National Standards and A Joke
It was the final examination for an introductory Biology course at the local university. Like many such freshman courses, it was designed to weed out new students, having over 500 students in the class!
The examination was two hours long, and exam booklets were provided. The professor was very strict and told the class that any exam that was not on his desk in exactly two hours would not be accepted and the student would fail. Half of an hour into the exam, a student came rushing in and asked the professor for an exam booklet.
"You're not going to have time to finish this," the professor stated as he handed the student a booklet.
"Yes I will," replied the student. He then took a seat and began writing. After two hours, the professor called for the exams, and the students filed up and handed them in. All except the late student, who continued writing. An hour later, the last student came up to the professor who was sitting at his desk preparing for his next class. He attempted to put his exam on the stack of exam booklets already there.
"No you don't, I'm not going to accept that. It's late."
The student looked incredulous and angry.
"Do you know who I am?"
"No, as a matter of fact I don't," replied the professor with an air of sarcasm in his voice.
"Do you know who I am?" the student asked again in a louder voice.
"No, and I don't care." replied the professor with an air of superiority.
"Good," replied the student, who quickly lifted the stack of completed exams, stuffed his in the middle, and walked out of the room.
The increasing acceptance of national standards for students as inevitable is worrying me. Does it make sense for people to set standards for effective education without knowing the actual children with all their individual gifts, challenges, desires, and dispositions? If we do not see the human beings in front of us, who are we to determine the goals and pathways that will work for them to be contributing members of our communities? The further away the standards are set from the community in which the children live, the more broad, numerous and most likely unconnected to children’s realities, they turn out to be.
I would suggest it is past time to let go of the factory model of education and move back to recognition that we are raising human beings and that human beings are too complex to be reduced exclusively to what can be measured by one standard for all.
In small schools we say that we will ensure that each child is known and seen by at least one adult. That has always struck me as sad that it is such a hard thing to accomplish in the buildings where our children are spending so much of their lives. What kind of lessons about the world and life does this provide for our young people?
There has been a question floating around about renaming No Child Left Behind. I’d like to suggest No Child Left Unseen.
The examination was two hours long, and exam booklets were provided. The professor was very strict and told the class that any exam that was not on his desk in exactly two hours would not be accepted and the student would fail. Half of an hour into the exam, a student came rushing in and asked the professor for an exam booklet.
"You're not going to have time to finish this," the professor stated as he handed the student a booklet.
"Yes I will," replied the student. He then took a seat and began writing. After two hours, the professor called for the exams, and the students filed up and handed them in. All except the late student, who continued writing. An hour later, the last student came up to the professor who was sitting at his desk preparing for his next class. He attempted to put his exam on the stack of exam booklets already there.
"No you don't, I'm not going to accept that. It's late."
The student looked incredulous and angry.
"Do you know who I am?"
"No, as a matter of fact I don't," replied the professor with an air of sarcasm in his voice.
"Do you know who I am?" the student asked again in a louder voice.
"No, and I don't care." replied the professor with an air of superiority.
"Good," replied the student, who quickly lifted the stack of completed exams, stuffed his in the middle, and walked out of the room.
The increasing acceptance of national standards for students as inevitable is worrying me. Does it make sense for people to set standards for effective education without knowing the actual children with all their individual gifts, challenges, desires, and dispositions? If we do not see the human beings in front of us, who are we to determine the goals and pathways that will work for them to be contributing members of our communities? The further away the standards are set from the community in which the children live, the more broad, numerous and most likely unconnected to children’s realities, they turn out to be.
I would suggest it is past time to let go of the factory model of education and move back to recognition that we are raising human beings and that human beings are too complex to be reduced exclusively to what can be measured by one standard for all.
In small schools we say that we will ensure that each child is known and seen by at least one adult. That has always struck me as sad that it is such a hard thing to accomplish in the buildings where our children are spending so much of their lives. What kind of lessons about the world and life does this provide for our young people?
There has been a question floating around about renaming No Child Left Behind. I’d like to suggest No Child Left Unseen.
Labels: national standards, no child left unseen, NoChildLeftBehind
posted by Unknown | 12:43 PM
1 Comments:
Great story! When I think about the hierarchal process, using "experts" rather than practitioners, to create standards, I think teachers' most effective argument for using their experiences to identify indicators of success is that fact that teachers have far more input into decisions around instruction and curriculum in nations whose outcomes are better than ours. They are actually using teacher expertise--that level of trust and collaboration is not present in the American system. It's cultural.
We've been talking about letting go of the factory model for decades. There's plenty of information and research. But not the cultural will do so.
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