The Education Wars II

Boy is this post from Teachers.net ever true:


On 10/22/09, joe wrote:
> I can agree with that sentiment to a point. I think that creativity
> is valued in education, but being opinionated is sort of a no-no
> nowadays.

No, creativity isn't valued in education. Acronyms and powerpoint
presentations are what are valued. Taking 4 hours of an in-service to say
nothing is what's valued. Using buzz words is what's important, from an
administrator's point of view. The kids... oh yeah, I think most
administrators have forgotten they are still in the building.

After all, what do kids know about CRAP? The new education initiative
sweeping the nation! This initiative will save education. If you just
teach CRAP... if you become a CRAP teacher... you will teach every
student. Yes, students who are non-verbal with traumatic brain injury
will score 36 on the ACT! All they need is CRAP! Tons of CRAP! CRAP is
an innovative set of strategies designed to teach every learner! The CRAP
subcommittee of the POOP building committee has designed this brilliant
powerpoint. Now, let's look at slide 76.

Does this CRAP sound familiar? Spending hours listening to administrators
and their suck-ups talk about some acronym-ed strategy and despite all the
time and hot air, they never taught one freaking strategy. If you're a
teacher, it does. I think it's all crap!
_____

And this, on the same topic:

Posted by ElemESOL on 10/22/09

At my school we get reprimanded for not sticking to the textbook. We
literally have to teach each and every page of the text to the letter, and
cannot substitute anything. It's really sad. Creative individuals get
placed on teaching improvement plans. That's what happens when you're at a
school that never achieves AYP. I sneak in fun when I can, but it's
dangerous! You know something's wrong in education when a kindergarten
teacher is afraid to let the kids use crayons to draw a picture.

_____

It used to be teachers would supplement from all kinds of varying sources in addition to the main textbooks, but this increasingly isn't the case anymore. It's teach to the test, creativity be damned.