Teacher: Child Abuse in My Classroom

[SoulRiser]

Quote: Mark Naison, co-founder of the BATs, sent me this story by a teacher:

The Child Abuse Imposed by Testing:

By Bronx Teacher Chris Whitney

I had a student leave my classroom in an ambulance last year during the middle of a practice test. He was having an asthma attack brought on by panic. He kept saying, “I can’t do this.”

As his teacher, I knew him. I knew that “school” was hard for him and he was trying his best. We all were trying our best to support him: his mom, brother, teachers old and new, staff at school, and the class… his community. Yet, it was not enough that day. I encouraged him to take the test, to keep going, but to what end? To engage with something I knew that he, and many other students were and are not ready to do?

Except, the “expectation” is that all students must take the state exam by third grade – just 8 years old – and the “rigor” and “standards” keep going up every few years. More is expected from an earlier and earlier age. So, it becomes “necessary” to begin practice testing in second grade to “get the kids ready.”

We do not need to be holding each other accountable, instead, we should be finding a way to support each other. Federal education policy right now is punitive, developmentally inappropriate, and in the case of my student above – downright abusive.

Carl Jung said, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

I do not want to be the kind of teacher that “gets kids ready” for “college and careers.” I want kids to feel the joy of being alive, I want kids to sing out in the middle of class “just because,” I want kids to laugh, cry, and hold each other when things get hard, I want kids to know that they are not alone, and I want kids to feel love. Most of all, I just want to teach the joy of living… and state testing does not have any place in that vision.

School is hard for the students, families, and those that work there. Mothers say goodbye to their own flesh and blood, trusting that they will be safe and that they will come home at night. Many mothers then go to work to try to provide for their child. Work, lack of sleep, lack of time… repeat. Mother and child. Work. Rigor. Evaluation.

Teachers work 12, 13, 14 hour days with little time to do much else besides plan, grade, teach, observe, collect data, enter data, communicate, set expectations… repeat. Forget it if you are BOTH a parent and teacher. Then, you have no time for yourself. Does it have to be this hard? No. A different world is not only possible, but it is necessary.

Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University
Co-Founder, Badass Teachers Association

http://dianeravitch.net/2013/12/26/teach...classroom/

[James Comey]

Nice find Soul!

Testing seemingly only grows more and more and gets worse and worse and more rigorous. It's interesting that so much is expected from our generation, yet increasing standardized testing is just a way of trying to force an old model in a much newer time. Nice to see that a teacher supports change.

[Ky]

Forcing pointless standardized tests on kids who shouldn't even be tested at such an early stage (if at all)...it's inhuman.

[brainiac3397]

My school has gone nuts with testing.

Students in the 9th grade are being prepared for the AP tests, 8th graders already taking SAT. My ex-school(seeing that I graduated) is practically churning these students through a meat grinder. Those who get stuck are pretty much tossed out(not out of the school but out of the student pool, since they won't be part of lots of groups or participate in activities as much)

I mean what's the point of a GPA requirement on joining a club that does volunteering? They expect you to have a 3.0 for that. Student Government was 3.5(I was vehemently against it because we already had a total lack of interest in joining. The last thing we needed was another filter that would pretty much eliminate whatever interested and motivated candidates remained. Course the school admins didn't give a shit because you needed to be "elite").

That's what I hated most about my school. For all their bullshit about equal treatment, they expected you to be in the high-scoring, high grade, elitist group if you wanted the best from the admins. Everyone else was pretty much treated subpar. The admins were pretty much giving out the message that you were either the top, or with everyone else like trash.("elite" student,the admins would be glad to talk with you and listen to you and take you seriously, but not an elite and they saw you like an obnoxious pest taking up their valuable time. It disgusted me, and that's why I resisted them even though I was technically a good student).

Bottomline? Testing itself isn't just the problem, the behaviors and treatments based on the results of these tests do nothing but harm. Good scorers get treated like they won the nobel prize(and thus get full of themselves, till they get to college and lose the preferential treatment, and turn to drugs, self-destructive habits or suicide, in most cases) or they feel worthless if they don't do that well(along with all that annoying pity people will give them), then either stop caring or become self-destructive.

The US education system seems to be trying to foster a kill-or-be-killed level of competition. That usually doesn't make for healthy students, who need to learn that it's better to group and share, not become selfish and competitive.

[xcriteria]

I agree with the overall sentiment there, but one thing jumped out at me:

"We do not need to be holding each other accountable..."

I think we need to take back the concept of accountability. It's an important concept. When it comes to learning, the way I'd define it, overall, is "using time and other resources effectively."

Sitting bored in class, experiencing toxic stress, and feeling misery rather than joy don't seem to me to be a good use of time and resources.

Quote:I do not want to be the kind of teacher that “gets kids ready” for “college and careers.” I want kids to feel the joy of being alive, I want kids to sing out in the middle of class “just because,” I want kids to laugh, cry, and hold each other when things get hard, I want kids to know that they are not alone, and I want kids to feel love. Most of all, I just want to teach the joy of living… and state testing does not have any place in that vision.

I think all of those things are important. Channeling people into college and careers, factory-processing-style, isn't the answer. But, preparation for life, whatever that really means, is important. But what all that means needs to be discussed.

Justin Schwamm shared an article by Tom Vander Ark yesterday, which generated quite a bit of discussion, including from me. I think the title expresses a key thing we need to think about:

What’s Our Vision for the Future of Learning?

Quote:School is hard for the students, families, and those that work there. Mothers say goodbye to their own flesh and blood, trusting that they will be safe and that they will come home at night. Many mothers then go to work to try to provide for their child. Work, lack of sleep, lack of time… repeat. Mother and child. Work. Rigor. Evaluation.

It's important to note here that school had issues before standardized testing came into the picture. "Rigor" and school being "hard" might be getting worse, but school being "boring" and "irrelevant" is also a problem in many cases. Of course, the ideal for many would be what you find in good games: "hard fun," a.k.a. meaningful challenges.

Quote:Teachers work 12, 13, 14 hour days with little time to do much else besides plan, grade, teach, observe, collect data, enter data, communicate, set expectations… repeat. Forget it if you are BOTH a parent and teacher. Then, you have no time for yourself. Does it have to be this hard? No. A different world is not only possible, but it is necessary.

What if you're a student and a teacher? On that note, what constitutes a teacher, and a learner?

Ken Robinson hit on these questions early on in one of his more obscure talks:



Watch on YouTube

I highly recommend that talk... and I think it provides a lot to discuss, as does the OP here.

A big part of that discussion is, what is a vision for the future of education that can work for teachers, parents, accountability fanatics, and, most importantly, learners who are supposed to be getting support in making sense of themselves, their lives, and the world they inhabit?