Bubbles Are Better

To begin, if anyone has even the slightest interest in education, then take fifteen minutes out of your day to give this a watch. Personally, I couldn't agree more with what Will Richardson has to say. His evaluation of the current education field, as well as, the direction it needs to go in order to return to a positive place is truthfully accurate. He pulls no punches saying it is "not an amazing time for education." With that said, what can teachers do to help rejuvenate a positive attitude in the education field.

He starts by discussing how teachers and parents alike have a "moral imperative" to help guide children to things they might be interested in, but are not allowed to explore, because of curriculum restraints. Unfortunately, students are forced to "wait on a curriculum" to learn things that they will quickly forget once an assessment (most often a test) comes along. To sum up the system: memorize, test, forget, repeat. Certainly there are exceptions, but this is how the system has come to be. Maybe this worked for twenty or thirty years, but not anymore. Then why does education system continue to push this format of learning? Government officials are concerned about education. They want to make it so we do not fall behind with our global peers. So what to do? Make education better. Oh right!

Sadly, a better education is code word for one thing: better test scores. Therefore, we have created "one size fits all assessments" that will give the illusion that if students do well, then our education is getting better. And obviously, we must have better teachers. How do we gage what teachers are better? The teachers whose students have the better test scores. Oh, and in case I haven't said this word enough in this paragraph...better! The government has one imperative, “…to raise the needle on the test scores.” Teachers become products of the system, and the thought of wearing an earpiece with someone instructing me on how to instruct is straight out of the theater of the absurd. A system where we only care about better test scores is slowly but surely killing imagination and creativity.

And perhaps Richardson's most prevalent point to take away: "Test prep and learning are two completely different things." If the only goal of a teacher is to prepare a student for a test with knowledge they will forget within days, then I do not want to teach. But why do people gravitate towards a test? There is probably a lot more to this question than a simple sentence. However, if I had to give my two cents it is because it is an easy way to gage where a student stands. Yet, we must realize better is not always as easy as a bubble sheet.