Reading + Math - foreign language - art - history = No Child Left Behind = A better America

The other day I read an article in the Communist newspaper The New York Times, entitled "Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math." Thanks to the President's "No Child Left Behind Act," and its emphasis on testing and accountability in certain subjects, several schools are reducing or eliminating the amount of class time spent on subjects besides reading and math. Since this child friendly bill punishes schools if their students "fall behind" in math and reading, what's the point of teaching superfluous and irrelevant subjects like science, history, foreign languages, or art? But what do those frilly courses have to do with education? As long as America's children now how to read and how to multiply, they're set, and America is set.

+ If you know your history, you'll know the old truism: "Those who cannot learn from mathematics and reading are doomed to repeat them." So true.

+ Even singer Sam Cooke was for No Child Left behind. In his pro-No Child Left Behind manifesto entitled "Wonderful World" Cooke said: Don't know much about history/ don't know much biology/ don't know about a science book/ not know much about the French I took/ But I do know that I love you/ And I know that if you loved me too/ What a onderful world this would be. He didn't need to know science, foreign languages, or history to know he was in love, and to know what a wonderful world this could be. But if he hadn't known how to read or add, you can bet he could never have even written that song, or figured out how much his record cost. If Sam were here today, he'd be advocating No Child Left Behind, and he'd be singing against wasting class time on art, history, science, and perhaps, worst of all, music.


Some students complain about learning nothing but math and reading and claim it's counterproductive. One bratty cry baby eighth greater said:

"I hate having two math classes in a row. Two hours of math is too much. I can't concentrate that long."

This student takes two math classes back to back, each morning. And he still managed to fail one of them. So we can't really take what he says seriously, can we? For the most part, kids are loving studying nothing but math and reading. Don't listen to me. Listen to the vice-principal at King Junior High, located in a poor neighborhood in Sacramento, which has narrowed its curriculum: "Most students are not complaining about being miserable." This vice president is obviously "down" and in touch with her student population. She even knows how they speak. She herself is fluent in street: "I've only had about two students come to my office and say: 'What in the world? I'm just taking two courses?' " So in the words of our children: "What in the World" are the critics of No Child Left behind smoking?