Standardized testing - revision

  While in high school I overheard a conversation between my humanities teacher and the principal. It was about one of my friends who was a senior at the time, and it was a discussion of whether or not my humanities teacher should allow him to pass or not. My friend had failed several classes and ended up taking most of those classes online and all he needed was the humanities class to get his diploma. The discussion was our principal telling our teacher to pass my friend so that they could get rid of him instead of having him come back next year since they said they didn't want to deal with him anymore.
      After that conversation, our teacher was forced to pass my friend, even though my friend shouldn't have gotten his diploma. He got handed a diploma he didn't do anything for and should have worked harder to get the diploma. I could see how it affected every teacher that was forced to pass students and I'm sure they felt like they had no control over the outcome of their classes. The teacher I talked about earlier quit the following year because various students were passed through the same way and he was given little respect from the students and his peers. My friend was failing the class and did none of his work, so in no way did he deserve to pass this class, but if he graduates the school gets more funding for the following year.
   High schools will do anything to ensure that they get the same funds each year, which is what I had been noticing in my years in high school. They introduce several classes and programs to get more subsidize and will make sure that no one fails by issuing standardized tests to everyone. Those tests can be taken over and over again until that person passes, but it may be over several terms. There could also be a curve on the grades to try to get all the students to make it through the class. You might be asking how this started in the first place. The reason why this happened is that of no child left behind.
  No child left behind mandated that everyone must take the same standardized tests and that you must teach the exact material provided without straying from a set of guidelines. Which makes teaching into a cookie cutting process and doesn't accommodate the needs of that particular class. The material taught must be memorized and little critical thinking skills are required to pass any standardized test. I believe that this leads to a society that is uneducated in the skills that are needed to succeed in life and is shown in most of the United States. What else has no child left behind disrupted?
   Most of all, No child left behind is killing creativity by showing that there is only one way to go about things, the right way. In my opinion, there is no wrong and right way, but several ways of going about learning. While some ways may not work for some, you need to try to find a middle ground that will please the majority. Our current way of teaching is not helping the majority and is showing that creativity is not allowed. Everyone has different ideas and ways of going about solving problems, but that is not being portrayed to the students in our current system. Teachers need to be able to guide their students by showing videos, reading books of their choice or maybe even by straying from the mandatory curriculum. One size does not fit all, just as one teaching style does not fit all. Could this be solved by looking at how are subjects are taught in school?
    Mandatory subjects include math and reading, which I agree are necessary for a good curriculum, but how math and reading can be applied is not taught correctly. If students were shown how math can be used to determine the amount of time to put clay in a kiln, what temperature to weld a piece of metal, or how much paint you need for an art project. The applications of math to other subjects are endless and can save you a lot of time and frustration. Reading is an important skill by having the means to teach yourself almost anything by reading books then experimenting with what you were just taught, by writing or doing an activity. In school we are not told to think this way, it is merely mindless reading and math problems without being shown how this can be applied to what we love to do in our spare time. Nothing you ever learn will be useless if you know how to apply it. You may never use one of the skills you have learned, but learning is one of the many privileges that we have in life.
   What must be fixed is having more diverse topics to study through high school and have more choices. Not just having everyone read the same book and write the same papers. Also, topics that you learn in class should be tested, but not just with standardized testing. There needs to be more group discussions and activities that reflect on what you learned and gets students to come to some conclusions on their own. Our education system kills creativity by telling you that you are constantly wrong and that there are wrong opinions, at least in my schooling. Hopefully, we can get to a place where students can find out what they are good at and be pushed out of their comfort zone to better themselves and their peers.

Notes: Split the second paragraph into two paragraphs, and added a 5th and 6th paragraph. Tried to improve vocabulary and strengthen some previous ideas, the last paragraph still seems choppy in my opinion, but I improved it to the best of my ability.