"'[A]y, there's the rub'" (Hamlet).

"Compared to all the forces tearing apart the larger world, the destruction of American education may seem a minor matter. But it looms large in my small world and, I think, in yours" (Yatvin 363). And if this statement, quoted from Joanne Yatvin's speech in Research in the Teaching of English, from an address she delivered at a NCTE convention does not move you, perhaps it will after considering the following discussion.

The speech from Yatvin delineates the breakdown of the American educational system, and how it seems to have become an issue similar to the magnificent elephant that is in the living room that no one is brave enough to acknowledge.

As I drive past schools within Phoenix, I am always taken aback, as I see big, lurid banners professing the labeled school as "excelling." For those not in the know, there are now labels the government has put in place to make schools accountable (sadly enough, the latest trend in education is to put all the accountability on the school and teachers within it; however, accountability on the students themselves, seems to be lacking). Ranging from "failing" to "excelling," it always reminds me of the exploitation of our educational system, which is being swept up by initiatives that do no work, and a "selling out" in the most promiscuous of ways: let's not be concerned with the fact that this craze to "making the grade" has less to do with actually ensuring the educational system is serving our kids, and more to do with a quick "bandaid" on the eyesore that is really festering. And the eyesore, as I see it, is that the schooling system within America has fallen mercy to political correctness, and a spinelessness brought about by educational notions that say the system needs to be "sensitive" to the kids in order to avoid "damage" to their esteem. Combine this with an enervation of a disciplinary structure that disciplines unwieldy students, and one can most assuredly smell that something is fishy in the state of Denmark.

And, obviously, this weakening of our educational system does not stop at making kids accountable for their behavior. Of course not. It insidiously sweeps into their learning, and the teachers' pedagogies. If you are a teacher, throw away any confidence or training that you have been taught, because the government has superceded anything you might know as valid for a program that is sure to fail. Yatvin elaborates, as she realistically explains the issues of the initiative, "No Child Left Behind:" "Underlying the creation of NCLB is a profound mistrust of schools and teachers, concealed by the term 'accountability" (368). This mistrust has completely taken the teacher out of the learning equation. And because of this, teachers, and therefore, students, fail to see the importance of tests that do not connect with any of the learning that is, indeed, going on in the classrooms across the nation.

All of this is a hard, educational pill to swallow. As a teacher, it is hard to accept the degeneration of a schooling system which is supposed to engender a love of learning and knowledge. As more teachers leave the profession of teaching en masse due to these very reasons, I leave you with a poignant statement espoused by Yatvin: "Our students, our colleagues, our knowledge, our ideals, our profession; these are our loves. Be true to them all" (372).