Amy Gong

AP Language & Composition – 5th

O’Neal
November 20, 2009
Word Count: 1,143
A Smart Proposal

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was signed by President Bush on

June 2, 2002, with the purpose of improving education by setting standards

that all children across America need to meet and by placing emphasis on

the core classes of math, reading and writing. However, the NCLB has not

been able to achieve its goals: the act has been criticized for failing to help

minority groups (particularly the ethnic minorities) receive a better education

and for hindering any real educational development in America’s youth

because of the pedantic scope of study that schools cover in order to adhere

with set standards.

Under the NCLB, all students attending American public schools must

show proficiency in math and reading by 2014. The test scores of all racial

minority groups in a school must show progress every year, or the school will

risk losing federal funds. Unfortunately, schools have been “gaming the

system.” Schools that seem to be infected with high levels of an epidemic

that I like to call “the Stupid” go through desperate measures to ensure that

they get their money, and it isn’t pretty; teachers, it seems, are getting paid

to “help” their students pass the state standardized assessment.*(Props to

you on this one, HISD. How many years in a row have we seen you on the

news for this?) The NCLB has also been criticized for encouraging,

rewarding, and teaching children to score well on state standardized testing;

rather than spend time analyzing information, students are mindlessly

Amy Gong
AP Language & Composition – 5th
O’Neal
November 20, 2009
Word Count: 1,143
“memorizing” the test; education now stresses “success” in the three hillbilly

Rs – reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic – and largely ignores other important

subjects such as foreign languages, history and science. Thus, my intensely

stressful research has brought me to the problem that America now faces:

the No Child Left Behind Act cannot do any good because it is allowing states

to disregard the struggling minorities and is holding back those who have

intellectual potential but are burdened by their daft and ludicrous

classmates.

*I am offended. Why didn’t I get paid for letting that kid cheat off of me last year helping that kid last year?

However, I have come to the conclusion that the problem with the

NCLB lies inherently in the fact that the act is trying too hard to save

students who simply cannot be saved. Therefore, rather than provide all

students in America with a narrow-minded education, students should be

selected to receive an education. I propose that at the ripe age of five, all

students should take a preliminary test to determine their IQ levels and work

ethics. The top twenty-fifth percentile of students in each ethnic category

shall then go on to receive a well-rounded education that most others would

find too obtuse to understand. Those who fall in the range of the top twenty-

fifth and top seventy-fifth percentile will be allocated a menial, blue-collar or

white-collar job to perform in the future, and then will be sent off to a

vocational school to train for their jobs. And finally, the lower twenty-fifth

percentile of students will have no need for an education; they will be the
Amy Gong
AP Language & Composition – 5th
O’Neal
November 20, 2009
Word Count: 1,143
ones who will perform the low-paying labor jobs that no one in America is

willing or able to undertake. The assignment of these jobs will be based on

how America has stereotypically categorized each ethnic group. Hispanics

will be taught how to mow lawns and clean houses; Asians, how to run a

beauty salon or Chinese restaurant; Africans, how to peddle drugs. The

Native children will learn how to run a successful gambling casino. Not to be

forgotten, the lower percentile of Caucasians will be grouped as those who

will do nothing with their lives. Drug addiction and alcoholism shall be

confined within this category of the American race (I know this may be

shocking news, but drug and alcohol use is not possible to eradicate, no

matter how hard you try).

To the casual reader, my proposal may seem outrageous and

communistic, probably even dictatorial. To the casual reader, it would almost

seem as if segregation is slowly reappearing in America. However, the casual

reader would not have been in the “upper twenty-fifth percentile.” The plan

contains many benefits which will be seen across the board in America. First,

the quality of education of those who have actual potential will grow

exponentially. Rather than focus on the mind-numbing subjects that are

currently being tested under the NCLB, these students will have the

opportunity to practice critical pedagogy and have a deeper understanding

of our world, both physically and metaphysically. These children will mature

with such a dynamic education that they will give America the competitive
Amy Gong
AP Language & Composition – 5th
O’Neal
November 20, 2009
Word Count: 1,143
edge in all aspects of society. Our children will be superior to those of other

nations in virtually everything: research, information and technology,

political leadership and diplomacy, business, and economics. Secondly, the

group of children who will become the future working class will revolutionize

how smoothly business runs. They will know their jobs wholly by the time

they enter the real world through their education. Resultantly, business

efficiency will be improved vastly. By my scholarly estimation, workplace

productivity will be improved by almost 40% because employees will no

longer waste their days browsing the Internet because they don’t know how

to carry out their jobs.

Finally, I will address what will be the biggest objection to my plan: the

lower-tier students. From their test results, these students will clearly show

no will to succeed in their education, thereby proving that they have neither

the will nor the motivation to work hard and succeed in life. So, these

children will be trained from the start for failure in the eyes of society rather

than have government funds wasted on them. By training for a specific

vocation that is predominantly associated with their race, these children will

feel as if they finally fit in with society because they will be mingling with like

objects. Racial segregation is most definitely not occurring either, because

the Caucasians will have continual contact with their African dealers, and the

Asians, Hispanics and Natives will have constant contact with people of all

races.
Amy Gong
AP Language & Composition – 5th
O’Neal
November 20, 2009
Word Count: 1,143
I can see no standing objections to this plan. Clearly, my proposal will

serve to benefit the United States of America without doing any harm.

Through its implementation, we will eliminate the need for our beloved

standardized testing, as everyone receiving an education will be far above

the set par.

Yet, although I ardently support this proposition, I do not expect to see

it implemented anytime in the future. I can see that there is a need to

blackmail encourage public schools to provide more opportunities to children

across America. Nonetheless, I do recommend that students achieve in what

they do on their own accord. Might I suggest some Adderall or Ritalin? **

**Please don’t.