"As a college educator, I have been watching and listening with great concern as I hear K-12 educators talk about the detrimental effects of ESEA. As I hear more and more stories of programs, such as band/orchestra/choir, speech/debate, art, PE, photography, and foreign languages being cut to allow more resources and time for teaching to standardized tests, I have been dreading the day, down the road, when those students will enter my classroom at the college level.

 I know that such programs contribute greatly to critical-thinking skills, collaborative-working skills, goal-setting skills, and other essential skills that students need to be successful at the college level.

"Much to my surprise and horror, that day has come much sooner than I anticipated. A colleague recently shared that this is the first year in over 20 years of teaching that not one student in her large lecture section had taken a foreign language in high school.

"Where will our country be in 15 years, as the first complete NCLB generation fills all of our college classrooms?"

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