why aren't we cutting or even considering cutting standardized testing in this state? how many millions would that save the schools? how many IEP could actually be fulfilled? how many individual students would actually get what they need? what a public education is supposed to actually provide? how many teacher jobs could be saved? how many new and innovative programs could be enhanced? supported? given the opportunity to positively affect student learning?
I'll admit I have a very limited knowledge of how the school budget works, and how decisions are made. What I am very well aware of, is the results of the decisions being made and they are not in the best interests of students. These decisions are evidence of how undervalued teachers and children are as members of the larger society. Those children grow up and become undervalued adults. And the lip service we receive about how important teachers are, how important education is to our society falls on deaf ears because the teachers are so buried in the impossibility of what they are expected to do because it doesn't make any sense to anyone actually living in the reality of it all, and the children who are not getting what they need and are soaking in the unspoken messages--test scores are all that matter, most of you will never be at the top because we need a bottom and an average group larger than the successful, otherwise we'll be put out of business, your personal struggles, your life, who you are is insignificant--life is about passing a test.
OK, I'm blowing off steam--and maybe I'm over the edge a bit--but there is much truth in that paragraph and things in education are not going to get better--society is not going to get better--the quality of life we all share is not going to get better, until we start facing some of these truths--painful as they may be.
Is it possible to focus on the positive and live in reality at the same time?
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