# No Child Left Behind.... well, Leave My Child ALone!



## fourgrtkidos (Jan 6, 2004)

I would like to call to everyone's attention another aspect of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

In order for the schools to recieve funding they must violate your child's and your family's privacy by giving your child's personal information and phone number to local recruiters of Armed Forces. These recruiters then begin courting your teen for military service without your knowlegde or permission. I believe military service is a families decision, one a child and his/her parents should discuss and come to decisions on, not our schools, gov't or Armed service. I have friends who say recruiters have been talking to their sons for months, they call "all the time". They do not identifiy themselves as recruiters to the member answering the phone. There is no "Hello, I am Sgt. So in So from the Air Force recruiters office at Such n Such Base, nay I speak to you and your son about the possibilities of service and benefit of his enlistment" They say, "Hey, can I talk to Joe?" as if they are school buddies. This may not be a problem for kids who are open and honest with their parents, but can you imagine what a recruiter can offer a troubled teen, who wants to "get away" from parental authority, or is easily persuaded by lofty promises? This is not fair to our nations youth, the government is stabbing at their vulnerability.

There is a OPT out option and your kids can be eliminated from the school recruitment lists by written letter. But, school boards are not informing parents of those options.

Please take part in informing other parents of their rights!

http://www.leavemychildalone.org


----------



## aira (Jun 16, 2004)

Yet another reason to homeschool!

All that No Child Left Behind crap is scary.

I'm also very wary of the opt-out stuff. I think they rarely comply with people's wishes. Thanks for the link!


----------



## orangebird (Jun 30, 2002)

No Child Left Behind sucks. From the POV of a parent it sucks and from a teacher's POV is sucks. (I am not a teacher but many of my friends are and my son's teachers have also said they hate it) WHo does it benefit anyway?


----------



## kewb (May 13, 2005)

I will certainly be opting out. Thank you for the link.


----------



## orangebird (Jun 30, 2002)

I just printed my letter. Thanks for the link.


----------



## SaphiraKay (Jun 26, 2004)

When I was in HS, all students were required to take the ASVAB test. The teachers told us it was very important that we make our best effort. I remember being very surprised that it asked for my phone # on the bubble area of the test. Then the phone calls started. No matter how many times I told the recruiters I was not interested, they continued to call. I graduated in 1996, in the days before caller ID, so it was impossible to screen the calls.
My younger brother graduated in 2000. Although I told him about the problems he would run into if he did well on the ASVAB, he answered the questions correctly anyway. Then the recruiters started calling for him and his best friend who lived with my family at the time. My brother has a metal plate in his head. My family repeatedly told the military recruiters that he was not a canidate for service because of this, but the reply was that it needed to be verified by a military dr. in a physical before he would be deemed unsuitable.
I finally lied and told the recruiter they were homosexual and were extremely tempted by men in fatigues. (They are not, but two bright Baptist boys thought it was hysterical.) My mother was grateful that the phone calls finally stopped.
Amanda


----------



## DebraBaker (Jan 9, 2002)

I have had recruiters bugging my son for months.

I have a daughter serving in Iraq and I'm not offering up my son to that alter as well.

So about a week ago another recruiter called asking for my son. I asked who it was and it was Staff Seargent so and so. I told them that if they didn't stop trying to recruit my son I'd go down to the recruiting office and kick their asses as I have a daughter serving in Iraq and I am not inclined to think favoribly of my son joining her in the near future.

I haven't heard back







:

db


----------



## Losgann (Jun 24, 2004)

My ds is 8 and only going into 3rd grade. Is he too young to opt out now? Is it only for teen aged students?

He's on the autistic spectrum so I don't know if he'd be eligible anyway but you never know!


----------



## sinsaratea (May 14, 2004)

Just wanted to add.... i am a teacher and we (at least the ones i know) do detest No Child.... for so many reasons that i can't even begin to verbalize this early in the AM


----------



## Leilalu (May 29, 2004)

Yet another great reason to support your local homeschooling mom


----------



## frolick16 (Feb 10, 2004)

did anyone hear how some schools and states are actually suing the government over the every child left behind act and does anyone have good links where I could get more information on the legalities of this and the Opt out option.


----------



## DebraBaker (Jan 9, 2002)

IMHO, NO child...is messing at the primary level, taking any inherent love of learning and craft of teaching and replacing it with a lot of tedious makework.

I hate it.

db


----------



## mmmummy (Mar 12, 2005)

no words,just







and the pretending to be a friend over the phone..grrrr..

whoever mentioned the support of homeschooling-


----------



## UUMom (Nov 14, 2002)

Again, it's probably because we live in MA., but in our public school in our Freshman Class Information packet, there was a government form (with government seal etc) that fobade our consent to recruiters. It was in the packet with all the other stuff. I signed it pronto. I have a copy. if anyone talks to my son aabout recruitement, i will sue. However, none of the crunchy parents I know who have signed this form have children who have been approached.

Move to a Blue State , is all i can tell you.

Massachusetts might be cold--- it's freaking the North Pole right now, and it's May, but we get all the important forms.


----------



## fourgrtkidos (Jan 6, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *UUMom*
Massachusetts might be cold--- it's freaking the North Pole right now, and it's May, but we get all the important forms.


I'd trade that for the 92 degree heat we had today.......


----------



## UUMom (Nov 14, 2002)

Harump. Easy to say if you have cherry tomatoes blooming.









It's so damn cold here. Nobody is going to believe the global warming research.









I have always detested May. My birthday is in May, and about a zillion times my mother planned my party outside and about nearly a zillion times, the weather turned and it was winter again..

I have a love/hate relationship with New England Mays. There is the *promise* of Spring, but 9 out of 10 times, my pool birthday party had to be an inside ice cream sundae party. Oh sure, maybe some of you *like* ice cream sundaes.







:

Of course, now that I am old, who cares about birthdays??!


----------



## DebraBaker (Jan 9, 2002)

My birthday is in May, too. It's like the box of chocolates it may be witheringly hot or raining and dreary and cold (as it is now here) I generally like cold.

I just want to mention that homeschooling isn't the answer to all of these issues. I have homeschooled and, 'though I respect homeschooling and the parents who make the sacrifice to homeschool, I won't go back to homeschooling.

I agree with "move to a blue state" Make sure the school district is a good one. I will not live in a bad school district, good schools help the real estate in that district, however, so it's a positive even if you must fork out more money initially.

Blue state reminds me of how shocked and horrified I am at the number of school related blunders are coming out of Florida. What are these people thinking?? Thinking. I assume, I think the people down there are in such a different place I cannot even comprehend them.

Debra Baker


----------



## captain optimism (Jan 2, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *frolick16*
did anyone hear how some schools and states are actually suing the government over the every child left behind act and does anyone have good links where I could get more information on the legalities of this and the Opt out option.

The National Education Association is joining with school districts in Michigan, Vermont and Texas to sue the feds over No Child Left Behind. The NEA (one of the two national teacher's unions) has a webpage on the lawsuit here:

http://www.nea.org/lawsuit/index.html

The page also has links to other organizations and states that are opposing NCLB's provisions or asking for NCLB to be better funded. (Since one problem with NCLB is that it mandates that schools do things for which NCLB does not pay!)

They didn't list this good article in the Washington Post on the lawsuit:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Apr20.html

There are many problems with NCLB. One of the biggest is for students with disabilities. In addition to the obvious problems with accomodating students on standardized tests, a recent regulation has come into effect that mainstreams children in Special Education classes if their teachers are not "highly qualified" in a subject area. A mom here on MDC wrote to complain about this recently. Her child is in a separate classroom because that's what he needs for his disability, transitions are very difficult for him, and now he will be put into mainstream classes for certain subjects--classes for which he is NOT academically ready--meaning that he will have even more transitions than a typical kid!

Then again, there is the whole question of whether standardized tests are a good measure of anything.

Okay I could rant about NCLB for awhile.


----------



## cumulus (Jul 17, 2002)

I thought the act should be renamed to the "The No Child's Behind to the Left Act" but with this information about the Selective Service's participation I guess "No Child Left Behind" does make some sense. It's best name. however, would be "No Business Left behind" as the legislation has nothing to do with a concern for children. Some of us may have employers who offer job training - they do not, I think, do this out of a love for employees. It's good for business as is having schools training standardized workers instead of educating and enlightening young people.


----------



## burritomama (Aug 26, 2002)

There's anecdotal evidence that the recruiters are beginning to profile kids in middle school - that's (sometimes 6th), 7th and 8th (and (sometimes 9th) grades - which shows you how long they expect this war to go on...apparently they query about kids who are big for their age, play team sports and have other indictors that suggest they would be ideal candidates (working class backgrounds, single parent hsoueholds, particular ethnicities, etc.)


----------



## DebraBaker (Jan 9, 2002)

I just got a recruitment junk mailing from the Army Reserve, promised to pay all my college expenses.

What a bunch of idiots.

I just got accepted into college as a Biology major.

.....But I'm a 45 year old mother with eight kids.


----------



## TiredX2 (Jan 7, 2002)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *DebraBaker*
I just got a recruitment junk mailing from the Army Reserve, promised to pay all my college expenses.

What a bunch of idiots.

I just got accepted into college as a Biology major.

.....But I'm a 45 year old mother with eight kids.













































Hey, they have raised the age for being able to join.







They just MAY want you.


----------



## gruver (May 31, 2005)

as a special ed teacher at a public school i could rant and rave for pages about how messed up NCLB is. texas is one of the states suing and we are doing really bad on our AYP (that's like the report card for a district) because they only allow for 1% (i think they are voting on changing it to 3% but still.....) of the population of a district to not take the grade level test.

rumor has it that the move is towards no special education at all. welcome back to the dark ages folks!


----------

