I am sure many of you will read this post and think I have lost my marbles. That I have clearly opened my mouth and inserted my foot fully, all the way to the ankle, in it. Well, tough cookies. I am a TEACHER. What I do is TEACH. I don't prepare kids for a test. Nope. Sorry. Not me. I TEACH CHILDREN. It's MCAS week here in the fine old state of MA, which is all fine and dandy. I encourage my kiddos to do their best, but inside I really want to tell them to use the bubbles to draw pictures. I will never say that, because, frankly, I enjoy having a job. Let me preface this further discussion by saying that I teach children that are all on IEP's. For some reason or another, they require specially designed instruction in order to access the curriculum. Wahoo!!!! Recognition that not all learners do it the same way! As a parent, I feel like this is common sense- my two boys don't learn things the same way, and they are genetically related. Why on earth would I expect totally non-identical, non-cloned humans to be any different? That's just the way we teach them, obviously. MCAS is a fine little test administered by the state- it is meant to ensure that students earning a diploma have reached a certain level of competence. OK, fine. However, I'm a smart gal. I have a master's degree, and a bachelors, from some damn good schools. I graduated from high school- and amazingly, I didn't have a bubble test tell me I was worthy of graduation. Oddly enough, they relied on my TEACHERS to determine my abilities. You know, those people you entrust your children to for thirteen years? The people qualified and trained to foster academic excellence? Yup, amazingly, if you fulfilled course requirements, earned your credits, and didn't have overdue library books, you got to GRADUATE!!!! Crazy, ain't it??? Now we need these fancy schmancy tests to tell teachers, parents, and students, whether they "earn" a diploma. Can I just, at the risk of sounding both crass and judgmental, call BULLSHIT? The trust that was once placed in public education is severely waning- by both the government and families- if we need a one size fits all test to determine ability, it is essentially saying that there is no trust in educators, administrators, curriculum specialists, and the like- they CERTAINLY can't determine whether or not children have acquired the necessary knowledge- let's have this test do it. How sad that we are at that point. SAT's and GRE's and MCAT's and LSAT's are different in my eyes- people choose to take these tests, because it helps them achieve their goals. I get that. I encourage them. I am one of them- and am so lucky that I am actually good at all that bubbling. I take some sick pleasure in filling the bubbles fully and with varying shades of number two pencil. Even so, as an educator, I am incredibly thankful that I do work with an outstanding group of students- and that their value and knowledge amounts to so much more in my eyes, than a score. Yes, my students take MCAS. Some pass, some fail. For my curriculum planning, even the failures aren't that helpful. Sure, it could tell me that student X can't use semicolons appropriately- but I ALREADY KNEW THAT. See, I'm working with my kids, every day. I know what they can do and not do. I know if student Y can't multiply, or student Z can't formulate strong topic sentences. I know because I am involved. I know because I care. I know because I don't expect every learner to be the same. Truly great teacher know this, and use their creativity and chutzpah to help their students succeed, and learn those skills. I work with some absolutely amazing teachers- their ability to help kids learn floors me- and I am thankful every single day that I get to work with them. That said, I'm scared out of my mind. I have two kids. They are little. Like, way little. I don't want them to even think about MCAS or PARCC. I want them to enjoy learning, and explore the world with their teachers. I don't want to be sending in notes of encouragement on MCAS day, at the suggestion of the school. I want them to actually LEARN. To be excited about what each day will bring.
And to never, ever, need a freaking number two pencil. My boys are so much more than a test.
No comments:
Post a Comment