Good news...Bobie Walker DID do her entry for chapter 3...but when she sent it to me, she accidentally left the "c" out of csufresno in my e-mail addie, so didn't realize it hadn't arrived on my virtual doorstep when it was supposed to! But, all that has been resolved, and you can now be as impressed as I am with her entry on chapter 3 -- this is really the LAST one on chapter 3!
Here it is:
Standardized Test or Knowledge?
Chapter 3 caught my interest as a parent, for it deals with hurrying the child within the school setting. As a new parent I am already thinking ahead to school years although my kids are two years old and six months old. School is a stressful time for kids today, but should it be? I think schools today expect too much from our children and force them to be little adults rather than children.
I like the heading Elkind used: “Assembly-line learning.”Assuming that all kids learn alike and should be taught alike is a huge mistake in schools today. Standardized tests, which were introduced to schools to provide means for finding students that do not perform at the level of a “normal” student, have become the basis for curriculum today. I believe that far too many schools are teaching to the test, and focusing on overall scores. Teachers and administrators are pressured to produce high scores and transfer that pressure and stress on to their students. A very impactful quote from the book states, “Children discover very quickly that passing tests, rather than meaningful learning, is what school is all about” (p. 56). That statement cut me deep, because it is so true! I feel that my generation was subjected to this way of schooling, and still today I find myself seeking to pass classes rather than truly learn from them. I don’t want my kids to grow up hoping to pass and please, I want them to expand their minds and enjoy learning, in hopes for a more fulfilling life for their future.
The materials kids are expected to learn, as well as the responsibilities they take on, are very stressful. Add on trying to perform at high levels for their teachers, administrators and states, and you have huge stress that is detrimental to kids today. When I was younger and got my test scores back, I remember thinking they were very important, and I felt overwhelmed when my scores were lower than my friends. Today I know that those test scores are no big deal, however those test scores played a role in my life as both confidence builders and lowering my self-esteem. I don’t want my children to feel bad based on the score of a test. I don’t want them to be compared to other kids, because all kids learn at a different pace and excel in different ways. Kids should feel good and seek to better themselves through education. I want my kids to want to learn, and tests and stress will not encourage learning. Kids will be so scared to fail, that they won’t even try. That is a big fear I have for my children.
Kids are judged at an early age. Elkind talked about promotion to first grade for a diverse group of kids, with different early educational backgrounds. I agree with him when he talked about the important issue, that kids at this early age are exposed to very different lifestyles and subject matter based on their family life. It is not fair to hold kids back who don’t know subject matter they have never had the opportunity to obtain. It is important to judge kids on their ability to learn rather than what they have already learned.
This chapter was informational for me and revealed the background of why the school setting is so focused on testing. Testing should be used as a tool to help guide children’s learning, and guide teachers. Good test scores should not be the focus of teachers and administrators; their focus should be on keeping students interested in learning and helping reach healthy, realistic educational goals. Tests can’t measure potential!
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Can I just say that you hit it out of the park! First I have to say that I fully agree with your statement about kids not learning the same, and that it is completely unfair that different styles aren't offered. And when a child isn't doing as well as others it is assumed that they are simply not paying attention. OPEN YOUR EYES TEACH! Maybe they need to get their hands dirty, as opposed to being in a bubble.
ReplyDeleteI also love the quote about children learning it's all about passing the test. I am guilty of this action, and now as a senior in my last semester, I am trying to make the most of it but don't really know where to start. My mind is so set on just passing the class and getting out, but what happens after that? When I get into the real world the grade doesn't matter anymore. What will matter is all the content that goes in one ear and out the other.
Pretty scary isn't it??
Nicole Thiessen
I agree with what you said. Schools today expect way too much from children. This puts a lot of stress on children to attain high academic achievements. As I was reading this chapter, it scares me how much pressure there is in school to get high scores on standardized testing. The teachers are doing their lessons based off the standardized tests instead of the children’s needs. One part in your blog entry that struck me most was the quote by Elkind. I agree that we do learn at a young age that we need to just pass the test rather than really trying to learn the material. I know for me there are many classes I have taken and I have told myself you just need to pass. I wish I would have learned the material well and not worried about only trying to pass the class.
ReplyDeleteJessica Dean
Bobie, I loved how you related Elkind's thoughts to the desires you have for your own children! Your perspective as a parent definitely made me question some of my own educational goals for children. As Elkind mentioned, children are treated more today as machines even as adults are replaced by machines (ch. 2)! This observation is outstanding and highly ironic to me. While we expect children to spit back immediate and accurate results, adults are becoming more anxious about retaining our own jobs as a result of the shift of roles in the workplace as machines and outsourcing are stressors today. Therefore, I believe the quote you included is sadly true. I actually underlined this quote, and another passage on page 57 that discusses the problem behind the phenomena of children simply acquiring information while not actually learning. As “all-knowing” adults, children have an immense amount of trust in us. However, the results of our poor educational system should not be resolved by simply imposing more of our mistaken ideas on children. Secondly, As I read this chapter, I was continually reminded of some things I studied in CFS 37. While observing at the infant/toddler site on campus, my mentor teacher reminded the students to think about the importance of play in development. By simply allowing young children to play, they become more focused and encouraged as a result of the active role they play in their development. Lastly, due to my family’s background in education, I am well aware of our system’s numerous faults. Also, I have heard many stories from my relatives about the struggles teachers have in meeting standards while not solely ‘teaching to the test.’ One personal example occurred when I had a highschool history teacher that apologized to our class after many of us did not receive high scores on our AP test. He explained that he taught our class differently from the way he usually did by not teaching to the test. I enjoyed his enthusiastic focus on the Civil War and felt that his enthusiasm for teaching the early part of American history far outweighed my low test score. Therefore, although a balance is not yet achieved in schools, I believe that a conscious outlook of the problems Elkind outlined is a healthy first step toward progress.
ReplyDeleteBobie- I can completely understand where you are coming from, regarding these standardized tests that school have for children. I was the child in elementary school, who hated the day we had to take tests. To this day, I still have this lingering anixety when a test is approaching. I struggle with this pressure of "test taking" in schools, especially because I want to teach elementary school. I feel like I don't know how to stay grounded when the schools put this pressure on the teachers and then the teachers have to pressure the students to know the information. I don't want to have students in my class that feel like their school career depends on these testing days, like I did. I have recently started to observe in a 3rd grade class. Everytime I enter the door, I see the teacher point to the smartboard, and then she asks the class to recite the California Standard for what they are about to learn. I can only imagine how the students feel when they have to read this. Especially the students who are not at that level of learning..can you spell MORE PRESSURE!
ReplyDeleteI know being a teacher is not an easy job, and I am up for the challenge, I just hope I can help my students not feel the pressure that is placed on them.
~Erica Lucero
Hi, Bobie
ReplyDeleteYou made so many important points in regards to how the school system works. I agree with all you had to say, and feel the same way you do about the testing in schools. Many children learn at different times and steadily progress, and should not be judge based on a standardized test. All children are smart individuals and have different paces of leaning. Children have a lot of obligations and are pushed in school, which is a big stress factor that makes children not like school. All children have the potential, but some are just under pressure and end up not caring about school. The school system in my opinion is ineffective in teaching children; instead, they push children so much that it makes them stress and end up sick. As a current student, I feel the school setting cheats us, and it is true that all we want to do is pass the class, instead of making sense of what we learn. If only schools would focus on encouraging children instead of putting all this pressure on them, then maybe we would have better scores on the standardized tests.
In regards to what you stated based on Elkind describing “assembly-line learning” and promotion, I agree that children have different life styles and learn accordingly, and should not be penalized based on the information they are not exposed to. It is not fair for children to be held back for not knowing the information the state requires because many children learn at different paces and levels in the their life. Holding a child back only makes the child lose interest in school and makes them feel dumb for not moving on with their classmates. I believe this is harmful for a child, because it is not based on their potential to learn. Instead, it is based on what society wants them to know. Putting stress on them only sets them up for failure in the future.