Today, the eighth graders at the junior high where I teach participated in a promotion ceremony. The band played, students delivered speeches and everyone paraded up to the podium to greet teachers and administrators when their names were announced to a capacity crowd.
I had the distinct pleasure of calling the roll, a simple task, as long as you don't miss the designations of "M" and "H" at the end of many surnames.
A student with an "H" is promoted "with honors," meaning her GPA was 3.5 or higher. The "M's" are "with merit."
As I announced the names, in my best emcee voice, I wondered what inflection I should use for an "average" student (no H) and an "Honors Student." Should I use a monotone voice for the riffraff that dared to march with student royalty? Perhaps a pregnant pause, prior to shouting "With Honors," in my best vibrato.
In the end, I decided to use the same voice for all students. After all, I couldn't see a difference in them, before the medals were handed out.
Today was one of those days that made me wish I worked some place else.
Photo credit: InMagine
I work at a grade 7 and 8 middle school that is filled with wonderful teachers, counselors, administrators and support staff, many of whom will stop at nothing to help students learn. Some of them are quirky; some are funny. Some have marvelous ideas about how to make education better; some just wear a never-ending smile that always makes your day.
Sounds great, right? So why would anyone complain about a place like this?
The problem, you see, is that while these marvelous people are willing to go the extra mile for kids, many of them think the best way to do this is to control students.
As I watched students work cooperatively, independently, quietly and noisily in my results-only classroom, an e-mail landed in my inbox, quickly followed by another and several more -- all on the same subject.
"This place is out of control, and it has to stop," was the gist of the lot. The students, it seems, are listening to their Mp3 players and iPods in the hallways, and the safety of the school, perhaps even that of the entire civilized world, is at stake. (Okay, that was poetic license run amok.)
Still, a steady stream of loud complaints cascaded throughout teachers' email, demanding a change. By the end of the day, the change was announced by our principal. If only we could get an important decision made this quickly.
As you may have guessed, my take on this was quite different. Sadly, my suggestion to teach the students appropriate use, rather than take the devices away, was met with criticism.
It makes me wonder, will we ever join the 21st century digital age? Or, do I need to look for a new place to hang my hat. . . and my iPod.
Teachers in Hawaii served a crushing blow to President Obama's Race to the Top initiative, when 67% of the state's teachers voted against a new contract that would require merit pay, if the state was to earn RTTT money.
Courtesy: Hawaii Tribune-Herald
If a large majority of 9,000 teachers in a state are willing to say no to $75 million in government dollars, because they are so staunchly opposed to being judged on test scores, one must wonder when other states will follow Hawaii's lead.
An even more significant question might be, is this the beginning of the war between educators and politicians that will ultimately strike down No Child Left Behind, putting an end to standardized testing once and for all?
Since NCLB's inception, teachers and researchers nationwide have complained in books, articles and at national conferences that high stakes tests are ineffective in evaluating student performance and, in fact, detract from learning. However, there has not been the solidarity necessary to make a large enough statement to get the attention of education lawmakers and of the Obama administration.
The courageous teachers in Hawaii have made a resounding statement. Perhaps their vote was the first shot fired in a war that has been a long time coming.
Maybe, in addition to saying no to Race to the Top, the teachers in Hawaii were saying good-bye to No Child Left Behind. Maybe they were saying they will no longer stand for high stakes testing. Maybe they were telling President Obama and Arne Duncan that they will not stand for a failing education system. Maybe they were saying that the testing has to stop.
Maybe they were starting a war that every teacher in America needs to join.
I've never understood America's preoccupation with competing globally in education. Why is it so important for our students to outscore students in China or Taiwan on a standardized test? Will it raise my quality of life, if little Johnny's math grade is higher than his Japanese counterpart in the fourth grade?
"Much of the debate centers on whether the U.S. education system has slipped from a position of dominance, or is holding steady, in areas deemed crucial to economic security, particularly the STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—and so-called 21st-century learning and communications skills."
Let's see if I have this right. If our students' scores on an arbitrary test are substandard, according to some bureaucratic bean counter, the economic security of the entire nation may be in jeopardy. I can't imagine anything more absurd.
I wonder if we were to focus our energies on creating opportunities to collaborate with other countries on best practices just how much better off all of the world's students might be.
George Orwell's 1984 is a cautionary tale about a government that polices everything citizens do, including how they think. The term "Big Brother is watching" was popularized by this classic dystopian novel. Big Brother is the party leader, who does everything possible to eliminate individuality.
Recent comments here at ROLE Reversal, on Twitter, Google+ and other articles and blogs got me to thinking that Orwell's Big Brother and our current government may not be so different. One might argue that the notion that we're being controlled by thought police is absurd, but consider the government's role in education and its impact on educators.
The comment below, left on a blog post about the negative effects of homework, is a perfect example of the thought control that our government is creating with standardized testing:
"Sounds good, but my state says we Must finish x amount of concepts in the year, and be prepared for an end of course exam that determines if they graduate. I need every second of class time and the students need practice to get the ideas into long-term memory."
I hear similar complaints daily in my own school, from colleagues scared senseless that their students won't pass the test, subjecting the teachers to all sorts of state-mandated wrath. Don't standardized tests force teachers to behave like thoughtless automatons, handing out practice test worksheets and homework day after day, as they spout "You must pass, you must pass," mantras at their students? Or do they?
Most readers of Orwell thought his novel was, in fact, cautionary and that his plot was far too outlandish to ever come to fruition.
As we gaze into today's classrooms and see one mind-controlled teacher after another, we must wonder if Big Brother isn't alive and well today, controlling the thoughts and actions of teachers and destroying American education and the futures of our children along with it.
It seems that I inadvertently upset a colleague. In fact, angered is a more appropriate word.
While the teacher was making students copy nightly homework into an agenda book (yawn), a frustrated student who also has me for a teacher, announced that "Mr. Barnes says homework has no value." Uh-oh.
Now, just to be clear, I do tell students when they ask why I don't assign homework that I don't see the value in it and that they'd be better off reading for pleasure. I always add that other teachers do what they believe is best, and the students should honor that.
My colleague responded with a rather pointed e-mail, suggesting that my philosophy was hurting the entire building.
My initial reaction was to reply with a cyber dart of my own, but I refrained. After further consideration, I decided that the word is finally getting out. Before today, I thought my colleagues weren't listening to my pleas for reason on homework and grades. This was the first signal that they are taking notice.
Hmm, I wonder what I can do next to anger the traditionalists.
I've never known a teacher to say, "Boy, I love standardized tests." Quite the contrary. Most teachers and many administrators oppose everything related to high stakes testing.
Many outspoken educators are not shy about voicing their opinions on the matter. They complain in faculty lounges, at staff meetings or on their blogs that the test undermines everything that is good about teaching and learning. It is unfair to students, who have a years-worth of learning judged in a single 150-minute testing session.
Worst of all, teachers declare, the test makes students hate learning. In spite of all of this, we keep administering this abomination every year.
As our standardized test approached last year, I asked some colleagues why we keep giving it. "What do you mean?" one asked. "We just have to." Again, I asked why.
What if, I suggested, we just say "No?" We band together with voices stentorian and tell the bureaucrats to keep their test, because we don't want it.
Imagine every teacher in your state promising solidarity and saying, "Don't even send the tests, because we will not administer them." What would the government do? What could district leaders do? Fire every teacher in the state?
Maybe, rather than give the decision-makers time to contemplate this possibility, we should just "get sick" the day of the test.
Imagine the statement educators across the country could make, if the tests arrived and there were no teachers to administer them.
