The problem with this standardization epidemic that has swept across the nation and brought with it Common Core Standards is that it is forcing an overemphasis on standardized tests and is rapidly eliminating the creativity of classroom teachers, something that has always been a key element in learning.
That subject is addressed in an article in U. S. News and World Report:
To try to live up to the new demands and ensure better test scores, states, districts and schools have purchased resources, materials and scripted curricular modules solely developed for test success. Being lost is the practical wisdom and planned spontaneity necessary to work with 20 to 35 individuals in a classroom. Academic creativity has been drained from degraded and overworked experienced teachers. Uniformity has sucked the life out of teaching and learning.
Good and great teachers leave and are replaced by new and cheap workers more willing to follow fool-proof, factory-like, prescribed lesson plans. In fact, the average teaching tenure has dropped from approximately 15 years of service in 1990 to less than five in 2013.
Imagine your brain surgeon having to "follow the book" while operating on you or lose his job. While you are on the table, he discovers an unforeseen problem that, because of his experience and practical wisdom, calls for a spontaneous change of plan, yet he can't do what he knows will work. You die on the table. So have students. He retires early, frustrated with conditions. So have the best teachers.
Since relationships are such an important part of teaching and learning, that creativity feeds that relationship. Learning is at it's best when students are engaged. Students are engaged when they know the relevance of what they are learning and when it's enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteIf we want students to think, shouldn't teachers?
If education isn't supposed to be the old factory model then why are we giving teachers scripts?