Educational Rant #1

Educational rant: I have been watching some TED talks with Sir Ken Robinson. I have always felt that teachers need more power, but he puts it so well.

These issues of standardization and testing and even the old school classroom pop up all the time. Ken addresses them adeptly.
I have a theory: kids started failing in schools and people start asking what the problem is. So the assumption is that teachers are not doing a good job. So, they start testing kids and telling schools and teachers that if these kids don’t do well on tests then it’s your fault. Well, that will motivate those teachers! So, teachers teach to the test and try to cover the standards and the kids don’t do much better. Well, crap! What are we going to do about those teachers? Let’s make sure they are doing a good job. Let’s look at their evaluations. It seems the evaluation system we have in place is not pushing those teachers hard enough to be better teachers. Let’s make this evaluation system more complex. We also need a rubric for it so everyone is graded equally. We need to keep these teachers in check. Why else are we paying them big bucks? Let’s also make sure they all know what to teach. We need some standards so all kids get the same education, that’s only fair, right? But let’s make sure those teachers teach those standards and make some more tests.

My theory is that all this “stuff” teachers have to comply with is because people think teachers aren’t doing their job. The problem is, teachers are not allowed to do their job. One of the things Ken Robinson keeps saying is that teaching is a creative profession. When you start putting parameters around teaching and classrooms you remove the creativity.

There is so much hypocrisy in education right now. We are supposed to modify, differentiate and teach to ALL styles of learning, yet we have to do it in a box. We have to teach to tests and we have to cover standards and we are even graded on how well we cover those standards. We have to submit forms and we all have to do things the same way, yet we are expected to do things differently for each kid. I need my lessons to be a narrative, not put into a grid on a form. Yet, this is how I am supposed to submit them. I need to get rid of the desks in my room and I need a variety of technology. I have gotten to know my students and what I need to teach them and teach them well does not fit into the model that is being supplied to me by the state.

Teachers are the ones that need to make the change in education. NOT policymakers and politicians…unless those policy makers and politicians have been in a classroom and engaging with students for any length of time.

Ken Robinson talks about this. But how do we make this happen? How do we convince schools and administrators and governments to let us do our jobs? How do we make a change?

I have been looking at these XQ super school models and I have been researching and finding a lot of talks, but how do we actually make it happen?

I have a plan. It may get me in trouble. I will probably not earn effective on my teacher evaluation. But I have had enough. I have 6 classes of kids that need to learn. And I already can tell that they have learned very little in their 10-11 years of education. They deserve better. They deserve the truth too. I know I am just one person, but maybe if a few of us try to be radical then maybe eventually down the road we will be heard. The days of standing in front of the room are over.