Instructional Time

I am seeing a lot of people complaining about standardize testing, common core and smart balance (etc...), and now the revamping of the SAT/ACTs. What is really surprising is the number of the people that are in and/or around education that are leading the charge against the initiative, you would figure they would know better.

What is wrong with holding students, parents and teachers accountable? Everything else in our life has expectations and are held accountable, from the meal we order in a restaurant, the quality build of the car we drive or the house we live in, the medical advice we seek and receive, to the just about anything else you can think of. If it is alright in everything else we have in our lives, why not our education system and students?

I am really disappointed in the people with whom we entrust with our children's education, to be so negative and anti- about this initiative. It is an educator's job to educate, I know everyone will debate that they can't teach because they are "too busy teaching to the test." Would we stand for that from a doctor who would say he was too busy taking care of patients to learn of a new procedure to better save lives...no we wouldn't. Would we put up with a mechanic that didn't check your brakes because he was too busy doing just oil changes because they were quicker and easier? No. So why our children and their education? Didn't they (the teachers) enter the profession with an altruistic view to better the lives of the young? Now they are riding rough shod over their own career choice.

Then there are the parents who are taking their kids out of the testing. Talk about helicopter parents... they are afraid that their little "geniuses" will get their psyche bent out of shape if they don't succeed and not have all good marks. This is in the same vein in that every kid that plays sports gets a trophy for showing up. Parents don't want their kid showing up for test and not getting a ribbon. All they are doing is enabling them.

Now we arrive at my last pet peeve in today's educational world. That is the mainstream inclusion of students with special needs. This probably led by the same group complaining about standard testing. I am all for getting students involved in all aspects of education at all levels. I support the rights of the special need student, but what happens when the rights of that student infringe on the learning environment of the rest of class? Where are the rights of my child to an education and a safe learning atmosphere? I was told recently she doesn't have any because she is not labeled. The educational system just has to provide a basic education for her. So she gets to lose sleep via nightmares about this student and has to be lectured that she can not respond in any form to the disruptions in her classroom because there will be consequences, talk about unfairness and not getting a trophy. (We did at least develop a paper trail to establish some kind of protection, but not sure what that really is worth in the eyes of those that claim jurisdiction of the statutes in today's academia world.) I guess the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.

We are all being instructed on how to build a society of wimps.