It's Not Just About the Test: A Teacher Talks About the Classroom
Monday, August 25, 2014 - 04:00 AM
- Math teacher Jose Vilson, who is Dominican and Haitian, believes teachers should pay more attention to their students' cultural backgrounds(Tafari Stevenson-Howard)
Jose Luis Vilson has been blogging for years about his experiences in the classroom and writing poetry. Now, the 32-year-old math teacher at an Inwood middle school has written a book,"This is Not a Test" (Haymarket Books). Vilson discussed his inspirations, and his hopes for changing education, with Schoolbook. Here are excerpts from the conversation.
What was the inspiration for the book and its title?
It can be looked at from a bunch of different lenses, which is what I wanted. For educators, I thought it was sort of a rallying call to try to get more teacher stories out there about the things that happen in their own classrooms from a personal perspective, looking from the inside and working its way out. It's far too often where educators are limited in terms of getting the chance to speak up about education policy and how it affects their classrooms.
You talk about how you are "pro-whole child rather than anti-testing." What is it you felt teachers weren't hearing enough of during the No Child Left Behind era?
These tests very much, like, you have to drive all the instruction towards that test. A lot of folks were even saying, "Yeah, we could teach to the test," but we're just starting to call it that. Even though they were doing test prep all throughout the year and trying to get kids ready for the test. I'm sure it was even more exacerbated in schools where there is the threat of being shut down every semester or so.
In terms of my teaching, I was felt like, "Oh snap, we can do way better than this. I just don't know how." And that's where my learning came from. How do we get past this culture of it's all about that test at the end of the year, for two- or three-hour tests that we have to take?
You talk about the inner racial turmoil you felt in your mostly white Catholic high school and growing up on the Lower East Side. Is there an element teachers are missing in terms of getting who their kids are?
Absolutely. I think there's a lot of folks who still do believe in this idea of post-racial America, which we've seen in recent weeks hasn't always been true. I think often teachers haven't been respected as to their own personal experience and what they bring into the classroom in order to truly effect change. If your students are a different culture than you are, being colorblind isn't an option anymore. I think our students are becoming more adept at It's Not Just About the Test: A Teacher Talks About the Classroom - WNYC: