Time to stop viewing students as robots

Time to stop viewing students as robots

The recent complaints from the upper class snobs that entrench DuPage County’s many country clubs about the low standardize tests scores need to stop. Children deserve more acknowledgment for the work they do in school instead of just on the homogenized tests, and should not be looked at as just numbers.

Every student is unique in the way they mature, learn and progress, and, therefore, it is ridiculous to treat the students as guinea pigs for data that has no qualitative significance. The implication of the No Child Left Behind program is schools are lacking progressive students, and when students do make advancements, they are not rewarded appropriately. The NCLB is based on the false premise that every student can perform at “grade level,” but this ideal is not realistic.

There always have been and always will be those students who are incapable of performing at their grades’ level of academics for a multitude of reasons. Some students have serious learning disabilities, or other ailments such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) that prevent them from reaching their full academic potential.

So to snarl about these low test scores is completely unfair to these kids who have trouble maintaining a life of normalcy as it is. Schools need to start actually educating their kids, not just regurgitating tips and tricks for taking tests. The present pattern in teaching where everything is data-driven is becoming dull.

If America sees the next generation as robots, it is most certainly on the right track. But the innovative, creative, outside-the-box thinkers of the next generation are what America is in desperate need of. Pressuring these students to do well on a test that only gives them a number in return is a waste of time — time that could be used encouraging a brighter future.

Natalie Salo

Glen Ellyn