An A+: For Doing What I Loved

For those of us who are obsessed with the movie Black Hawk Down, one could not fail in
noticing a certain key phrase that echoes from the top commanding officers all the way down to
the first-class soldiers. No man is left behind. As an institution that honors comradeship above
any other political ideology, every single servicemen belief that everyone else is just as
honorable and valuable, disregarding of their background, leading them to have a faith that is
rooted deeply within this motto.
The same idea has been developed within the education system through the concept of
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 and the Race To The Top (RTTT) contest of 2014.
The NCLB requires all public schools receiving funding to administer a state-wide standardized
test annually to all students, upon which the funding will be given to those schools who have
shown poor results based on the test. RTTT on the other hand, will give a competitive grant
program to states that are creating the conditions and implementing the plans in four core
education reform areas, which are: adopting assessments to prepare students for college and
workplace, building data systems that measures student growth, and inform teachers and
principals on how they can improve instruction, rewarding and retaining effective teachers and
principals, and turning around our lowest-achieving schools.
Nevertheless, there are still criticisms on how both of these policies have provided little
headways in the progress of the American education system. One of those critics is Diane
Ravitch. A Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education,
she stated in an article at the Huffington Post on how these two systems have hurt children,
demoralized teachers, closed community schools, fragmented communities, increased
privatization, and doubled down on testing. As an alternative, she created a new system of her
own. Named No Child Left Out, this system begins with discontinuing the use of standardized
test scores as measures of quality or effectiveness. The tests will be used only when needed for
diagnostic purposes, not for comparing children to their peers, nor to find winners and losers.
New measures will also be used in these systems, such as: How many children had the
opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument? How many children participated in dramatics?

How many children produced documentaries or videos? How many children engaged in science
experiments? How many children wrote stories of more than five pages, whether fiction or
nonfiction? The main idea on Ravitchs mind is for future American schools to be places where
creativity, self-discipline, and inspiration are nurtured, honored, and valued.
As someone who has gone through the rigid education system type, and now is
experiencing a liberal-arts system where every student is given the chance to find their passions
in a certain field, and are free to speak and argue with professors and students alike in a
classroom, the No Child Left Out system could be the breakthrough for the American society.
Davis Guggenheim is his 2010 documentary Waiting for Superman depicted the grim reality of
several lower-middle class parents who have to depend on pure luck to win a lottery number that
will put their kids in a good private schools, mirroring the failure of the public education system
and the unwillingness for schools to simply fire bad teachers.
It is a very ironic statement. In the heart of the land where many outsiders have come in
to find a new future, even the Americans themselves cannot afford to have their children lived a
path that will lead to a good future. Ravitchs idea might seem too simplistic, nave, or even
unrealistic due to the complication of its implementation itself. But is it not the time to ask
ourselves different questions? It is not the question of: How good you are on the last test? or
What is your overall rank on the class? Yet, shouldnt it be the question of: What do like to do
the most? What is your passion?
Being asked these questions by my father in my early days of high school, I can
confidently say that to answer that question have led me to choose to be in right now out of my
own passion, not of my father, nor my friends.
So, fellow Oles, what do you love to do the most?
Samuel Pattinasarane, 19
Jakarta, Indonesia
Major: Political Science and Asian Studies