Wednesday Poll: No Commentor Left Behind

As a late comment to last week's "rant" question, my Nice-Mom-In-Law said she would rant about "No Child Left Behind."

I was chatting about that with a friend this morning, and we ended up coming round to the idea that policies such as NCLB are symptomatic of a greater societal problem--we really don't allow people not to be good at certain activities anymore. 

Don't misunderstand, I'm not arguing that every child shouldn't know how to read, write, and do at least basic math, and I'm not saying every child shouldn't be encouraged to try.  But should everyone get a ribbon at the track meet, even the person who came in last place?  Should everyone get a prize at the spelling bee, even the kid who didn't make it past the first round? 

And to expand that thought, should everyone be asked to excel at academics or sports or whatever, even when it's apparent that a person's talents might lie elsewhere?  And does pressuring someone who's not good at one thing to keep trying to do that thing deprive them of the chance to learn to do something they really might have a gift for?

In the spirit of that discussion, and for this week's poll:

What's something you're not good at?  Was there a time you felt pressured to excel in that area despite the fact that you're just not good at it?  Conversely, what's something you're good at?  How does it all fit together for you?

Comment and discuss.

Comments

[Fergus' Mom]

oh there are countless things I am not good at, math and athletics jump to the forefront though. my mom is a MATH MAJOR so the pressure to excel in that area was quite strong all growing up. doing math homework around my mom was the most excrutiating experience of my life. It is laughable NOW, but at the time I felt like such an idiot. She could totally not grasp how one of HER offspring could do so poorly with numbers. Was I not aware that I came from a long line of people who excelled at numbers? Did calculations for fun? I mean GEESH they are so simple! Obviously I wasn't trying. Wasn't paying attention. Didn't care. Lots and lots of yelling back and forth. You are so intelligent...you should be able to do this... Jury is still out on what the deal was, not competent at math, don't care, or was just driven into a fear of numbers. It became an outright dislike of math by college and my college advisor and I spent EVERY meeting trying to determine a career path that did not rely heavily on math or chemistry (oh yeah, I stink at chemistry too). Took 8 million botany courses (and STILL have a brown thumb. yep, bad at gardening too) before we finally hit pay dirt. Whatever the cause of my math issues, when I graduated and became gainfully emmployed as I microbiologist I learned somethings about myself. First that I AM good at science and second that I can do math relevant to my area of interest because I can understand why it is relevant! Now when I run across someone who doesn't understand the math used in micro calculations I know EXACTLY what my mom was feeling! BUT, I know how it felt to be on the other end of the stick and just keep trying different angles to get the person to understand and THEN I start banging my head on the desk when all else fails ;o)

[StacyH]

Math for me. Typical I guess. I understand the overall premise of NCLB, but I think it's flawed in practice. First, it puts the blame for a childs success / failure on the teachers. Where I think a childs rate of success starts and ends at home.

Parents are lazy, and they don't want to have to teach their kids anything. I didn't understand math, so my dad sat down with me for hours trying to help explain. A couple of times, his method of solving the same problems was simpler than what the teacher tried to explain. Or maybe his method of explaining?

Either way, these weren't always fun nights with dad's help, but at least I got my homework done correctly. And one thing I did learn throughout school was, turn in all the homework and get good grades on it, cause then you don't have to do as well on the tests.

But I had to do remedial (math for dummies!) in college. But I got A's in it. The class had like 8 people in it and I was able to ask a lot of questions and get help from the teacher. A lot different from my 35 student high school class room.

But my accel point was English and reading. I was in advance reading all through elementary and advance english and creative writing throughout the rest. I think it's okay for ones ego to be not so good at one thing as long as you compensate in another area.

Also - unless you're under the age of 5 - everyone should not get a trophy. Losing is part of the game and has to be taught.

[StacyH]

Hehehe ... excel. :) Funny.

[Meryl]

I too was not very good at math growing up, and as I've gotten older (and happened to marry someone who is very good at it) I've realized that I'm not very good at spatial reasoning either. I have to think and plan really hard to put together any type of 3-D object from scratch. (Fortunately, I *am* really good at following directions, so as long as I've got those I can at least put furniture together.)

On the other hand, I'm good at writing, spelling, and all of that bunch of skills that commonly go together. And I have wicked organizing skills--which is something I never realized you could actually get paid for until just a few years ago, and will probably be my second career if the law thing ever falls through.

[Kenda]

No trophies unless you win or place. As the mother of a five year old one of the hardest things to teach is losing and it has to be taught because someone has to win and someone has to lose. Unfortunately that is the way it is, and by giving trophies and ribbons to all you are giving children a false sense of self-esteem instead of teaching them the lessons of losing and how to reflect on a loss. How to try harder next time, run faster, concentrate better, etc. Make corrections and fix the problems. I do have issues with NCLB mainly because it assumes that all children start out on a level playing field and that isn't the case. I don't believe that parents are lazy, I think the issue lies in where education is in the priorities of the household which often ties it to socio-econonmics. For example, if you are worried about eating and working two jobs you aren't necessarily going to be able to read to your 2 year old. I heard something the other day on the radio that gave me a new perspective on NCLB where a teacher in a lower-income district where a mom commented that before NCLB, "No one had to believe in her (her child passing the test), so they didn't." Here is the link http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90167642
She made the point that the testing was a way for the parents to hold the district accountable. The system is perfect but I don't know of a perfect system.