No Child Play Analysis

Nijala Sun is a teacher at Martin Luther King, Jr., High School in New York City. After teaching for several years she wrote the play titled “No Child…” The play is based on Sun 's 15 years of experience as a New York City public school teacher (Gutman). In "No Child" Sun provides social commentary on the “No Child Left Behind Act”. According to the U.S. Department of Education 's the federal NCLB Act was created to help aid disadvantaged students. NCLB Act supports standards-based education reform based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education (U.S.D.E.). Under NCLB Act, schools were held almost exclusively accountable for the absolute levels of student performance. …show more content…
The Janitor states, "Seventeen feet below my very own, lay one hundred-thousand-dollar worth of a security system" (Sun 5). The students at this school are viewed as criminals. The security officer states, "Girl, girl! Whatcha ti 'ink dis is? You can 't go in wifoot goin ' tru da detector open your arms, spear your legs" (Sun 13). This is a school yet students are treated as convicts. In scene six Jerome states, “We treated like convicts every day” (Sun 14). Sun conveys her discontent regarding the manner in which they are viewed and treated. Also she demonstrates her discontent regarding the manner in which the money is being spent. The janitor states "Your tax dollars at work!" (Sun 13). She believes that instead of spending money on a fancy security system it should be spent to provide children a high quality education. The Janitor states, “Let me tell ya, I don’t know nothing about no No child, Yes Child, Who child What child” (Sun 18). Initially NCLBA was created to hold schools accountable for the absolute levels of student performance yet Sun sees that they are not being held accountable. The NCLB Act is failing in providing these students the education they