Madfloridian's Journal - NCLB reality TV idea......put supporters of NCLB in a school for a year.

This caught my eye in an area paper's blog. The blogger lists some items from a chain mail joking about a reality show idea about NCLB.

The retired teacher in me thinks this is a great idea.

Put six of the supporters of NCLB in a school.

"No Child Left Behind" and Reality TV

Six "No Child Left Behind" supporters - three men and three women -- will be dropped in an elementary school classroom for one school year. Each will be provided with a copy of the school district's curriculum, and a class of 28 to 32 students.

Heck, one year I had 40 second graders. 28 to 32 ain't so bad.

Then bring the special education students who were mainstreamed because legislators said it was fine and ok and no problems.

Each class will have a minimum of five learning-disabled children, three with ADD, one gifted child and two who speak limited English. Three students will be labeled with severe behavior problems.

One year I had four ADHD, three of whom were off medication because they were having other symptoms. Two spoke no English, and our school in a poorer district only had a language assistant once a month.

Now we add the lesson plans, curriculum objectives, daily, weekly and monthly goals, goals to handle misconduct since there is no help anymore, report cards, conferences, nightly phone calls to keep in close touch....and that is just getting started.

Each person must complete lesson plans at least three days in advance, with annotations for curriculum objectives, and modify, organize, or create their materials accordingly.

They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, implement technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework, make bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences.
In addition, they will complete fire drills, tornado drills, and Code Red drills for shooting attacks each month.

They must attend workshops, faculty meetings and attend curriculum development meetings. They must also tutor students who are behind and strive to get their two limited-English speaking children proficient enough to take the FCAT tests.

If they are sick or having a bad day, they must not let it show.

And then comes the most important tenet of the NCLB problem...be sure to put all the blame on the teacher.

If all students do not wish to cooperate, work or learn, the teacher will be held responsible.

Yes, that happens. Once I had two refuse to take the test which would determine my teaching skills. I had an aide for the test, she coaxed and pleaded to no avail, as I did. They sat the whole test out, with a score of zero. They grinned at us the whole time.

This blog was written by someone whose wife is a teacher. I can tell. If something like this could really be implemented, that NCLB program would be dropped in a heartbeat.