Are You Willing?
By: Larry Proffitt
Today was a usual snow day for this educator. I visited the General Assembly to discuss education bills proposed and policies in our state. It isn't a hardship; it is my profession. If I am not willing to do everything in my power to secure good public schools, then I don't consider myself vested. It is the charge we take as educators. We prepare for our classrooms daily and teach our students about the curriculum and ideas that will lead them into the future, or do we? I think it is our intent, but policies over an extended period of time have moved the needle of our calibration methods. It has been moved in favor of almost complete dependency on test scores. What does it mean? I'll tell you my opinion. It means a tremendous amount of time is spent RACING to a test instead of delving into curriculum. What is the compromise? How about the next generation? I truly believe that is what is at stake.
I sat with a state representative today and discussed the sacrifice being made by poorly designed and thought out education policy. His question to me, "What is the end result?" It came to me clearly without a moment of thought. The next generation of our citizens will be excellent test takers, but they will fail poorly at solving the problems necessary to carry us into the future in a great democracy. Time spent on test preparation has grown exponentially over the past five years alone. It is a race, a contest or a competition. Who's school has the best scores? Is it a failing school? Are the students failing, or more importantly, in the bottom five percent? Students, teachers and schools are judged upon those scores, so we push and push. Faster paths through curriculum and standards to cover all we can is the task at hand. Creativity is sacrificed and our path ultimately becomes skewed.
How do we correct our path and stave off the test-crazed push for perfect scores? We get involved. One of the most effective teaching strategies is modeling, so we model. We talk to our board members, commission members and legislators. We sit and do not complain, but we state problems and offer solutions. It is what educators do. It is what we must do. "I just want to teach!" Yes, I've Badass Teachers Association:
