Chip Putnam's Blog - Posts Tagged "education"
Anatomy of an Education Disaster
I recently read that the United States has gotten its academic butt kicked on yet another test on the international stage. However, this time, it was not just western European and industrialized Asian nations administering the cerebral beating. On this particular assessment, the US was clobbered by Vietnam, hardly an industrialized powerhouse. So what is the cause of this? Is the US educational system, once hailed as a marvel throughout the world dead? Are teachers at fault? Are our students merely tubs of goo with no intrinsic value? After twenty years of experience in the teaching world, I would say no to all of these options. Instead, I feel that mutually exclusive goals mandated by too many parties trying to fix a system that was never really broken are to blame.
Last year I started a project where I chronicled a year in the life of a teacher, which bore a strong resemblance to my school year. It is my hope to have the finalized product on the market soon, so the teachers side of the story can be told. While fictionalized, the issues it detailed are all too real. This very question of who is to blame for the educational disaster we are currently experiencing was addressed in one of the entries that I'm including in this post.
10-9-2012 Tuesday “Anatomy of an Educational Disaster”
People cry out that public education is dead. I disagree. It’s not dead, but I will agree that it is broken. The breaking occurred as elected officials tried to fix something that wasn’t broken. It began with a disturbing report that a large number of NC students were dropping out of high school. Coupled with the scary prospect of only achieving minimum-wage positions for these students, public outcry was loud and furious. So, the General Assembly of North Carolina passed a resolution that dropout prevention would be a major goal for every high school. With this resolution, came the fact that the graduation rate was incorporated into the school’s annual report card. In today’s world of no compromise, anything less than a perfect “A” is unacceptable to the general public. And what’s unacceptable to the general public is unacceptable to the school board, which in turn ensures that it is unacceptable for the principals of the individual schools. So, the orders were given that teachers would do everything within their power to ensure a student’s graduation. (That statement is actually a part of our evaluation tool. Note, that the burden is placed, not upon the student, nor upon the parent, but upon the teacher who sees the kid either an hour a day for an entire year, or ninety-minutes a day for a single semester.) While this is a just and noble cause, you must understand that when your attendance book looks like it has developed a bad case of chicken pox from all the absences (I have several students this semester who have already missed over 10 days in a block class and we’ve only been in class for 12 school days.), it’s a trifling bit difficult to ensure the graduation of those students.
Now, the kicker came a few years later as North Carolina, and the United States in general, began to lag further and further behind the rest of the industrialized world on standardized tests. A new cry arose. How could the country that put men on the moon not outcompete the Asians and Europeans on a flimsy test? The public demanded action and resolutions were passed from Washington to Raleigh that academic rigor would be our rallying cry. The public cried out, “We demand the best for our students, lest they are incapable of competing in the international arena.”
Let’s sit back and examine this from a familiar point of reference. Consider a coach who has been given the task of winning the NBA championship, the NCAA tournament, the state championship, or even simply the conference title. Yes, that coach is going to work his/her players to their fullest. “No pain, no gain!” will be the rallying cry for the team. His/her leadership shall inspire the team to excel to new heights. Plus, the coach is going to bloody well get rid of all the dead weight, good-for-nothing members on his/her team.
I can’t do that. If you’re in my class, you’re in my class. “We’re stuck with each other,” I often tell my classes. So, I’m left with the mandate of producing college-level students regardless of their background or if they are even at school. Considering that I have students who cannot identify North Carolina on a map (I had a student last year identify our state as England. That explains my cravings for a spot of tea and my irresistible urge to sing “God Save the Queen.”) this can be a difficult task at best. Coupled with the fact that I have students who have already missed ten days of school, the task becomes monumental, and this doesn’t address the twelve students in my classes who speak limited or no English. To place it into the realms of sports, this is equivalent to our coach winning (insert tournament of your choice here) with players who cannot hit a basket no matter how many tries they are given and who don’t even bother to show up for practice. The idea is ridiculous, but it is what I must accomplish.
So, I try to incorporate academic rigor into my curriculum. For me this is no problem. I’m a nerd who is also a sadistic bastard when it comes to tests. Years ago, one poor girl told me she was struggling with Organic Chemistry in college and calmly recited to herself, “I’ve survived Mr. Gregory’s tests. This isn’t so hard.” Outside of AP courses, I probably give some of the hardest tests at Haversaw High.
To further muddle up the waters, remember our first mandate that we will ensure every student will graduate from high school. In reality, the two goals, increased rigor and “No Child Left Behind” are mutually exclusive. The politicians can wrap words around their fingers indicating that both can be accomplished, but I would like to see them try it for themselves. As rigor increases, the academically challenged students fall behind. When they fall behind, a many of the slower students simply quit trying. As a result, they fall even further behind in a vicious self-inflicted cycle which I am utterly clueless how to stop. If I knew, I would be an award- winning author and not the one struggling to get an agent to give my works the time of day.
All of the educational reforms that have haunted my existence stem from the politicians trying to fix the fact that they set education on a course that cannot be done. The teachers are doing all that they can to promote high educational rigor while maintaining a high graduation rate. But, let’s face it, when you have students who think we lost the Revolutionary War and are still a part of Mother England....well, that probably says it all.
Last year I started a project where I chronicled a year in the life of a teacher, which bore a strong resemblance to my school year. It is my hope to have the finalized product on the market soon, so the teachers side of the story can be told. While fictionalized, the issues it detailed are all too real. This very question of who is to blame for the educational disaster we are currently experiencing was addressed in one of the entries that I'm including in this post.
10-9-2012 Tuesday “Anatomy of an Educational Disaster”
People cry out that public education is dead. I disagree. It’s not dead, but I will agree that it is broken. The breaking occurred as elected officials tried to fix something that wasn’t broken. It began with a disturbing report that a large number of NC students were dropping out of high school. Coupled with the scary prospect of only achieving minimum-wage positions for these students, public outcry was loud and furious. So, the General Assembly of North Carolina passed a resolution that dropout prevention would be a major goal for every high school. With this resolution, came the fact that the graduation rate was incorporated into the school’s annual report card. In today’s world of no compromise, anything less than a perfect “A” is unacceptable to the general public. And what’s unacceptable to the general public is unacceptable to the school board, which in turn ensures that it is unacceptable for the principals of the individual schools. So, the orders were given that teachers would do everything within their power to ensure a student’s graduation. (That statement is actually a part of our evaluation tool. Note, that the burden is placed, not upon the student, nor upon the parent, but upon the teacher who sees the kid either an hour a day for an entire year, or ninety-minutes a day for a single semester.) While this is a just and noble cause, you must understand that when your attendance book looks like it has developed a bad case of chicken pox from all the absences (I have several students this semester who have already missed over 10 days in a block class and we’ve only been in class for 12 school days.), it’s a trifling bit difficult to ensure the graduation of those students.
Now, the kicker came a few years later as North Carolina, and the United States in general, began to lag further and further behind the rest of the industrialized world on standardized tests. A new cry arose. How could the country that put men on the moon not outcompete the Asians and Europeans on a flimsy test? The public demanded action and resolutions were passed from Washington to Raleigh that academic rigor would be our rallying cry. The public cried out, “We demand the best for our students, lest they are incapable of competing in the international arena.”
Let’s sit back and examine this from a familiar point of reference. Consider a coach who has been given the task of winning the NBA championship, the NCAA tournament, the state championship, or even simply the conference title. Yes, that coach is going to work his/her players to their fullest. “No pain, no gain!” will be the rallying cry for the team. His/her leadership shall inspire the team to excel to new heights. Plus, the coach is going to bloody well get rid of all the dead weight, good-for-nothing members on his/her team.
I can’t do that. If you’re in my class, you’re in my class. “We’re stuck with each other,” I often tell my classes. So, I’m left with the mandate of producing college-level students regardless of their background or if they are even at school. Considering that I have students who cannot identify North Carolina on a map (I had a student last year identify our state as England. That explains my cravings for a spot of tea and my irresistible urge to sing “God Save the Queen.”) this can be a difficult task at best. Coupled with the fact that I have students who have already missed ten days of school, the task becomes monumental, and this doesn’t address the twelve students in my classes who speak limited or no English. To place it into the realms of sports, this is equivalent to our coach winning (insert tournament of your choice here) with players who cannot hit a basket no matter how many tries they are given and who don’t even bother to show up for practice. The idea is ridiculous, but it is what I must accomplish.
So, I try to incorporate academic rigor into my curriculum. For me this is no problem. I’m a nerd who is also a sadistic bastard when it comes to tests. Years ago, one poor girl told me she was struggling with Organic Chemistry in college and calmly recited to herself, “I’ve survived Mr. Gregory’s tests. This isn’t so hard.” Outside of AP courses, I probably give some of the hardest tests at Haversaw High.
To further muddle up the waters, remember our first mandate that we will ensure every student will graduate from high school. In reality, the two goals, increased rigor and “No Child Left Behind” are mutually exclusive. The politicians can wrap words around their fingers indicating that both can be accomplished, but I would like to see them try it for themselves. As rigor increases, the academically challenged students fall behind. When they fall behind, a many of the slower students simply quit trying. As a result, they fall even further behind in a vicious self-inflicted cycle which I am utterly clueless how to stop. If I knew, I would be an award- winning author and not the one struggling to get an agent to give my works the time of day.
All of the educational reforms that have haunted my existence stem from the politicians trying to fix the fact that they set education on a course that cannot be done. The teachers are doing all that they can to promote high educational rigor while maintaining a high graduation rate. But, let’s face it, when you have students who think we lost the Revolutionary War and are still a part of Mother England....well, that probably says it all.
