“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” -W.B. Yeats
“Intelligence plus character-that is the true goal of education.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is growing tension becoming obvious to the teachers in my school, both lower and upper school. Our school leadership and teaching team is stuck between two values. Most of the teachers value project-based learning. We value having classroom discussions in which students explain their thinking and agree/disagree with each other in order to come to an understanding. We value character education. Stopping to take the time and brainstorm ways to work as a team or to express your anger in non-violent ways. But sometimes we are told, there is no time. No time to work on projects or the discussion takes up too much time. Because on the other end, we value The Test. And when time is ticking for all standards to be covered, maybe it is okay to turn to dumping knowledge time. Even if the knowledge won’t stick long beyond the test.
Some would argue that these two value systems are not exclusive. That in education, as in life, our decisions do not need to be either/or. The reality is that test scores are cultural, economic, social, you name it- capital. Test scores are capital. To deprive children of this capital is also not helpful. But this capital is also culturally constructed. We, educators and particularly our leaders in power, have the opportunity to place value and power on something else. Or we can change our tests to capture the kind of learning and knowledge that we actually do value. There was an article in The New York Times magazine over New Years about how AP tests are changing. That there will be less multiple choice and more short answer and questions that require critical thinking rather than rote memorization. Perhaps we need to change our state testing to do the same. Or perhaps our standards need to ask for quality and depth over quantity across the grade levels. I need to read the core curriculum and see what is happening.
I don’t know what the future of my school will be. Will they give in to standardization? Or will they fight to be a school that says we take the test and we will do well but we value education in a more holistic way? Will we report the number of students who love learning? Will we be the kind of school that helps change the conversation on education?
