A-HA!! I finally figured out when the madness of NCLB will end.

A-HA!! I finally figured out when the madness of NCLB will end. Now I am not sure I know how to to do the math properly, but I think it works out to something like this:

There are 26 letters in the alphabet. If you multiply 26 x 26 that means there are 676 possible two-letter combinations of acronyms to which they can ascribe names of punch-drunk policy.

This means that once NCLB hit the 677th clownish matter of educational legislation that requires an acronym, the system shuts down and we, the teachers are freed from this buffoonish dungeon.

Unfortunately, NCLB is a 4-letter acronym which means that they actually have 456,976 potential matters of acronym-al policy to work through before we are all free. (26 x 26 x 26 x 26). There's good news and bad news in that.

The bad news: we still have a few hundred thousand more clodhopper mandates to work through before we are off this preposterous hook.

The worse news: sometimes they use 5 letter acronyms so we're gonna have to multiply it again by another 26.

The good news... well, there ain't much because I think they'll start incorporating numbers once they recognize this flaw in the system... so just like the web gave birth to web 2. so too, will we one day be faced with NCLB 1.5 -- it'll try to be twice as good but it'll fall half as short.

The only guarantee: it'll be 1.5 times as maddening. Cubed! (That's 3.375 times as loony if you multiply 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5. -- which is really the only guarantee in the whole post.)