What I find most troubling is the number of people discussing how to best “educate” students, or how our schools are “failing” without discussing what the goals of our education system is, or what it means to educate a person. How do we know we are failing when we don’t have a goal? One could arge that the role of the school and teacher is to (in no particular order):

1. Teach curriculum
2. Promote a joy of learning
3. Allow direction in free thought and creativity
4. Allow students to develop socially and emotionally
5. Babysit children while both parents are at work

There are surely more goals, or more specific sub-goals. But which ones do we value most? Which do we wish to succeed over others? Do not tell me that our schools are failing because we have lower test scores. This is what I hear most often and it is a shame. As Lockhart might say, there are millions of people with the Quadratic Equation burned into their brain with no understanding as to what that means. If a student forgets everything from their senior math class will they be ok? Probably, because if you have a 16 year old student, you probably can’t solve their homework problems. Let’s get our goals straight first - then we can discuss where we are failing.

To go back a step, grades are no inherently bad. They are a performance indicator. They are not very specific and should not be used exclusively without other types of feedback. There is the case that these students need grades to get into University. And slapping a grade at the end of the year would most likely result in an unfair grade based on no real performance or accurate assessment of the learning that has taken place. Maybe the student is likable, polite and courteous, the teacher will likely (even subconsciously) asses them improperly. Given the fact that our society will not get all students in a 1:10 teacher-student ratio, we should be discussing how we can get students to focus on their own learning, rather on the grade itself.

Justins last blog post..Reducing Student Stress

We in Migrant education in the 80’s were on the cutting edge of best practice. Then came along the supposed “Nation at Risk” and all the political lies that went along with it. In Oregon where I taught, a property tax revolution combined with political expediency to create a monster called 21 Century Reform, a flailing giant that trampled everything in the path, including best practices as identified through decades of painstaking research.

The teaching profession was helpless before the onslaught. Realizing they had to go along to get along, many tried to “steer” the monster in the right direction, but the monster constantly made demands that no one could possibly meet. Demands such as the ridiculous “CIMS” and “CAMS,” which were nothing other than a wish list of dreamers, pushy industrialists, aided and abetted by elitist parents pushing programs suitable for their TAG brats but hopelessly doomed to fail on the larger population.

Students were placed under constant pressure to perform beyond their capacity, all under the false notion that all one must do is “raise the bar” and push harder and everyone will automatically become an Einstein.

When it failed, as it was doomed to from the start, they claimed it was the fault of teachers, the fault of parents, the fault of teaching methods and techniques ad infinitum. All we needed, the promoters said, was more time. Time to train teachers, time for students to learn (the same high standards for all students) etc. etc. All teachers with any idea of education knew this was all bovine excrement. But on and on it went. How many years, twenty maybe? Did anyone ever earn a Certificate of Advanced Mastery in the State of Oregon? Nobody while I was in teaching ever earned a CAM. Nobody! In at least ten years, not even one student ever earned a CAM in spite of standards being constantly fine tuned.

You would think it might have occurred to somebody up there that the whole experiment was wrongheaded from the start. But nope. The governments, politicians, the media in general, state departments of educations, Presidents of institutions of higher learning, all seem to be still insisting on the wisdom of this idiocy. Anybody out there other than me see a naked emperor?