NCLB

I have to stop grading papers for a moment to share this funny thing with you.
My students read American textbooks for their research. It's funny when they use special education laws within their papers because there isn't any special ed law here in Burundi. My favorite is when they take some law and translate it into their own understanding of it.
The best one is the NCLB law (No child left behind). Speaking of NCLB in education circles in the states is like bringing up politics at a nice dinner party, a heated discussion that no one wants to be part of follows. But from my students they understand the law in terms of what it literally means, no child left behind. This is their banner that they wave in most of their papers.
Direct quote from my student:
"They (special ed teachers) are engaged in term of helping their children in order to reach a good education by (students with special needs) becoming autonomy and self-determination because no child is supposed to be left behind."
I think that they grasp onto this phrase because children with disabilities here are exactly that, left behind. They are locked into their homes, sent to the market to beg for money, or just left.
This hope of every child being able to access education is driving my student's lives. So no child left behind is their banner.