Oh, don't even get me going on standardized testing. Every piece of paper our kids have brought home since January reminded us to send them to bed on time and give them good breakfasts--and the tests aren't even until next week.I know we have to have them--especially the SAT because some schools, which I have taught in, try to force the teachers to hand out A's like candy so the kids will want to go to college and the school system will look good. (Then they flunk out after the first semester in college.) Somehow you have to see where everyone is in their learning.
I have taught all levels from middle school to college. I've been appalled at the government's idea that all kids, even the mentally handicapped, are going to be able to reach "X" standard. It's been heartbreaking, over the years, to watch programs that were heralded as being what would bring all kids up to par fail fall by the wayside. The truth is that not all kids will make it scholastically. Maybe they're intellectually unable, they have a horrible home life, they don't care, who knows?
My sister teaches several kids who came to her district as Katrina refugees. They want to sleep in class, they're absent for days at a time, they want to know why her school doesn't have 2 hour-long recesses like their old schools did, they refuse to do classwork and homework. And the government thinks that these kids are going to meet the standard they've imposed? I wish they could. I doubt they will.
This post has rambled but it comes from a teacher who's been around for a long, long time! I just have so many thoughts about all this...
