NCLB & Common Core

What was very frustrating to me as an educator was the utter impossibility of the end objective of NCLB (No Child Left Behind). I will not go into a tirade about this because probably everything has been said that possibly can be about this 'good intentions gone crazy' law. And now it is Common Core.

I will say, though, that George Bush was right. We should not be leaving our kids behind. I do, however, think that our education system is doing a very good job of educating our children in Reading, Math, and other academics. It is amazing what teachers can get out of kids despite having so many obstacles working against them.

We are, though, leaving our children behind when it comes to providing them with adequate coping and 'getting along' skills. We as a society and an education system are failing miserably when it comes to teaching our kids how to get along with each other and how to cope with life in general.

Yet we are hounded to the point of harrassment by our government about academics, when we need to provide our schools and social institutions with more support staff that are trained to teach coping and life skills to our children.

If we could provide our children with a good base of skills on how to cope with the many issues that they face each and every day, then the academics will even be easier to achieve.

The end result will be a better society as a whole.