Initially, I was appalled at the comparisons made from country to country in education after our readings from The Flat World and Education. I was left wondering why we even look at other countries to design our model of what education should look like. I don’t know how we can begin to truly compare our student performance to students in other countries, when we have so many differences, beliefs, or cultures that play into the equation.
It seems like several policies in the U.S. are enacted or imposed to try and fix a problem or to keep up with other countries, but it is always at the cost of "deeming" something else as less important. This is such a painful model that only hurts the students in the end. It potentially masks the problem, until policy drives us towards another area in need of fixing. I wonder how education would look in the U.S. if we focused on not putting one subject area of higher importance for testing purposes. As an elementary teacher, I find equal importance in all subjects. So many different skills and thought processes are engaged when teaching or learning each subject. For example, being told to put reading first and increasing instruction time in elementary classrooms only caused the arts, science, and social studies to go to the wayside. How is this equal education, if we keep taking away or decreasing various opportunities for our students to learn just because we are told we fall behind other countries?
I speculate how one subject can be proven to be more important than another. Where this decision is justifiable made, I am not sure. I do however; feel discouraged as I see the teacher’s voice is not heard enough when it comes to changing or making policies. What matters here is the students; and providing them with the best education possible. To me it seems as though we should stop moving from one problem to another, but take a closer look at what is working within our school, our classroom. I tend to get down, when I think of comparisons and how students perform across the world. There is hope though, I can instill many experiences for my students to grow and learn.
I agree with you, Meriah. It is too bad that the reading curriculum does not take advantage of being able to intergrate the subjects you mentioned that are left behind, such as Social Studies and Science.
ReplyDeleteThe needs of the students should be more important than what is being focused on by policy makers (i.e. test scores). Policymakers need to visit classrooms more to see the real needs, and to see how funds should really be allocated, instead of trying to be competitive with other countries.
I agree with your thoughts Meriah, just seeing the bright side of things is hard sometimes, especially now. Yes, I too want to instill many experiences for my students to grow and learn, and I will continue to do so no matter what. The problem is that when you are constantly being told you have to do something a certain way or teach a certain thing, it makes you second guess yourself as a teacher. You begin to say, “Have I been doing it wrong all along?”
ReplyDeleteThe negativity that is surrounding the public education system and Idaho school in particular is really a “Debbie Downer”. It is hard to be positive and keep that passion for teaching when it seems that you, the classroom teacher can do nothing correct. This all comes back to our previous class, where we talked about teachers and teacher leaders, in specific, having to have tough skin.