Kids in the classroom

I need to understand something. Every day I am responsible for the education of students who don't want to learn. I have found that No Child Left Behind is extremely challenging when there are so many kids who WANT TO BE LEFT BEHIND. If their parents cared, perhaps there would be some recourse, but in many cases, their parents CHOSE to be left behind when they were in high school as well. The cycle is this. The student does not want to be in school. The student makes the attempt to be in class for a time, perhaps even turns in a classroom assignment once or twice. Eventually the student starts disrupting the classroom with his or her antics, competing for the spotlignt, looking to make him or herself a power in the classroom. A force to be reckoned with. Of course, this is directed toward the teacher. Lines are drawn. The student attempts to create a coalition. The student works to bring others into his or her sphere of influence. This begins by cheating. The student finds someone in the classroom to use as a pigeon as his or her ticket to an easy A. The pigeon gladly complies, whether for the attention of a beguiling member of the opposite sex, or perhaps for the "protection", or acceptance that this alliance creates. In many instances the student decides that the classroom is not where he or she belongs. They stop coming to school, but not without leaving a trail of disruptive behavior in their wake. All should be well, right? Wrong! After 24 consecutive days of missed school, the juvenile justice system seeks the child out, arrests him or her, and places him or her into Juvi. The student then spends 20 days in juvie, then is returned to the same classroom! Wow. so now we have a child in the classroom who was educationally or emotionally behind when class commenced in the fall, but now we have a child who is almost 50 curriculum days behind expecting to be educated at the same level as his or her classmates. This is ridiculous. The behavior problems that arise from this kind of action makes learning an extreme challenge for those in the classroom who wish to learn. The children who fall into this disruptive cycle are in the minority, but those who want to gain an education are in the SILENT majority. The disruptors, who are coerced back into the classroom because of NCLB, spend all their energy focusing all the attention onto themselves. As I witness this behavior in classroom after classroom, I know THIS IS NOT WHERE I WANT MY CHILDREN. And I'm a teacher!!! No Child Left Behind is a bold plan, but with serious casualties. These casualties are the very children we need to protect; Those ambitious individuals who will be running this country someday. These children need to be allowed the freedom to learn, share and discuss the material without the interference of lousy legislation that demands tolerance of those who have no interest in persuing a path of higher learning. As one once said, "Aim for the Stars, the least you can do is land on the moon"..or something to that effect. NCLB has the vision of idealism but it is wrapped in the cloak of impracticality.