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End Creative Teaching Neuman Says


Susan Neuman said the new federal No Child Left Behind Act, if implemented the right way, will put an end to creative and experimental teaching methods in the nation's classrooms.

"It will stifle, and hopefully it will kill (them)," said Neuman, U.S. assistant secretary of education. "Our children are not laboratory rats."

Neuman, who is principally responsible for implementing President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, was in Stockton on Thursday night to speak at University of the Pacific's Faye Spanos Concert Hall. . . .


"I think the federal government in the past has done a little of this, a little of that," said Neuman, who received her doctorate in reading education from Pacific in 1977. "It seems like we were into a new trend every other year. No Child Left Behind is a bold change in the way we do business."

Neuman acknowledged that the federal mandate is a "complex law," but she said state education departments already should have been doing much of what it requires.

"They shouldn't be shocked," Neuman said, noting that her first day on the job, she was welcomed by a stack of 18 letters from states and territories asking for waivers on various federal education policies. "The previous administration was waiving this and waiving that. This administration is serious. We don't intend to waive any of the requirements. . . ."

Neuman said the law is a new phenomenon in that teachers have never been trained in terms of getting results.

"There doesn't seem to be a good grasp of accountability for our profession," Neuman said, adding that good teachers can overcome other historically negative circumstances, such as violent, run-down neighborhoods.

"One of the key variables (in a student's educational environment) is good instruction," Neuman said. "If you have good instruction, children can learn regardless of what the neighborhood looks like."








— Victor Balta
End creative Teaching, Official Says. No Waivers of NCLB
The Record
10/25/02
http://www.recordnet.com/daily/news/articles/102502-gn-2.php

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