"...'Education is not preparation for life, it is life itself.' This type of total immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching...I now find that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters, despised...Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy, experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort to fix what is not broken in our system of public education."
-Gerald Conti, who says his profession 'no longer exists'
I read an article posted on Facebook today (link is above) that resonated with me greatly. It was a newstory by the Huffington Post covering the lengthy resignation letter of a life-long educator. Since I started taking my education classes in college, I felt like something was wrong with the way I was being prepared. Everything was about the GLCEs, the scores your students earned, the numbers and the quantifiable results. I can count on one hand the professors I had that had a real approach to preparing the next army of teachers- they let us know it was okay to take a little extra time on a relevant or interesting subject or to take time to just develop relationships with your students. Sadly, once I started student teaching all of the latter went out the window. There's no time in the school day for any of that, not if you want your class to score as proficient on the MEAPs!
I teach STEM now and I do believe that a strong foundation in science and math is important for every reach of life, but I have to say that the recent push for it worries me. What about social studies? What about reading and writing? The majority of Americans read at a middle-school level, and every school I've been in only has enough time in the day to teach science and social studies in alternate cycles (every other day or every other week). All of this makes me wonder where the state of public education will be when I become a more "seasoned" teacher. For now, I hope that I have a chance to find a classroom and a school that values the slow-and-steady approach instead of the teach-to-the-test approach that most schools use. I hope enough administrators and legislators will someday see the light and realize that we're failing our students when we place more importance on the numbers and the money than we do on their futures.
-Gerald Conti, who says his profession 'no longer exists'
I read an article posted on Facebook today (link is above) that resonated with me greatly. It was a newstory by the Huffington Post covering the lengthy resignation letter of a life-long educator. Since I started taking my education classes in college, I felt like something was wrong with the way I was being prepared. Everything was about the GLCEs, the scores your students earned, the numbers and the quantifiable results. I can count on one hand the professors I had that had a real approach to preparing the next army of teachers- they let us know it was okay to take a little extra time on a relevant or interesting subject or to take time to just develop relationships with your students. Sadly, once I started student teaching all of the latter went out the window. There's no time in the school day for any of that, not if you want your class to score as proficient on the MEAPs!
I teach STEM now and I do believe that a strong foundation in science and math is important for every reach of life, but I have to say that the recent push for it worries me. What about social studies? What about reading and writing? The majority of Americans read at a middle-school level, and every school I've been in only has enough time in the day to teach science and social studies in alternate cycles (every other day or every other week). All of this makes me wonder where the state of public education will be when I become a more "seasoned" teacher. For now, I hope that I have a chance to find a classroom and a school that values the slow-and-steady approach instead of the teach-to-the-test approach that most schools use. I hope enough administrators and legislators will someday see the light and realize that we're failing our students when we place more importance on the numbers and the money than we do on their futures.
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