Rant

There is a reading program that the girls have been participating in since they started school. The did it in GA, and they do it here in Texas as well. It's called the Accelerated Reading Program It helps encourage reading comprehension.

Children are tested on their ability to comprehend what they have read at the start of the year. They are then given a point scale. With this scale they can check out books from the library. They are then given a goal of how many books they have to pass tests for with a minimum of 80%.

In theory, it is a great program and I understand that there are a lot of kids that need this sort of thing. However, for my girls it's insane. My girls love to read. Last year, while still in Kindergarten, Zada was already reading and fully comprehending chapter books. KateLynn was he same way when she was in Kindergarten.

This program does not allow them to check out any book that does not fit in their scale. This scale - is grade base. Basically it's like this:

If a book is marked with 3.1 that means that it is where a 3rd
grader should be reading their 1st month in school. 2.7 - 2nd
grade, 7th month, and so on.

So what about those students that test way high on their diagnostics??? Let's look at KateLynn. Her scale allows her to go up to 4.8 this year. She is in 2nd grade. At the start of the year, she had to start at 2.0 and can't move to 2.1 until she passes the AR test for the 2.0 book. She is allowed to check out 2 books a week. So the first week of the library opening (which didn't open to the kids until 2 1/2 months after school started) she was able to check out 2.0 and 2.1.

Do you see where I am going with this??? Where is the challenge? Where is the "lets start where you are testing highest at and go from there?? It's no where. Schools now a days have to go by the "No Child Left Behind" crap. Leaving those that are at or above their grade level, in any academic subject, left bored and having to wait for the rest of their peers to catch up.

Since when does every child have to be testing at equal levels as everyone else? What is the point? So that when they are ready for college and the work force, everyone has equal chance at getting what ever job, scholarship, school placement that they want?
What ever happened to working hard, and being rewarded for what you are rightfully entitled to?

Congress keeps passing such bull crap laws that are making our children who want to work hard, not able to. It is no ones right to tell my child that they can't be way up here, if all of the Lazy Steven's don't want to put forth the effort to do well in school. We still work with the girls at home, to keep them on the levels that they personally what to be on. In fact, we encourage our girls to work as hard as they can. They love it!

No one is going to stop me from buying my almost 2nd grader Nancy Drew books, or stop me from allowing my almost 3rd grader to read the novels of C.S. Lewis. It's no ones business how far advanced they read, but theirs. Congress needs to keep to the taking care of the country, not regulating how much kids should be allowed to learn and how.