The problem with education is...

This was written by Dan Scratch who is a social studies teacher in Edmonton. He blogs here and tweets here. This post was originally found here.

by Dan Scratch

Everyone has been a student at some point in their lives. Everyone has had to endure bad teachers and benefited from great ones. Many of us (including myself) have felt marginalized by the education system as students when we had to memorize useless facts for a test or fought against the tyranny of the "hat rule" as high school students (I really love hats and hate that rule!)

It is because of these experiences that many of us feel we can comment on the education system and the teachers within it, as there are many stakeholders involved. Teachers, parents, students, and the greater community are all impacted by the success of our schools and our students. However, I think it is time that teachers need to stand up and claim our status as the proficient professionals and intellectuals that we are. For too long have we sat idly by having to endure bad education policy and the dictates of failed theories that came before us.

All of us, including parents and teachers, often revert to thinking that if we were able to overcome bad teaching and policy, then why shouldn't my child/students? In other words, "If I had to deal with a crappy education system, and I turned out OK, then why shouldn't my child/student"? I realize that no one actually says this phrase, but it is essentially what we are saying when we tell teachers and the education system to go "back to basics" or "life is tough, get used to it".

This is an extremely harmful ideology on many levels. If we want to create good citizens then our classrooms should be models of what we would like our world to be. We cannot revert back to the harmful ways we were taught. Just because we persevered through it, does not mean that every student will or should. We need to engage and promote an education that will serve the interests of all students and meet their individual needs.

We often get upset when the latest round of test scores come and the results didn't work out in our favour. This is an easy ploy used by the corporate ED agenda, columnists, and politicians to try and poke holes in the education system and demand that teachers and students work harder and "pick yourselves up by the bootstraps". This is an easy statement to make that generally does resonate with the majority of the population (unfortunately). However, it would be at our disadvantage to take this advice. Testing is not the be all to end all in education. In fact, as most teachers know, it offers a very limited scope of our students ability. Teachers should be getting students to create work and assessments that they will be using throughout their entire lives. At no time in my professional career has my employer said to me, "Dan, I want you to complete this task, however, you cannot use any resources or talk to anyone and you have to have it done in 90 minutes, sound good"? In the age of the Internet, memorizing and regurgitating information on a test serves very little purpose. We must move past this if we are going to create the critically thinking, informed, and compassionate students of the future.

The future of education should be a conversation between teachers, parents and students. Teachers are intellectuals and it is time we use what capital we have to build our reputation to a higher regard. People love to criticize what we do, but would they go to a doctor and tell her/him how to perform surgery? Probably not. Teachers are the guardians and creators of the future. We need to earn our respect back as a force within our communities.

Lastly, let's not forget the one voice we often leave out of these conversations. The students voice. How often do we include their voices when we make policy that will impact their education? We have to start giving students more credit and respect in terms of what they know about teaching and education. Their voice matters and it must be heard. If we want them to strengthen our democracy of the future, then teachers and parents shouldn't act like authoritarians in their present.

Standardization vs. Professionalization

In her post Standardization vs. Professionalization, Ariel Sacks writes:

I believe the drama of the current moment in education is a conflict between two opposing forces attempting to take the country's education system in two different directions.

On one side, you have the movement toward standardization--of curriculum, standards, assessments, teaching methods, and ultimately, students. On this side, testing is the way forward. It's a way to apparently control a multitude of factors that affect teaching and learning. It's a way to make teaching a simple matter of learning techniques to get results. It implies that success looks the same for every child, that we can count on "if...then..." scenarios to work every time, and that the arts have no value.

The movement toward standardization means lots of money is needed to fund the creation and administration of more tests, the development of test preparation materials and stronger data tracking systems. These endeavors add up to a booming industry funded by our tax money. This movement also means less money and time is needed to prepare, support and retain quality, professional teachers, since most curriculum and assessment decisions are made without teacher input and creativity.

On the other side, you have a powerful movement working to create a real teaching profession, something we've never really had, due in large part to sexism inherent in the way the teacher's job has historically been structured. Teachers are taking on more leadership at all levels of the educational system, revealing the complexity of teaching and child development, and bridging the huge divide between the ed policy world and the classroom. Parents are speaking up about the value of their childrens' teachers and the diverse needs of their children.

Lately there are forceful attempts by the standardization movement to take control of the professionalization of teaching, by defining great teaching as that which causes the greatest rise in student standardized test scores. Will professionals and taxpayers allow this false idea to guide the education of America's children?

Responsibility and Authority

You have to take responsibility before you are given authority.

You should have authority if you are given responsibility.

The power of mutual knowledge

I understand why many teachers feel the need to shut their classroom doors and teach as if they were on an island. For some of these teachers, they do this out of necessity. It's sadly ironic that in order for some teachers to be innovative and creative, they need to isolate themselves from the shackles of the system's unreasonable standards and accountability regimes.

These teachers engage in a kind of professional subversion.

These teachers become what Barry Schwartz calls system dodgers.

While system dodging can be fueled with good intentions, it simply is not sustainable; educators need to move from being mere system dodgers, who the system is glad to pick off one at a time in isolation, and graduate to being system changers.

However, if educators ever wish to move beyond having to bend the system's rules in order to do right by kids, we need to assemble in the metaphorical public square where everyone will see everyone else. Once educators assemble where everyone can see everyone else, everyone knows that everyone else knows that everyone else knows that the hyper-prescribed, content-bloated curriculums and high stakes test and punish testing bureaucracies are loathed.

It is through this mutual knowledge that educators will gain the collective power to challenge the idea that those outside of the classroom have more control over those who are inside the classroom.

Recipe for depression

Saying nothing and keeping quiet is a great way to get along with and live with others, but it makes it hard to live with yourself.

If you are looking for a recipe for depression, simply resign yourself to being an agent of your employer.

Define your learning as something done to you by others.

Fill your life with substitutes for real meaning and critical thought.

Set yourself up and others for the use, control and disposal by others.

Convince yourself that preparing yourself to be managed by others is pragmatic.

But if you want to liberate yourself from the artificial... the scripted... the drudgery... the soul killing puppetry, then you'll need to cut the strings yourself because this is the one thing others won't do for you.

What am I willing to be fired for?

Remember though, there are worse things than reprimands and there is no better cause than educational justice for which to collect them. Just because taking a stand can involve high stakes doesn't mean that you shouldn't carefully proceed to the nearest soapbox. There are usually ways to protect yourself from serious consequences.

Juanita Doyan inked those words in her book Not With Our Kids You Don't!

Are you a professional?

If so, have you ever asked yourself "what am I willing to be fired for"?

No one who is a professional can claim to be so without asking themselves that question. And if your answer is "nothing", you are not a professional.

You are a patsy.

The doctor speaks: Julius Irving

Defining what it means to be a professional can be a challenging task, but I think basketball great Julius Irving may have been on to something when he said:

Being a professional is doing the things you love to do on days you don't feel like doing them.

Perhaps it is also true that being a professional is knowing when to stop doing the things you love, so you can improve on the things you don't feel like doing.

It can be tempting for teachers to fall into a rut and teach in a regimented preplanned manner. After all, many teachers might have a hard time listing even one educational theoristist that they model their teaching after. Rather, it's pretty safe to say that most teachers simply teach the way they were taught.

But it is important to remember that a rut can be no different than a coffin without the head and foot boards, so the solution to succumbing to professional mediocrity is to always consider yourself a learner first and a teacher second - and that is what professional development should be all about.

Using learning as a punishment

Is it unprofessional to withhold learning as a punishment to gain compliance from a student?

Absolutely.

And yet, have you ever heard of a teacher who uses fun learning activities such as field trips, games or hands on activities such as experiments as a punishment?

I have.

And it makes me cringe.


Here are but a few examples I have seen in my teaching career:

• a teacher withheld gym class from his students for two weeks because of their misbehavior



• a teacher did not allow a student to attend a science field trip because of their misbehavior



• a parent would not take their child to the book store because of their misbehavior



• a teacher made their students who did not change for gym class write an essay on why they should change



• a teacher made their student do push ups for speaking out of turn

If I am prepared to withold learning from a student in order to get them to comply, doesn't that prove that I place compliance or behavior as an even higher priority than learning.

Honestly, should anything be placed as a higher priority than learning?



Teachers have a professional obligation to provide learning opportunities unconditionally for their students.

Subversion as an act of professionalism

Have you ever been subversive in your line of work?

I'm pretty sure most people would agree that subversive activities would not be overly welcome in any institution.

But what if an organization had some policy or rule that simply didn't allow you to always to the right thing? When does it mean that being a professional means being subversive?

I was reading Pollinate Asheville blog that gave this anecdote:

The mirror in a middle school girls’ restroom is rusted to the point that one can not see her reflection. The Principal recognizes that not being able to primp properly before class is making girls tardy to class and affecting their learning. She asks the janitorial staff to replace the mirror. The district has a policy that mirrors are not replaced unless they are broken. The Principal calls the district to confirm, and promptly breaks the mirror with a hammer in order to solve this problem.

I can readily admit that we need rules and we need policies, but how often do professionals become slaves to those rules and policies?

I'm not sure I can imagine a policy or rule that has ever been created, that if followed to the letter, would always promise the most ethical and moral choice.

'Do no harm' is not a bad moral compass to follow, but 'Do good' may take us to an even more professional destination - and to do so, you might have to subscribe to a form of artistic insubordination.

Sometimes the letter of the law simply can not properly represent its own spirit.