Sunday, August 28, 2016

From the mouths of babes

"Everybody gets tested on the same standards. It's just not fair"
--A fourth-grade teacher, quoted in an article on the
unfairness" of Common Core reading standards
.

"We take the test to see how teachers have teached their kids, like if they've teached them nothing and they don't know any answers, teachers get rated and they might get fired because they might not be doing their job...It's creepy because you try your best, but some kids just can't learn, and a teacher will get fired because of those kids."
--A ten-year-old student quoted in the same article.

The first quote struck me as an eyeroll-inducing example of ed-school doublespeak; the second quote, on the other hand, explained the "unfairness" angle clearly. 

I think I'd like to see more ten-year-olds writing about education. 

4 comments:

  1. To be fair, the teacher followed up that statement about fairness with, "“if you want us to differentiate lessons specific to each child’s needs, then standardized tests should be specific to each child’s needs also.”

    While that's one way to be fair, it is inconsistent with the purpose of schooling, which is to help students become useful members of the society which is supporting their education.

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    Replies
    1. My initial post was much longer, but the rest of her statement didn't make sense to me either, for the reason you mention. If a test is "specific to each child's needs," how is it then a "standardized" test?

      Maybe what she's really thinking is, "if you want all my kids to meet some minimum threshold, you should assign me kids for whom it is even remotely possible," but teachers aren't allowed to say that.

      Delete
  2. I'll just leave this here..

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3kPYgdIssE

    "A Message from Teachers"

    ReplyDelete
  3. A ten-year-old who's still saying "teached"? No wonder that teacher's exasperated.

    ReplyDelete

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