Thesis on "Institutionalization of No Child Left Behind Policy"

Thesis 7 pages (1917 words) Sources: 5 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Education - NCLB Policy

EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY and the NCLB CONCEPT

One of the more controversial contemporary educational concepts is the implementation, in 2002, of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)Act under the Bush administration. The principal elements of NCLB require nationwide compliance with federally-monitored progress evaluations of reading, writing, and elementary mathematics proficiency. The objective of NCLB is to ensure high rates of basic literacy for as many students as possible.

Critics of the NCLB approach argue that NCLB neglects the needs of students already achieving satisfactorily in reading, writing, and mathematics; it ignores the needs of superior student virtually completely; and it focuses so much on standardized test scores that any increase it achieves actually comes at the expense of genuine learning.

The NCLB approach to education runs completely contrary to the consensus among modern educational theorists that American education already provides too narrowly on two components of human cognitive intelligence. In many respects, contemporary beliefs about the deficiencies of traditional education practices are remarkably consistent with those of previous generations of philosophers and social commentators who would likely be equally critical of the NCLB Act. Rote Memorization and the Mechanical Accumulation of Knowledge

In his essay on Education (1884), Ralph Waldo Emerson agued that the basic format of institutionalized education is fundamentally disrespectful to students by virtue of the presumptive decision by educators to prescribe the course of academic study.

<br />According to Emerson, education must not interfere with the student's individuality of intellectual interest and natural talents.

I believe that our own experience instructs us that the secret of Education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained, and he only holds the key to his own secret.

By your tampering and thwarting and too much governing he may be hindered from his end and kept out of his own. Respect the child."

Einstein (1936) makes similar reference to the student-teacher dynamic, characterizing the effects of the traditional authoritative and overly critical quality of this educational approach as having potentially life-long consequences that undermine the purpose of education altogether:

Humiliation and mental oppression by ignorant and selfish teachers wreak havoc in the youthful mind that can never be undone and often exert a baleful influence in later life. Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty."

Emerson's views on education preceded standardized testing; nevertheless, education was already plagued by excessive focus on the accumulation of knowledge more for the sake of accumulation than for the value of learning the specific subject matter. Contemporary critics of NCLB would point to Emerson's characterization of mechanical methods and suggest that little in the realm of education fits that description better than widespread use of standardized test-preparation materials in conjunction with satisfying NCLB requirements.

But this function of opening and feeding the human mind is not to be fulfilled by any mechanical or military method; is not to be trusted to any skill less large than Nature itself. You must not neglect the form, but you must secure the essentials.

It is curious how perverse and intermeddling we are, and what vast pains and cost we incur to do wrong. Whilst we all know in our own experience and apply natural methods in our own business -- in education our common sense fails us, and we are continually trying costly machinery against nature, in patent schools and academies and in great colleges and universities." Almost a century later, Paulo Friere (1972) also used the term mechanical as well as echoing Emerson's concern over the concept of knowledge accumulation for accumulation's sake rather than for the inherent value of the content of lessons, using the metaphor of containers and receptacles to be filled by their teachers.

Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated content. Worse yet, it turns them into "containers," into "receptacles" to be "filled" by the teacher. The more completely he fills the receptacles, the better a teacher he is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are." The main result of NCLB is a concern with two specific academic areas to the virtual exclusion of attention to other academic areas. Even worse, the NCLB approach violates the views of Emerson and other intellectuals that rote memorization fails to confer genuine knowledge that survives in the minds of students beyond their exams.

Both Bertrand Russell and his contemporary and friend Albert Einstein (1936) expressed similar criticism of rote learning emphasized by NCLB. "Children are made to learn bits of Shakespeare by heart, with the result that ever after they associate him with pedantic boredom. If they could meet him in the flesh, full of jollity and ale, they would be astonished, and if they had never heard of him before they might be led by his jollity to see what he had written. But if at school they had been inoculated against him, they will never be able to enjoy him. The same sort of thing applies to music lessons." (Russell 1926)

One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year." (Einstein 1936)

Russell and Einstein both suggested that traditional educational curricula and methods of instruction disregard the motivational power of allowing students to define and pursue their own intellectual interests. The NCLB concept only further reduces any likelihood of accommodating student interest in shaping the course of academic efforts. A generation earlier Emerson (1884) offered a similar observation with which the NCLB is absolutely inconsistent in practice if not in its intended purpose:

If a child happens to show that he knows any fact about astronomy, or plants, or birds, or rocks, or history, that interests him and you, hush all the classes and encourage him to ten it so that all may hear. Then you have made your school- room like the world."

Learning Facts Instead of Learning How to Think:

Another fundamental problem with the NCLB approach to education is that it neglects altogether the value of teaching students how to think critically. Previous generations of educational theorists and their contemporary counterparts distinguished the concept of learning factual information from the process of learning how to think critically and analyze information. In that regard, Einstein (1936) suggested that this, rather than factual knowledge should be the primary function of formal education.

The aim (of education) must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, can see in the service to the community their highest life achievement." (Einstein 1936)

Likewise, Friere (1972) described this fostering of the student's ability to think critically as paramount in importance, as well as being necessary to establishing a relationship between educators and students that is conducive to learning. Speaking of the teacher, Friere wrote:

From the outset, his efforts must coincide with those of the students to engage in critical thinking and the quest for mutual humanization. His efforts must be imbued with a profound trust in men and their creative power. To achieve this, he must be a partner of the students in his relations with them."

Professor Howard Gardner of Harvard's School of Education, a leading educational theorist, concurs with his predecessors and also emphasizes the distinction between factual knowledge and critical thinking. According to Gardner (2007):

Let's take the area of science. I actually don't care if a child studies physics or biology or geology or astronomy before he goes to college. There's plenty of time to do that kind of detailed work. I think what's really important is to begin to learn to think scientifically. To understand what a hypothesis is. How to test it out and see whether it's working or not. If it's not working, how to revise your theory about things... By the time you go to college -- or, if you don't go to college, by the time you go to the workplace -- you'll know the difference between a statement that is simply a matter of opinion or prejudice and one for which there's solid evidence."

The Implications of the Range of Human Cognitive Intelligence:

Gardner is also the originator of the Multiple Intelligences Theory of human cognition and learning. According to Gardner, traditional education is tremendously biased, favoring only a very narrow subset of human intellectual abilities. Specifically, Gardner proposes that the educational curriculum must expand to include methods of instruction that are conducive to learning in students whose natural learning abilities lie in the areas of music, spatial orientation, emotional intelligence and social communication. Instead, traditional education limits instructional methods to those that are suited only to achieving optimal results in students whose natural… READ MORE

How to Reference "Institutionalization of No Child Left Behind Policy" Thesis in a Bibliography

Related Thesis Papers:

One of the Policy Inquiries and Evaluations Essay

Policy Evaluation

In Forgotten Australians: A report on Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care as children, the Australian Senate attempts to create an overview of the history of children… read more

Essay 6 pages (1794 words) Sources: 4 Topic: Child Development / Youth / Teens

---

Differentiated Instruction in the Self-Contained Special Education Classroom Research Proposal

Differentiated Instruction in the Self-Contained Special Education Classroom

Differentiation in the Self-Contained Special Education Classroom: A Defense of Differentiation and the Importance of Special Education Environments

Thanks to the No… read more

Research Proposal 16 pages (4869 words) Sources: 13 Style: APA Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

Elder Abuse Phenomenon Correlating Relationship to Elder Mortality Term Paper

Elder Abuse Phenomenon Correlating Relationship to Elder Mortality

Elder abuse has received increased scrutiny from the law enforcement and healthcare community in recent years. This increased attention is due in… read more

Term Paper 58 pages (15855 words) Sources: 25 Style: APA Topic: Family / Dating / Marriage

---

Adult Education Programs and Activities in the United States Toward a Balanced History Thesis

Adult Education Programs and Activities in the United States: Toward a Balanced History

What 'should' be included in adult education histories?

The historical field continues to be looked at in… read more

Thesis 1 pages (351 words) Sources: 1 Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

Should Elderly Driver Be Tested in the United States Term Paper

Drivers Test/Elderly

Due to the population change in the United States, or what is called the "graying of America," the next couple of decades will significantly increase the number of… read more

Term Paper 14 pages (4532 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Transportation / Mass Transit

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>