McLearning.
With the recent events sparked during the uprising in Madison Wisconsin and other states, we are seeing a lightening fast dash towards an educational brick wall. And our kids are in the front seat, with no restraints or airbags. We are absolutely on the wrong path.
Now that path has been federally funded, paved, green-lighted and the speed limit rose to 100 mph.
Schools, administrators, Republicans, Democrats, unions, Obama’s “Race To The Top” program and Bush’s “No Child Left Behind ” act are collectively conspiring to be the perfect storm of destruction for our society from it’s roots.
Somewhere in the recent past our education system took a turn and we became hyper focused on the testing model. The idea that test scores were the be-all-end-all proof our kids were being educated took the place of a real, whole education.
We have become a nation of drive-thru educators. And the emotional and educational nutrition of this system is about as healthy as the other drive–thru choices American’s frequent.
What's wrong with measuring academic progress through standardized tests? Pretty much everything.
What would happen, if one day, all testing were removed from the system? What would be left in each school day to accomplish? If there were no preparing to test or being tested? Imagine the possibilities…
Our public schools spend literally 90 percent of class time preparing to test and be tested. Learning to memorize ‘facts’ and spew them back out on to paper on demand. Learning how to formulate testing results. Learning how to prep for more tests. And worst of all, learning that they feel like completely stupid losers if they are not proficient memorization specialists. Causing our bright young minds to have a glossy impenetrable sheen of poor self-esteem and derailing their hopes to express and excel in anything outside of test scores.
Why should they bother trying or thinking or dreaming if they have been shown on paper they are stupid? Funny thing about ‘paper-testing stupid’ is that is rarely identifies brilliance where it is blooming. But it can quickly destroy a child’s hopes and dreams in one red marker stroke.
Higher Test Scores Do Not Equal Learning.
Overwhelmingly, teaching is being redefined as acute test preparation. Eighty percent of teachers spend most of their time instructing students in test-taking skills.
Standardized testing destroys much of the curriculum. What do they sacrifice about a child's education to get test scores to rise? Everything else. Art, music, humanity, and studies of all kinds are left for ‘if we have time later’.
The message our children take home, and in many cases through out their entire lives: There is no value in you or what you desire, love or feel passionate about. There is no value in a civilized, thinking humanity and there is no value in critical thinking or passion.
What could be more soul crushing than having to suppress your love of science or art or music, than to have to incessantly fill in the blank ovals with a number 2 pencil?
It is abhorrent that 3rd and 4th grade teachers are routinely told not to teach social studies and science until March. Real curriculum is replaced by multiple-choice memorization.
Fact: Endless grade tests and graduation tests increase school dropout rates like crazy.
A Harvard University study found that students in the bottom 10 percent of achievement were 33 percent more likely to drop out of school in states with graduation tests. The National Research Council states low performing elementary and secondary school students who are held back do less well academically, and are far worse off socially. And as you can see by the violent crime statistics worldwide, social behaviors and acceptance counts.
They guys at Harvard, who conducted this study, probably attended small private elementary schools when individualized learning needs were identified and addressed and it does NOT take millions of dollars to implement this kind of thinking or this kind of educating.
Very few if any teachers or administrators and NO public school districts spend any time trying to find out how each child learns best, and then teaching him or her that way. Labels are far easier than actually exploring a child’s potential.
Before you say ‘but they can’t afford it’, don’t. Because that is the same BS argument people give when we say eat more healthy foods in place of drive-thru cuisine. As Obama is so fond of saying: Yes we can.
Fact: Public education is currently the single biggest expenditure for every state.
Just like raw vegetables are cheaper than McDonalds meals, so is raw learning cheaper than fast-brain-food. It is a lie to say we, as a society can not afford to teach kids better. Bull Shit.
We cannot afford NOT to. Our society as a whole hinges its very survival upon changing this path immediately. I assure you if we fail to do this, we will snuff out the middle class faster than any Republican big business agenda ever dreamed of.
The leaders of the Central Falls district in Rhode Island recently threatened to fire the entire staff of the town's only high school. Unfortunately Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama thought this was a fine idea, even though no one at the high school had been evaluated. This thinking is fatally flawed right to the top.
Until the entire education system, starting at the root in elementary school, is overhauled, there will be no educational renaissance. And believe me we need one. You want to cut spending in schools? Start with administration costs. Cut out 30% of the non-teaching staff and wasteful nonsense forms and protocols. Cut out 90% of standardized tests. That would save the system millions right off the bat.
But how will we know if our kids are learning if we don’t have test scores to look at?
Try looking at the kids. Read their papers, their actual work. Look at their paintings, their writings, look at their faces.
Do they love learning? Is school a place they look forward to going? Are they engaged in their own education? Are they excited about a subject or two? Do they feel they can achieve a dream or a goal?
Do they look at college as something amazing to strive for?
Do they feel like they are worth something? Do they feel their passions and favorite subjects are valued? Have they been encouraged to create? To think creatively? To think at all?
Surprise, they are probably truly learning.
