They Want To Destroy Public Education
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I arrived at my daughter’s public elementary school at the appointed time. I checked in at the main office. The woman at the front desk asked me to sign in and have a seat. This scenario dredged up old memories of the countless times I was sent to the principal’s office for errant behavior. I felt nervous, like somehow I was in trouble, and alone, with no one to share the impending punishment.
The principal came out of her office and asked me to follow her. Though she is not that much older than me, I said, “Yes ma’am,” with a lump in my throat and my guts stirring.
Three of my daughter’s teachers were already there waiting for us in the otherwise empty classroom, with papers in front of them, all pertaining to my daughter’s academic progress. I sat down in a tiny chair at the table. With the conference underway I eased up as it became apparent that the principal and my daughter’s teachers are professionals—the kind who care and know what they are doing. They seemed to ease up too, as it became apparent that I was not an angry parent. I listened with deference to what they had to say.
I am friends with quite a few teachers who make a very modest living within the Tulsa Public Schools system. Everyone of them are intellectually honest, critical thinkers who know their craft. Teaching is what they were educated to do. That makes them professionals.
Unfortunately for them, politicians want in on the fun, too. For about a decade, politicians at the state and federal level have increasingly passed laws restricting what and how teachers can teach. Currently a mandate is about to go into effect that will require high school students to take a battery of tests that they have to pass before they can graduate. Politicians, in their infinite wisdom and seeming inherent distrust of professional teachers, have deemed that passing the required course work is not enough. Teachers I know say that there will definitely be an increase in high school drop outs as a result. I can’t say that I see that it will do the economy much good to increase the number of people who won’t be able to make a living wage.
My daughter has told me that she is scared because she has to take and pass a standardized test or she doesn’t get to go on to the fourth grade. I don’t recall being stressed out when I was nine years old because of a standardized test.
When I was in grade school at Barnard Elementary, we spent close to an hour an a half everyday out on the play ground. I learned early in my daughter’s schooling that she only gets about 15 minutes of recess a day. I asked her teacher why that was. She shook her head and grimaced. She said, with all the testing they are required to do, there isn’t enough time.
I have yet to hear a teacher tell me that they think the heavy emphasis on standardized testing is a good thing. They all say that the obsession with testing gets in the way of actually teaching, unless you consider “teaching to the test” the best use of a professional teacher’s time.
To give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe politicians really want what is best for our children, but are themselves failing at the education business. Or, is there an ulterior motive? Is there a concerted effort to make things so tough on public schools that failure is inevitable, thus justifying the transfer of funds allotted for public schools to other things, like charter schools and private school vouchers?
In the parent-principal-teacher conference, I made a quip in reference to the law that had recently passed that would give Oklahoma public schools letter grades based on the performance of their students on standardized tests. “My daughter and I want to do everything we can to make sure the governor doesn’t give you guys an F,” I said. They knew what I was talking about and rolled their eyes and shook their heads.
The conference concluded, my daughter’s principal and I were walking the long hallway to the front door. She tugged my arm and pulled my ear to her. “You know what they are trying to do, don’t you?” she asked. Without giving me time to answer, she said, “They want to destroy public education.”
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When you get a chance check out this RSA-animate video. It may not be a perfect explanation for what ails education in the 21st century, but it does a good job. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkPvSCq5ZXk
We need to return to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, and throw out all that unnecessary crap they’re teaching these days. We also need to do away with the standardized testing programs as they exist today. They do little more than cause cheating and pressure to teach to the tests, and that’s not education. Good article.
We’re going through this right now. My husband is a math whiz, BUT because teachers have to teach for the standardized tests, my husband can’t help our son with his theoretical algebra. They’ve tried, but what looks right in my husband’s head is wrong according to the teacher. It’s not wrong, it’s just not the way you do it on the test. This is a disaster, and I agree with your principal. Thank goodness our son wants to be an architect, because if he wanted to go into a field with a heavy emphasis on math, he’d be screwed.