Blind Leading the Blind

Can the blind really lead the blind? Only if they work at Newsweek.

Apparently I don't have “an ounce of brains” because I'm having a hard time figuring out how a journalist with no actual experience as an educator in a public school can presume to comment upon federal education legislation that has been one huge bureaucratic mess from the beginning.
The journalist: Jonathan Alter of Newsweek.

The legislation: NCLB.

My beef: It is irresponsible for a journalist with a major mainstream media outlet to further mislead the public regarding the implementation difficulties of NCLB by simplifying both the problems and potential solutions.

(At this point Bodie told me, “You know, it's kind of appropriate that a journalist with no experience as an educator comment upon education legislation passed by a bunch of politicians with no experience as educators.” Damn. I suppose Mr. Alter's article does work if you read it from the perspective of the blind leading the blind.)

Okay, I'll ignore Mr. Alter's mishmash of catchphrases (“bastion of mindless paleoliberalism”), buzzwords (“accountability”, “charter schools”), and trite targets of the national educational reform debate (“teacher tenure”). Instead I will focus the rest of my diatribe on the one glaring omission in Mr. Alter's article. Let's see if you can spot it in this scenario:

I am a highly qualified teacher. I teach in a school that receives adequate federal and state funding. My students have access to free/reduced lunch programs, small-group and one-on-one tutoring, art and music lessons, bus transportation to and from school, extracurricular sports, a thriving parent organization, current textbooks and updated curriculum, and more advantages than I care to spend time listing. However, not all of my students are meeting their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals and Joe Politician is screaming for my blood because, by golly, someone needs to be held accountable. I attend staff meetings, conferences, consultation sessions, and yet, some of my students continue to fail, but which students?

These are the students who do not arrive until 30 minutes into the start of the school day, leave ten minutes before the end, and take long vacations and weekends; the students who arrive at school having only had six hours of sleep the night before and no breakfast; the students who are being sexually, physically, or psychologically abused; the students who are homeless; the students who have learning disabilities and are emotionally disturbed and have no advocate besides their teachers; the list can go on, but hopefully you will see my point. It is not these students, nor their teachers, who are failing. It is their parents. I can teach any child, any day, at least some small bit of knowledge in any subject, but I can't guarantee that they will leave my classroom and return to a safe, loving, nurturing home filled with an adult who can help them reach their highest potential.

And who is holding these parents accountable? Where is their standardized test? What sanctions will they face if they do not make adequate yearly progress? Who is going to repair the damage that these ignorant and neglectful parents inflict on their children? Can failing parents have their asses fired in the same way that Joel Klein of New York City schools is firing "failing" administrators?

I tell you what, Mr. Alter, these aren't rhetorical questions that I am asking. I would much rather see you write an article about how NCLB needs to include mandatory outreach programs to educate parents and increase funding and manpower to investigate and prosecute cases of child neglect and abuse. Maybe then you won't seem like such a jackass of an armchair educator by making political hay out of the NCLB teacher witch-hunt.