I was interviewed by a panel of
esteemed teachers and administrators in 1998 since I was nominated to be the San Diego County’s Teacher of the Year. “What
did I teach,” the asked. My answer: “Invisible things.” Naturally, they were
perplexed. So they asked for specifics. I replied, “Compassion, tolerance,
honesty, envy, jealously, loyalty…you know, the stuff we are supposed to teach.”
The wisdom of Atticus Finch seemed to fit the occasion. He told his daughter,
“Scout, in order to understand a person, you have to step into a man’s shoes
and walk around in them.” That’s what I taught; five shows a day, five days a
week, 32 of the most passionate years of my teaching life.
So it with high regard that I
express kudos to writer Paul
Barnwell, the author of The Atlantic’s
recent article regarding the failure of schools to teach character; he made it abundantly
clear that: “The pressures of national academic standards have pushed character
education out of the classroom.” (7/25/2019)
How bad has it gotten? Barnwell
gives many examples, but one quantifies the situation, “…according to a 2015 Council of the Great City Schools study,
eighth-graders spend an average of 25.3 hours a year taking standardized
tests.” That comes as no surprise to me since my 32 years as a high school
teacher in San Diego evolved into a manic panic of administrators behaving like
testing cheerleaders for week-long testing; prepping for testing; testing to
meet the minimum standard to graduate (which scares the heck out of the kids
whose first language is not English), testing for State Exit exams, etc.. I
think you get the picture.
What is at stake for the school and
its district? In “good” schools/ districts (typically ones with parents of
financial means) — it’s all about bragging rights. In “poor” schools/districts
(best described as “poorer, ghetto schools”) —closure or survival; thus being
taken over by an bean counting state administrator, who often is well versed in
dollars and adverse to educational quality. Naturally principals get the hook,
as well as head honchos at the district office in charge of curriculum.
And let’s not forget the real estate
market. God forbid a school’s score card of proficiency does not fall too far
below “the schools with comparable income status” — then it’s RED ALERT! Buyers
will opt out of that district’s boundaries and head for private schools (if
they have the deep pockets). It is a realtor’s worst nightmare—financial flight
from their home, home on their range.
What does all this testing mean to students?
Ironically, virtually nothing. As long as the student passes a very basic test
in language that the aforementioned second language students distain the scores
have no affect on students. None. Zero. As a matter of fact, the teachers never
see the results until those students are long gone. The parents get a letter
from the state about the math/ language skills of Joey or Jane and promptly
deposit it in recycling (after their children say it has no effect on GPA,
college admissions, yada, yada). And the kids are right. Fact is, many of the
brightest students blow it off because they are stressed out and tested to
death; they prefer to concern themselves with an AP test down the road.
Administrators then beg them to not opt
out. Please!
So what is forsaken for all this
testing, not to mention all the money spent on the companies that charge the
various states for their “latest-got-to-have-it” tests? Simply put — teaching
character, ethics, a moral code that points True North.
Ask any teacher who has taught 5 to
10 years and they will confirm what I am saying. I don’t have time or patience
to document the problem of testing any more than I have (read The Atlantic article if you doubt me). I
refer teachers who are somewhat experienced because they are the ones who have
realized what has been stripped away; the newbie teachers simply are battered
down with expectations and are running like crazy to keep up.
So what to do, you ask?
As the San Diego County “Teacher of
the Year,” let me introduce some the characters whose values I insisted my
students hear from and contemplate: Ma and Tom Joad from The Grapes of Wrath, who refuse to allow ‘the regular folk to be
beaten down by ‘the man’; Mockingbird’s
Scout and Atticus Finch, who witness the outrageous miscarriages of justice in
the Deep South; Holden Caulfield, as he tries to be the Catcher in the Rye, watching poor souls falling from buildings; Gatsby’s only real friend Nick Carraway,
who sees the bloodshed caused by careless, thoughtless rich fools; the ‘slave’
Jim who guides Huck Finn’s adventure as his
true father figure; Our Town’s
heroine Emily Webb, who realizes, much too late, that people just take life for
granted; and the wide array of unforgettable characters of Bruce Springsteen’s “American
Skin.”
These authors and their thematic
motifs served me well, and to this day, my students remember those lessons,
especially Don McLean’s eulogy to an America that has “gone dry” in his classic
song “American Pie.”
When I retired, my former students implored
me to write down what I taught and how I taught it. So I did. Meetings at the Metaphor Cafe is now
taught is several school districts. But many teachers will say that they don’t
have the time. My answer: make the time. Spend the minimum time giving tests
and more time guiding the students though the harrowing experience of being a
teenager in this cynical world we inhabit. (If you are a teacher, parent, or
administrator, I’ll send you a free copy…really! Just Google it…I’ll even pay
the shipping. I’ll do anything to get this ship sailing True North.
After all, it is the invisible things that are the heart and
soul of what students remember all those years later.
No comments:
Post a Comment