Children Left Behind

Test #3 is coming up this next Monday for my biology class. I plan on getting another A of course, but I find myself losing steam quicker than during the past semesters. I am not losing the desire to go after my nursing degree, but I am waiting for the day that this semester ends. I am going to blame it on my communications class. I am enjoying my communications class and have 100% in the class, so it isn't like I'm disappointed in my grade. I do, however, have a disappointment in our nation's educational system. I am part of generation X, so some of my knowledge does follow along the lines of "old school." It seems that since I was in high school the knowledge that kids enter into college with has diminished, by quite a bit.

I have a group project due in my communications class that requires that all members write a portion of the paper. This has led me to the conclusion that 2 of my group members are about 2 steps away from being illiterate. How does this benefit the student, much less society, if we allow our children to progress in school when they don't even possess the basic skills required to put a sentence together?

A couple of years ago a new rule came out regarding the format used when writing an essay or paper; after a sentence a person no longer has to put two spaces after a period, but can now only put one if they feel like it. The old school rule of two spaces is still accepted, however, the student now has the option of only placing one space. We are teaching our children that if the majority is lazy enough others will give in and the lazy way will become acceptable. Maybe one day Ebonics will be taught as an actual language as well. If you notice I have placed two spaces after everyone of my sentences, unless I made a mistake that my lazy-man's autocorrect did not catch because one space is acceptable. I refuse to give in to the lazy one space, and yes sometimes I even curse my autocorrect feature for not allowing me to fix my own misspelled words. As a nation we should be trying to bring the people to the standard, not the standard to the people (a phrase that I have taken from the growing kids classes).

If a child can not form a proper sentence they should be left behind. If a child can not add two numbers together, regardless of the number of digits, they should be left behind. If a child can not speak in proper sentences and not just the local slang, they should be left behind. This does not require that a child be a genius or prodigy, or even have the ability to get straight A's. This does require, however, that our children have the basic skills necessary to succeed in a growing and progressing world.