re: re: Will All Schools Be Left Behind?

I got published. My letter to the editor was published in the Joplin Globe yesterday. I looked at their online discussion forum. Most of the negative comment looked like this.

The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO - Voices: Will all schools be left behind?

Leroy writes: Good God, reading at grade level by 2014? On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced his plan to put a man on the moon and return him him safely, and that happened in 1969. We can put a man on the moon in around 8 years but you cant teach a 9 year old kid to read in about 7? James, you need another job. And, you need to take the NEA with you. WOW,,,

This was my response:

Yes, I know it seems incongruous that all we ask is that all 3rd graders read on grade level. We have struggled for over a century in Missouri to get every student reading on grade level, and no one has managed it yet. Why? Can 100% of Joplin adult residents pass a 12th grade Communication Arts Exam to show they read on grade level? Would you pass? Many of you can answer yes, but not 100% of you. Why? Because everyone is different. People have different interests, different priorities, different ways of communicating, different ways of learning. Kids are no different. Every student walking into my classroom is developmentally different than the others. They have had different experiences, different backgrounds, different home lives. They are not like widgets in a factory that can be manipulated into exact, identical shape. Children are neither identical nor exact. They are children in the process of growing up. Growing up a complex process that involves making mistakes and learning from them. Learning to Read is a complex that takes time. For some it takes more time than others. Yet we pass them on to the next grade whether they are ready or not. This forced system squeezes children into molds into that some are not yet ready for. I take my students as they come to me. Some already reading beyond grade level, some reading on grade level, and some not yet ready. I do everything research says to do…with the resources I have. Some will be ready this year. I will coax some more into reading on grade level. My goal is to have all of them reading on grade level by the end of the year. All I need is 100% support, 100% of the time, from 100% of the people. To those who implied I was a part of NEA. I am not, and never have been, an NEA member. I am instead a teacher just speaking my mind.

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