Kari Henley ~writer, speaker, founder of KH Consulting
Posted: August 29, 2010 10:00 AM
For the first time in history, all children were expected to produce equally, a mold we had never put them in before. While some children are academically oriented, others are creative, or more "hands on." What is the end result? Teachers are teaching to the test so they don't lose their bonus, administrators rely on state exam results to receive funding, and kids are the losers. Students learn to spit out information, and forget it 10 minutes later.
Teaching to the test (have you seen Dr. Wick's tutorials?), and overwhelming kids with content, while eliminating recess (our middle schoolers get less and less recess every year), field trips (Pleasantdale only allows two field trips a year per grade level down from four two years ago) or project based learning has created kids who are stressed out, sleep deprived, cheating to get by, not having time to learn how to think. Some call American education "a mile wide and an inch deep."
...most weeknights are spent fighting over when to get the homework done, and it becomes the dominant family conversation night after night. In fact, in order to keep the peace, many parents often end up editing, correcting or even doing the homework for them -- which is effectively teaching them to cheat. What sort of message does this send? Family time, private time and leisure time have tumbled to the bottom of the priority list.
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