by Pat Sumpter

Created on: November 23, 2008

I am an educator only in the sense that I've been called upon to help four of our grandchildren through school since our son, who has recently become a single parent, is away at work earning the daily bread. "No Child Left Behind" has left a "bad taste in the mouths" of not only my husband and myself, but the parents of our seven grandchildren, and our daughter who graduated with honors as a Para Educator and has had classroom experience as such. Please allow me to elaborate from a grandparent's standpoint.

We took in our oldest grandchild - a step grandson to be exact - since he has certain learning and behavioral deficits, and our son and his wife were struggling to cope. The young man of 9 years of age needed a structured, disciplined, and peaceful atmosphere with individual attention - something that was difficult, if not impossible to obtain while living with three, energetic, younger siblings in a small mobile home. His things were moved into our home the 13th of February and he took it in stride, looking forward to having his own bedroom with his own desk. He was also less traumatized by re-locating since his family lived right next door so there would be frequent visits with parents and siblings.

Now to get to the point - this young man, who'd been held back in the first grade, and who was therefore a third grader when he came to us, could barely read first grade books, and I was utterly shocked to find that he couldn't do simple math. His understanding of the latter was non-existent. So how was it that he managed to attain third grade status? The answer came later in the year when it was becoming apparent that not only our grandson was falling between the educational cracks, but one of our granddaughters was, as well. The school they were attending was playing what our family now calls "The No Child Left Behind Game". In order for their student body's grades and test scores to appear to be high, the educators were simplifying the work instead of "swimming upstream" to actually educate the children and perhaps run the risk of their producing lower grades. This to us, was appalling.

To help enlighten everyone as to the damage being done to our children, the next generation to carry on after us, please bear with me. I immediately set to work with books, and flash cards, and other educational materials. Without any exaggeration on my part in telling this sad story, our grandson was able to unfalteringly recite multiplication problems through 12's after only

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