School is Out - Let Your Education Begin!
Teacher Jim Owens was chosen by the 435 graduating seniors at Gainesville High School to address them and their families, and delivered this speech to an audience of 5,000 on June 5, 2011. I originally shared this talk back then, and I think it is still relevant now.
Testing. Testing 1,2. Just like school, no? Always testing. Can you hear me in the cheap seats? Look at you! You’re radiant. You look brighter than ever today. You look like you’ve learned something. It must be the cap. What do you think, should we make it and the gown the SCHOOL UNIFORM for next year? Think of the photo ops. That would show the rest of the world what education looks like in America.
I am deeply, deeply honored to be speaking to you today, to have been invited BY YOU, the students, on this very special occasion. There is no honor that this humble profession of mine offers that I would ever, or could ever, value more …not even … Merit Pay!
My name is Owens. Not Mister Owens. Not Jim. Just PLAIN Owens. That’s what the kids call me and have for years. I must confess, it felt a little brisk at first, like an enthusiastic slap on the back. Until I realized it was a gesture of cordiality, whereupon I embraced it with affection. Should you too, in the future, feel inclined to call me Owens, by all means, do so.
I teach thinking skills. I do not teach to the test. I’m the guy who teaches your children to think outside-of-the-box. I do not teach your children how to think. Would that not be indocrination? Would that not be brainwashing? I provoke thought, at least I try to. I rather suspect that’s why your children invited me to speak today: to provoke you. I shall do my utmost not … to disappoint them.
Thinking skills. What’s that? Well, that depends on whom you ask. If you ask the people who WRITE the tests, thinking skills might look something like this: If Chinese workers can produce and ship a television for $50, what would it cost to import a million televisions from China. A. $50,000 B. $500,000 C. $5,000,000 D. $50,000,000 or E. Insufficient factors to compute. For instance: how many American jobs will be lost? How will those lost jobs affect the middle class? How will rising unemployment affect the sale of televisions? The ONLY thing I can guarantee you, for sure, is that option E will NOT be on the test.
A more interesting question, I think, might be: If we’ve been testing for the past decade or two and our children, in world competition, are supposedly falling further and further behind, could it be that testing School is Out - Let Your Education Begin! - Living in Dialogue:
