
in the dark because of embarrassment, shame, worry, and fear. Students 
worry
about being “smart” enough or not being a good addition to the 
classroom because
they haven’t performed well on a standardized test. A study out of 
Chicago shows
that NCLB has literally failed to work for students in the lowest 
performing
ranges. They have actually done much worse. Many of these kids come 
from the
poorest areas where parents have been incarcerated or on drugs, maybe 
even have
died as a result of violence. This AFFECTS children negatively. At any 
given
time, up to 5% of all kids 9-17 struggle with depression (National 
Institute of
Health). These children often have failure in school, and the pressure 
to be
“proficient” scoring on a bubble test over, and over, and over, and 
over can
only add to the problem. In the teen years, these types of students are 
more
prone to truancy, substance abuse, and suicide.

So, WHERE ARE THE PARENTS MARCHING? How do we MAKE VISIBLE the anguish 
of our
children and teachers? How do we get the message out that NCLB is 
KILLING our
kids’ minds? Must we wait until they have suffered an entire 12 years 
of poorly
researched assessment and forced curriculum such that they turn out 
unable to
think with reason and have a desire for life long learning? Talent and 
joy have
been purged from many classrooms and will continue to be unless the 
pain is
VISIBLE. Teachers need to share their agony and report their students’ 
feelings
to school sites and congressmen. They need to reach out to parents and 
let go of
their fear. Parents will protect what is valuable if they know the 
danger. Which
is worse: To eliminate NCLB and start over, or to bury the future of 
the child
that died of a broken heart?
-------------------------------------------------------
ARN-L archives:
http://interversity.org/lists/arn-l/archives.html






________________________________________________________________________
AOL now offers free email to everyone.  Find out more about what's free 
from AOL at AOL.com.
=0