NCLB and Political Correctness

Creative Commons License photo credit: Napalm filled tires

Imprimus is a monthly speech digest published by Hillsdale College, an independent college in Hillsdale, MI. It’s independent in that it doesn’t accept any federal subsidies. Ever. The students don’t even accept federal money to attend school. Why is this relevant? Because your family can have a great deal of input into your child’s college education.

I recently received a reprint of an Imprimus journal from November 2006. This journal contained an excerpt of an article written by Larry Arnn, President of Hillsdale College. The article was entitled “Why the GOP is Flunking Higher Education” and appeared in the Claremont Review of Books in September 2006.

The excerpt in Imprimus that particularly struck me was titled “National Standards and the Danger of Political Correctness”. In this excerpt, the Dr. Arnn refers to something called the ‘Draft Report’ which, as it turns out, is officially titled “A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education“. So, I’ll follow his lead and just refer to this report as ‘Draft Report’

Dr. Arnn discusses one aspect of the Draft Report- national standards. He argues that standards go above and beyond the intent of the original Higher Education Act. He states,

“Charles Murray writes of the No Child Left Behind Act that it has not improved test scores and that it creates an atmosphere of endless drilling, which is poor for learning. And he is probably right. But even worse than the tests’ ineffectiveness and waste of time [emphasis mine] is that they will be expressions of the worst forms of political correctness.”

Although education is not a hot-button topic for most of America this election, those of us with gifted children understand how crucial it is to have an education system that it is efficient and produces the highest ROI possible for our children.

So, before you touch a screen, fill in an oval, or make a ‘hanging chad’ on November 4th, ask yourself, “Does my candidate really propose an education system that will help my child?”