The Internet never ceases to amaze me.  A list of the things it’s revolutionized beyond all recognition would be nearly endless.  It’s the most powerful tool in history for communication and information dispersion.  It has to rank up there with the written word and the printing press.  Recently, my wife and I started taking courses online.  I’m working towards an associates degree and she’s going for a business administration associate degree online.  She’s aiming for a big promotion at work, which she’d almost certainly already have, but she needs this degree to be eligible.  A friend of hers got a BS degree online, so she looked into getting her degree online. 

I was skeptical at first, but hey, what can’t you do online now?  It’s the wave of the future.  The more she looked into it and explained it, the better it sounded.  Pretty soon, I decided to give it a whirl too.  Now we sit around the table at our computers, books stacked up between us . . . it really takes me back.  Sometimes I feel like passing her a note!  Of course, a disciplinarian teacher isn’t a problem with online degrees.  You work at your own pace, when you feel up to it, take a break when you need it, and you can disrupt your neighbor’s studies (but not too often).  

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In recent years, there has been much political controversy over the No Child Left Behind Act.  What, exactly, does this act entail?  The act promotes a standards-based education program as well as allows parents more choice in which school their child attends.  The act also provides federal funding to most, if not all, public schools, and insists upon a one hundred percent satisfaction rate for the future. 

Opponents of the NCLB Act express concern over the temptation for teachers to teach students simply to pass standardized tests so that schools receive more federal support.  Another criticism is the availability of students’ names and contact information being made readily available to military recruiters, unless students and parents opt-out.  Proponents of the NCLB act emphasize the funding available to public schools and an increase in test scores.  Of course, as with all prominent issues (prominent being those that regularly affect life) it’s important to hold your own opinion.  Remember that the most valuable opinions are those that are well informed, and regarding that matter, take care to choose your sources from sites that hold authority, instead of someone’s free website account, which is more likely to feature opinions and slanted “facts” rather than solid information.

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