On Oct. 28, I will officially have spent just a little more than half my life in education — in the classroom.
I briefly retired in 2020, left the public education system and was called to the private Christian sector. What a tremendous difference. While I work hard, I don’t have the overload as in the public system. I can mentor one on one, which is a dream come true.
For me, it’s a little slice of heaven. But oh, the lessons I have learned when it comes to public ed.
For one, since I first set foot into the classroom in 1992, nothing has really changed in the big scheme of things. Some classrooms are still overloaded with students, although I can well remember that this is one thing that has come up at every single presidential election. Teachers called for smaller classes. We got promises. We got nothing.
My last year in public ed, I still had two classes with 28 students. I’ve learned that educational programs and methods come and go. I’ve seen them packaged, repackaged and redesigned. I’ve seen the so-called “best” methods praised to high heaven, and then the realization came that they didn’t work after all — as if a good education can be wrapped up in a pretty package where one size fits all.
I’ve learned that public education has put way too much emphasis on standardized testing, saying basically that’s the best way to assess which kids are moving ahead and which kids fall into the gaps. Some would be surprised, but we teachers see that pretty quickly. That is why we assess. On a regular, consistent basis; not once a year.
And guess what? We can gather data that way, too. Yet the state of Texas spends hundreds of millions of dollars for our kids to take the STAAR. There is no evidence that even remotely suggests that it in any way, form or fashion improves student learning.
I’ve learned that there are lots of parents (and 99.9% of teachers) who despise the STAAR. I’ve learned that parents can opt their kids out of STAAR, but it comes with consequences for the schools. ( I even learned that the STAAR test actually reduced the amount of space for the English essay-writing portion from two pages to one to save money). I’ve learned that everything that’s important in education comes with government-strings attached.
I’ve learned that we can say pretty slogans like “No Child Left Behind” or “Race to the Top.” It’s like being a spectator and yelling, “Go, team, go!” But you know someone always loses.
While I don’t regret a minute I spent in the public sector, real change is needed there on so many levels. After 30 years of hearing “we need smaller classes, we need better health care, we need better pay, we need better representation,” nothing positive has happened.
Instead, the profession (much like the police) has been disgraced and vilified by the politicians. Some say we are glorified babysitters. We are expected to teach all children regardless of their personal circumstances, and let me tell you, it’s a mess out there. A mess that the precious STAAR or any other state-initiated test could never even begin to measure. Yet money talks, and you can bet your bottom dollar that there are politicians profiting from the STAAR.
I’ve learned that taking “$262 million from 2021-24” to pay Cambium Assessment (based in Washington, D.C.) to “manage the administration, scoring and reporting of all student assessment on one online platform” and giving Pearson, during the same timeframe, an “additional $126 million to develop and construct the assessment” (Texas Tribune) will not change anything. It will simply line the pockets of the special interests (I’ve also learned that “lobbying” is simply a word for “legal bribery”) and continue to keep the educational companies flourishing.
I’ve learned that our politicians (in general, because they do, after all, generalize us teachers, police, etc.), seem to have their own agendas that go to the highest bidders. I mean, let’s face it, school shooting? Blame the guns. Any shooting, blame the guns. This, too, has been going on forever. No change.
And don’t even get me started on what I’ve learned about the media’s involvement. How can I give a murderer 24/7 coverage after a school shooting, call him by name, but the teachers who laid their lives down for their kids get short-lived, if any, recognition at all? How tragic is that? (And the heroes who have thwarted mass shootings from happening are just swept under the rug to accommodate that “get rid of the guns agenda.”)
I’ve learned that the approximately $388 million paid for STAAR could easily put a trained police officer on every school campus in Texas. So I leave you with this: Are our children really as important as you make them out to be or are we going to continue to get lip service for the next 30 years?
Source:https://lufkindailynews.com/
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