Shortly after No Child Left Behind was seriously introduced to the American public, I realized that it was a deeply flawed philosophy. You see, NCLB basically strives to bring every school up to the "average". Now, I won't use this opportunity to bash Bush's intelligence because I realize that NCLB is a movement towards realizing the objectives of Goals 2000, an educational initiative authored by Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas.

The problem of trying to bring every school up to average is not unique to NCLB. Since the act's inception, I have lived in three different states. Two of those states have had initiatives to bring teacher's pay up to the national average and raise their per student spending to the same, citing their low ranking among the states. The problem is, both of those states have massive rural pockets where the cost of living is substantially BELOW the national average and where teaching wages are actually quite lucrative (both states, to be fair, also have large cities where the COL is substantially ABOVE average, and I actually DO have an idea that could address that fact fairly, but that's off topic for this piece).

The thing is, no matter how hard you try, without federalizing these programs, some states are going to rank above average, some below. Some students will rank above average, some below. Using average as a bar for achievement ignores those who are well above average, as well as those to whom average will never be a reality. Just as some states have less income, some students have less ability. The same can be said of those who have more. And, while federalizing and bringing everything to a federally established standard appeals to some, it is pretty wildly unConstitutional, not to mention with it bringing with it the baggage of Marxism.

We need to learn to think outside statistical means. If an individual desires a life as a factory worker and if that is the fullest of the potential that person will ever achieve, there's no reason to teach that person advanced calculus. In fact, doing so might induce the student to drop out of school altogether and miss out on the education he/she could have had. What we should focus on instead, in the student, is on encouraging them to achieve to the fullest of their personal ability (and in state funding, encouraging states to get the most bang for their educational buck).

One of the most intelligent men I ever knew was functionally illiterate. By the measures we now apply, he would be considered a failure. And yet, he had more mechanical knowledge than some individuals with advanced degrees. That was his gift. While I would have loved to see him able to appreciate the inctricacies of a good novel, that was never his goal. And it should not have been my goal to force that upon him. Sometimes we miss out on the best life has to offer because we don't have enough appreciation for things that are "below average".