"It's coming around again..."

Let's call it cautious optimism...

President Obama recently announced his intention to overhaul the No Child Left Behind law. Just about any current educator would applaud an effort to redirect a law that has gone terribly wrong since it's inception. A law that punishes those who struggle, rather than focus on rewarding those who find ways to succeed never really had a chance to do what it was intended to do. That our current administration has recognized this, is encouraging to those teachers who are the front lines of educating our youth.

But punishment versus reward was not the most glaring fault of NCLB.

No two children are the same. Each has unique needs and abilities, and each have different futures that they are headed towards. NCLB was designed to treat each student exactly the same, to have the same educational goals for each student, and to assume the same future plans for every student. This fundamental flaw virtually ensured that many schools would be classified as underperforming.

Now President Obama talks about the need to adequately prepare students for either college or career. Finally! Common sense has long told us that not all students are bound for or interested in college. Yet NCLB all but insisted that all students be treated by our schools as though they were preparing for a college education. Student after student has been forced into an academic track in our schools in order to satisfy a goal that was never realistic.

It strikes me as a bit ironic that if President Obama's intentions are clearly expressed in his recent announcement, we may find ourselves moving back towards more what things were like when I was in school.

During my high school years, we were asked to choose an academic path for our education. We could choose Advanced Academic Prep, Academic Prep, or Vocational. Advanced was for those students who were likely to pursue at least four years of college and preparation for a professional degree. Academic Prep was a slightly less demanding course of study that would still prepare a student for the option of post-secondary education. And Vocational programs were offered for those students who intended to enter the workforce after graduation. A nearby Vocational School offered programs in construction, auto mechanics, cosmetology and other career fields.

It was a good system, and one that allowed students to use their high school years to best prepare them for their post-diploma years.

Somewhere along the way, we got caught up in worrying about how well the U.S. students were doing in competition with their counterparts around the world. Suddenly the ranking of our 8th graders with other 8th graders around the world on an academic test caused us to believe that we needed to lead all students towards an academic course of study. In the process we lost track of the fact that all students are unique, and that, in treating all students the same, we did a disservice to both the non-academic and academic students.

Throughout the years of NCLB, vast resources have been used to attempt to bring what would typically have been career minded students up to an academic prep level in their studies. This has been tantamount to beating our proverbial academic heads against the brick wall. It turns out that parents and students have known what was best for the individual student all along, but, because of NCLB and its expectations, schools were unwilling and unable to listen.

Here is to the hope that President Obama's recent announcement means a return to allowing parents and their children to decide what the best approach to a students individual education should be. And here is to the hope that we will slowly but surely see a return of the secondary education that prepares all students to do what is best for them to do.