By Professor
Doom
I’m hardly alone in suspecting something
has gone terribly wrong in education. John Taylor Gatto has done an amazing job of explaining what’s going on,
identifying that our current system is designed to keep people ignorant,
through a process of enstupidation. Beyond his excellent writing, I
find what he has to say important because he has important credentials: he
wasn’t just a teacher, he received big awards for being an excellent teacher.
This is important to me, because it was
something I noticed in graduate school, and in the years immediately following
grad school: the smart people were getting the
heck out of academia.
I noticed it at the time, but my sagaciousness fused with my stupidity,
preventing me from connecting the dots: I figured I’d look better on the curve
if there were less geniuses to compete with me.
Now, of course, I realize I should have
taken the hint, and followed in the footsteps of the smarter people. That said,
I don’t regret continuing my studies of mathematics, climbing upon the shoulders
of the giants of mathematical thought that have come before me, and seen things
only those few who also struggled through the climb have ever seen.
“Yo, teach!”
“Excuse me, professor.”
---one of these is the greeting I
received many times when at a school of ill repute that mostly just ripped off
students that didn’t know better. The other is from a more respectable school.
I’ve leave the gentle reader to ponder, and guess which came from which.
I also don’t regret teaching; it’s
honorable work, and when I’m at a legitimate school, I know I’m actually
helping people to achieve their goals, or at least there’s a chance I’m
helping. Sometimes I even get people to climb up with me and see the wonders of
mathematics, though I’m content if I only help them to achieve their goals, if
not also my own.
So, it worries me greatly when a teacher,
one of obvious passion and ability, decides to leave the profession, not
because of a higher calling, but because the teacher no longer feels there’s
honor in the profession.
Much like police
officers against the drug war, or psychiatric practitioners against
psychiatry, it
worries me quite a bit when there’s a movement within a profession to give up
(or reduce) their paychecks, because they realize the profession is doing harm.
John Taylor Gatto is not a movement, of
course…but it’s happened again:
Nation's Top Teacher Drops Resignation Bomb: "I Can't Drill 'em and Kill 'em"
So, once again, we’ve got a top teacher
who has had enough. While Gatto left because he had learned that
public/government education was harming students, this top teacher’s reasons
are a bit different:
What is even more insidious, is that
special needs students have been left out of the mix to fall by the wayside. By
that I mean, while they are normally allowed to have helps for their disability
(like having the test read aloud), they are not allowed any such thing with
PARCC. Which means that PARCC is acting outside and above the law with a
"survival of the fittest" standard. Starr demonstrates the irony of
all the children becoming "left behind" in this new system.
Her issues aren’t merely with the insane
standardized testing that is much of government education today, but also with
the bizarre Common Core “standards” that honestly seem designed to (further)
debilitate the ability of our children to think, to understand information they
receive, and to distinguish the occasional glimmer of truth from the tsunami of
lies. I’ve certainly written of some of the
critical problems of Common Core, myself, so I understand her valid concerns.
One of her reasons for quitting, however,
I can’t entirely get behind:
“I can’t do it anymore, not in this
‘drill ‘em and kill ‘em’ atmosphere,” adding, “I don’t think
anyone understands that in this environment if your child cannot quickly
grasp material, study like a robot and pass all of these tests, they will not
survive.”
I certainly
agree the “one size fits all” pace is a bad idea to apply to every child in the
country (doesn’t that seem, well, obvious?), but what’s so wrong with “drill
‘em and kill ‘em”?
Students are flooding onto
campuses with literally no measurable knowledge, no noticeable skills. More
importantly, they don’t have a clue how to gain knowledge, how to gain skills.
Google is great for looking up information, mind you, but honest, after 12
years of even government education, students should know something without having to look it up. How many “man on the
street” interviews with people that obviously don’t know even basic facts must
we all laugh at, before realizing that these ignorant people are products of
the modern school system?
In addition to some actual
skills and knowledge, our students should also have some memory of how to learn
things, how to learn skills. Unfortunately, skills are only gained through
practice. Yes, it’s dull. Yes, it takes time and concentration (and that means
turning the cell phone off for a bit).
And no, we don’t do that in
schools any more, and our top teachers are quitting the profession at the
thought having students do what it takes,
what it has always taken since the dawn of civilization, to gain skills.
So, I’m sorry to see a top
teacher leave, and I worry that it will start a movement where we lose all the
best people.
But what worries me more?
Nobody in the comments asked “how are our children supposed to learn skills if
they don’t actually do any drills?” I ask the gentle reader to consider an 8th grade exam
from a century ago, and realize that everything on that exam is
learned through drill, study, and practice…activities that no longer exist in
our schools, and that our teachers would quit rather than perform.
Realize also that almost
nobody can do any part of that exam today. The valuable skills of a century ago
are not valued today, but most people escape school with no skills comparable
to anything on that old test that would be of value today. Ask yourself if
maybe, indeed, something has gone horribly wrong in education.
Our best teachers are asking
themselves that question, and deciding to do something else.
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