Is this going to be on the test?
It wasn’t as bad in the 70s and 80s, but it wasn’t great either.
My mother used to shake her head at me because a day would come when instead of fighting going to school I’d be up and at ‘em. Anxious to leave the house, I’d be raring to go, and my mother would say, “What’s gotten into you?”
I’d say, “Iowa Tests start today.”
You see, I knew how to test. Not everyone does. Some folks freeze up when handed a standardized test, but I knew very well how to work them. They were a blast for me, and nothing got me revved more than finishing a section well before, “Pencils down” was announced.
At the time I had no idea how important those scores were to the school system. I had no idea that funding and resources depended on how well we did. I only knew that they were a break from the usual monotony, and I was basically guaranteed a 99th percentile on most of the sections. Woohoo etc…
Whatever.
My mom struggled to get me to do my homework. The teachers struggled to get me to do my homework. The entire group of them was frustrated constantly by the fact that I wouldn’t complete assignments, but I would instead spend my time reading for pleasure in my room… and then I would ace the tests on the subject matter. When my mother asked me why I wouldn’t do the work I told her it was boring. She told me that was too bad. She told me that I still had to do the work- that it was an important way to learn how to think.
I called bullshit and tried to see just how little I could get away with.
Back then teachers were more lenient to an extent. Or savvy. They knew what I was up to. I know they realized I did just enough work to avoid failure. I also know they wanted to knock my head into a wall.
I always considered one of my finest moments the time my senior year English teacher informed us that if we ever used Cliff’s Notes she would know it immediately and issue an automatic “F.” A challenge? I could work with that. I picked up the notes for Cry the Beloved Country, skimmed them, wrote my paper, and received an “A,” along with gushing praise over how well I understood the characters and what Paton was trying to tell us.
Know what? I’ve never actually read that book. My moron quotient astounds me.
I hated school.
My mother had loved it, so she had no frame of reference. I now understand why our perspectives were so different.
I read this article this morning- Valedictorian Speaks out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech
I wanted to set off fireworks, spin her around in circles, and toss confetti.
As a kid I didn’t understand that basic curricula was set by the State and the School Board. As a kid I didn’t understand a lot.
Know what I know now?
There are millions of different types of intelligence. Granted, no one school can address all of them, but to look down on any of them is pure snobbery, and it’s also limiting.
Eliminating vocational programs from schools is one of the biggest examples I can mention. Forcing each child into an academic curriculum is just plain stupid. First, there will always be people who are better with their hands than they are at spitting out facts. Those people? They’re necessary. Is someone who scores a 1530 on the SAT likely to be able to repair your freaking water heater? How about your German import vehicle? Maybe, if they took the time outside of school to dick around on their own, but probably not.
Why are those people considered less important to this society? I can pick up that pencil and fill in the proper circles, all OCD-like making sure I don’t leave a single speck of unfilled area, but if you hand me a wrench, even with instructions, and say, “Do this,” I will be so unsure of myself that I’ll probably panic.
The people I’m talking about? You put that wrench in their hands, and they have all of the confidence in the world.
How is that less spectacular than calculus? How is that less worthwhile than understanding what the fuck Swift was saying about society when he wrote Gulliver’s Travels?
When I met my husband he didn’t have a single book for pleasure reading in his house. He had a ton of technical manuals, but no fiction, no biographies, nothing that one would pick up just to read. My first reaction was confusion. When I got to know him I realized he was a person more interested in doing for himself than reading about what others have done.
Rock the hell on.
My mother used to tell me that our first twelve years of schooling were to teach us how to think and prepare us for college.
I don’t know about you, but when I got to college it was an eye opener.
College thinking was in no way addressed in my first twelve years. I loved college. I asked my mother why they hadn’t taught us that way before college, and she told me that they were required to give us a well-rounded education on multiple subjects, and they basically didn’t have the time.
I’m sorry, but that sucks.
It sucks that our teachers are no longer allowed to teach actual subjects and instead must teach to test well. It sucks that schools no longer foster talent wherever it might be found, be it auto shop, home ec, mechanical drawing, (don’t get me started on music), or any of the academics. Kids these days supplement their learning at home when they have the time.
It amuses me that as book bags get heavier and heavier, causing back problems in small children, the quantity of retained information is reduced.
I don’t mean, “ha ha funny.” I mean facepalm.
Until something changes a great deal of kids will despise school and not even know why. Ok, sure, there’s the whole interpersonal thing with beings who are hormonal and growing and ready to bounce off the walls when they’re not sleeping twelve hours a day, but the real reason kids these days hate school so much?
Erica Goldson put her finger right on it.
Here’s my plea.
Dump No Child Left Behind. Let the teachers teach. Offer ideas for lesson plans, but let the teachers run with the interests of their current students. Realize millions of things can be teaching moments, and let the teachers address them instead of having to stay on topic. Stop forcing small children to do six hours of homework a night so they can find their own interests and possibly find their zen.
Understand that “intelligence” is not confined to what is presented in a lecture and barfed back out on paper.
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Right on Julie!
(hug)
I’m annoyed by some of the people attacking this girl – hey, she’s 18 years old, give her a break! I wish I’d been as thoughtful as that kid at her age. What a smart young person – good luck to her.
And yeah, I totally agree with you about everyone being different, and how we don’t value it enough.
We really don’t. It’s sad.
I was an underachiever for years. You could all but feel my teachers’ frustration when they would write “[terioso] does not perform to her full potential!” each quarter on my report cards. I didn’t pull my head out of my ass until grad school when I could actually have a schedule that focused on what I wanted to do vs. what a state board thought I should be doing.
I’m shocked. Really. This is me, being shocked.
just saw this. don’t know whether to give you a virtual *kick* or a *snug*. *snark*
Whoo ha to all this.
It’s funny. My Dad always told me that high school equaled the best years of his life.
Years later, post high school, I caught him saying something about how much he hated high school.
I said, “But you told me those were the best years of my life.”
He said, “I lied.”
I told him, “The biggest thing you ever punished me for was lying.”
He just shrugged and smiled.
– c.
Funny how they get away with that shit. That was my biggest punishable offense as a tot too.
I, too, was one who tested well. Even in college, for the most part, it was easy to see what the instructor was going to test for and aim for that mark and nothing more. The best and most challenging instructor I had in college had no degree himself. But he knew how to motivate, and how to free each student to follow his own interests within the scope of the subject (and even a bit beyond).
(Full disclosure: It may have helped that our classroom was located at the county morgue.)
That would have provided some fascination fo sho.
When I got to university, I had much the same reaction you did: “Finally!” It’s a real shame that teachers in those formative years don’t really teach. They lecture. They regurgitate samey, generic, completely bland information that needs to be regurgitated, in turn, by the students onto little black circles on a test form.
The current education system is a Human Centipede of out-dated, questionable information, and when you think about it that way, it’s kind of disgusting.
It’s just sad.
My mom told me today that she only once remembers getting through an entire textbook for a subject because the teachers interjected so much of themselves into class that they always ran out of time.
That’s exactly what I went to grad school for–I had this fabulous idea for an electronic textbook that would essentially allow every student to design his own curriculum while still learning the same set of skills. I loved the educational aspects of school, hated the social aspects. I tested okay, but really excelled in the essay sections.
And, like you, nothing pissed me off more than a challenge. “No one gets an A in this class,” said my freshman comp teacher in college. I got one. And when the head of the English department gave me an A- on my first paper without putting a single comment anywhere, I marched into his office and demanded to know why there was a “-” if there was nothing wrong with the paper.
I wish I still had some of that brashness, now that I think about it!
You mean you don’t?
I confess I’m shocked.
This post is exactly why I plan to homeschool my kids. My 3 year-old gets more learning opportunities from going on “field trips” in the yard, going to the grocery store with me and doing other fun activities such as singing and dancing, than she would sitting in a structured preschool program. Why? Because we talk. I point out interesting things. She asks questions, I answer them. That leads to further discussion, which I think is severely limited in an academic setting – because so much classroom time is devoted to test-taking strategy, disciplining the troublemakers and assisting the below-average students. The “average” and “bright” kids get bored and disillusioned, resulting in a less than satisfactory school experience.
Not sure what to do here. I want the kids to get daily socialization. But every public school system it seems is going down the tubes.
I’m going into teaching–high school social studies–and I’m totally on-board with everything you’ve said. And the sad part is that it’s only getting worse. In general, I’m a fan of President Obama, but his policies on education are just as insane as the previous administration. Pretty soon every teacher in the nation will have their job tied to their “performance,” which means how well their kids do on these ridiculous tests. *Sigh* There are some alternative schools out there (some private, others non-profit) that are moving away from this model, but they’re only a few exceptions.
They’re all crazy people. Vouchers? Charter schools? Why not improve the schools that are already available to the students?
The money is there. It’s just being tossed at the wrong things.
I hated school, hated it! I enjoyed art, music and English and that was about it. The rest sucked royally. School = jail to me back then. I am so glad I am out of there and never have to go back. What confused me as a kid was that I like learning new stuff. I have many interests and was a very curious kid. I figured out fairly early on I picked up more facts from reading for pleasure than from reading any text book. I loved it when class broke down from lectures into debates on any subject involving the whole class.