Why Can't We Accept That Our Society Needs Its Teachers to Teach for The Test?

[Igel]

2. Sadly, there's a kernel of truth to this.

The reason for the tests is that teachers weren't teaching what they were told to.

You're told to teach evolution. You don't. How do your bosses find out if you're teaching evolution? You test it.

You're told to teach problem solving strategies. But that's just plain painful. So you teach facts. How do you find out if your kids' teachers are teaching problem-solving strategies? You test them.

Now, the teachers can write tests, but it works like this. "What have we taught and what do our kids know?" That's not accountability; that's worrying about making yourself look good.

You're told to teach X. But that's paintful. So you teach a bunch of facts about X. Facts are easy to memorize. Knowledge is hard to build. Analysis is hard to reach. And critical thinking requires all of them--facts, knowledge, analysis.

Until you've seen a teacher who's primarily in it for his paycheck, who really doesn't like his subject or know much about it, whose been under the gun with a standardized test looming in the future and now realizes that (a) there's no test, (b) no accountabilty, and (c) nobody cares, you haven't seen a horrible teacher. "We can teach whatever we want. I'm all about what's easy for me. Nobody cares what we do--let's watch _Finding Nemo_ and say we're studying the oceans and ecology, and _Up_ and say we're studying the weather."

Kids love it. But the kids are dumber afterwards than before. For many teachers, "No test = party time! Now, where's my fingernail polish, I have something important to do during class time!"

And, no, there's no hyperbole in this post. No sarcasm. Just observation, however irritating it may be to good teachers and to those who think that their personal favorite topic is really important.