On my list of most important things . . . behind love, family and friends comes education.
Over my career, I have seen some educational fads come and go but I have always been confident that the way children learn could be nurtured by caring Public Schools filled with dedicated staffs. I have been fortunate to work at one of those places for the past 10 years. I am convinced that most teachers know what is best for the students in their class and work very hard, using what strengths they have, and are always training and searching for new routes to connect to kids.
Long have I been skeptical about the media's barrage that "public education is failing." When intelligent people examine the data very carefully, the opposite is true. Politicians and reporters who use skewed data, most based and normed in the 1950's, report statistics and trends that are much exaggerated and over represented. Although I believe there is work to do . . . educators all over the county are doing it.
You are probably unaware of the reform of education now taking place in this country. IT IS NO FAD. Many experts agree that the changes taking place are the most drastic since the 1950's. Some even state that these changes are the most drastic in the history of public education in this country.
Let me be straight. The current reform movement in this country is devastating to me and other educators who have worked so hard to do what is right for kids (based on sound educational theory and child development). A national curriculum is being established and it has little to do with teaching kids how to learn, how to think and how to problem solve.
At best, this national curriculum is a prescriptive attempt to limit teaching strategy to phonetic reading, pattern writing and math computation skills. What I have learned over the years, as stated by educational learning theorist worldwide, is that kids who are involved in programs like this are not prepared for their future but for our past . . . an industrial society of workers.
If you look around at today's child, you will notice they are different. The access to information, media stimulus and advanced communication abilities requires that they be experts in thinking strategies and decision making ability. They need to be lifelong learners as their careers will change during their working years. They need a curriculum that does not focus on acquisition of basic facts but on the process of learning. Sure phonics, spelling, math computation and the like are valuable, but they are ONE piece of a balanced approach.
With the blink of an eye, these basic facts are being mandated as THE ENTIRE CURRICULUM. New materials we are required to purchase have to focus on them. We are having to teach to them. We are tested more and more frequently on them.
Right now, the way public education functions is being rewritten . . . and educators are not on the author list. Politicians, with corporate America in their back pocket, are writing curriculum that they want.
I am very worried about my children's future . . . and our nation's future.
Patriotic views of helping the world and banishing terrorism now fill our public sense, meanwhile the agenda of the elite, fueled on making a buck, is harming our children.
The link below will help your understanding of the issue. It is a lengthy article (kind of like this rant . . . sorry) but I beg you to read it, print it and read it later, share it with others. . .
We all need to be concerned with the state of public education in our great nation.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=2002012 8&s=metcalf
Please talk about this with those that you know . . . informed people make better decisions!
Kevin Ward is a National Board Certified Teacher at Sycamore Elementary School, Claremont CA