I'm torn, Alfie Kohn. I'm torn. I see where you're coming from. I want to pick up what you're laying down. But I just can't swallow your argument whole.
As I read "The Case Against 'Tougher Standards'," I found myself shaking my head in agreement several times:
"People from parents to Presidents have begun to sond like a cranky, ill-informed a radio talk-show host,with the result that almost anything can be done to students and to schools, no matter how ill-considered, as long as it is done in the name of "raising standards" or "accountability" (1).
I'm definitely in Kohn's camp here. I think that school reform has been hijacked by politicians and businessmen who know almost nothing about what goes on in a classroom. Currently there is no dialogue between policy makers and educators on how to best achieve authentic, sustainable reform in schools. There is in fact no real conversation happening at all--just a repackaging of the same argument by people who seem to ignore research and expert analysis on how children learn best in favor of the easiest, most economical solution to a misconceived problem. The hubris of these so-called reformers convinces them that because they are powerful, successful people in other regards that they must intrinsically know how to fix public education. Yet as anyone who has ever stepped foot in a classroom knows--what looks easy from the outside is one of the most complicated and difficult jobs that can be had. Simplifying the problem into digestible sound bites may "[play] well with the public, but . . . frequently ends up doing more harm than good" (1).
In this regard, I'm right there with Kohn when he asserts that "Rather than scrambling to comply with [NCLB's] provisions, our obligation is to figure out how best to resist" (4). Yah! Let's fight the powers that be! I'm all for getting a bit radical (and for anyone who's ever sat in on an AHS English Department meeting so are most of my colleagues). At some point, we've got to get more political as educators, not just as union members, but as living, breathing educators who know what we're talking about because we're in the mix everyday. We've got to wrest the bullhorn away from those who have riled the masses into frenzy. I'm there. Let's get our berets out of the closet and thwart the system.
But while we're getting all political and whatnot, we have an obligation not to forget who we are fighting for--our students. And this is where Kohn and I begin to disagree.
Kohn makes the claim that "NCLB is not a step in the right direction. It is a deeply damaging, mostly ill-intentioned law, and no one genuinely committed to improving public schools (or to advancing the interests of those who have suffered from decades of neglect and oppression) would want to have anything to do with it" (4).
Excuse me?
Did he just insinuate that I, who do in fact see the good that NCLB has had on our traditionally under-served populations, am not in fact committed to those same children? Jerk.
In my time at AHS, I have witnessed the transformation of our school's collective mentality. When I started special education students were held to almost no standard, pulled out of classes not to help them better understand the material but rather to "keep the distractions down " in the classroom. There was also a general feeling that some students were cut out for learning and others were not. If a student regularly slept in your class, it wasn't your job to figure out how to get them to engage in class. It was perfectly acceptable to write them off in favor of those who showed more commitment to their education.
Nowadays, while certainly no educational utopia, those attitudes are no longer the norm. We've integrated our special education students into our classrooms and watched them succeed in ways that were previously thought impossible. We've created a culture that believes in the ability of all children to learn and grow and teachers have taken on the responsibility of actualizing that belief. There have been growing pains, our jobs have become a lot harder that's for damn sure, but I cannot in good conscience just dismiss this progress, for all its flaws, in some blanket dismissal of the catalyst that sparked these changes.
Kohn is right. We have sacrificed more authentic learning in favor of testing. He is right that this emphasis on grades and performance has done damage to students. But I think he is wrong in saying that NCLB has done nothing right for education. I do not believe AHS would have started really focusing on our "at risk" kids without the pressure of AYP. And so, if for no other reason then the attention that it has brought to students who were not being served by our education system, I will stick to my belief that NCLB is not the weapon of mass destruction that Kohn claims it be.
As I read "The Case Against 'Tougher Standards'," I found myself shaking my head in agreement several times:
"People from parents to Presidents have begun to sond like a cranky, ill-informed a radio talk-show host,with the result that almost anything can be done to students and to schools, no matter how ill-considered, as long as it is done in the name of "raising standards" or "accountability" (1).
I'm definitely in Kohn's camp here. I think that school reform has been hijacked by politicians and businessmen who know almost nothing about what goes on in a classroom. Currently there is no dialogue between policy makers and educators on how to best achieve authentic, sustainable reform in schools. There is in fact no real conversation happening at all--just a repackaging of the same argument by people who seem to ignore research and expert analysis on how children learn best in favor of the easiest, most economical solution to a misconceived problem. The hubris of these so-called reformers convinces them that because they are powerful, successful people in other regards that they must intrinsically know how to fix public education. Yet as anyone who has ever stepped foot in a classroom knows--what looks easy from the outside is one of the most complicated and difficult jobs that can be had. Simplifying the problem into digestible sound bites may "[play] well with the public, but . . . frequently ends up doing more harm than good" (1).
"The Tougher Standards movement . . . gets motivation wrong" (2).
Again, I'm with Kohn here. Kids aren't motivated by grades, at least not in the way we want them to be. Kohn argues that "a preoccupation with performance often undermines interest in learning, quality of learning, and a desire to be challenged" (2). I combat the apathy of my students everyday. Part of this disinterest in learning certainly rests in the culture of "non-learning" that they have grown up in but a great part of the blame rests with us, with school, with ed policy. Our narrow focus on tests, grades, performance, etc. has essentially killed off the joy of discovery that should be inherent in good teaching and learning.
Wesch discussed this in his article "Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance,"when he laments that "great questions are rarely asked by students in an education system facing a crisis of significance. Much more common are administrative questions: 'How long does this paper need to be?' 'Is attendance mandatory?' Or the worse (and the most common) of all: 'What do we need to know for this test?' Such questions reflect the fact that, for many (student and teachers alike), education has become a relatively meaningless game of grades rather than an important and meaningful exploration of the world in which we live and co-create" (5).
In this regard, I'm right there with Kohn when he asserts that "Rather than scrambling to comply with [NCLB's] provisions, our obligation is to figure out how best to resist" (4). Yah! Let's fight the powers that be! I'm all for getting a bit radical (and for anyone who's ever sat in on an AHS English Department meeting so are most of my colleagues). At some point, we've got to get more political as educators, not just as union members, but as living, breathing educators who know what we're talking about because we're in the mix everyday. We've got to wrest the bullhorn away from those who have riled the masses into frenzy. I'm there. Let's get our berets out of the closet and thwart the system.
But while we're getting all political and whatnot, we have an obligation not to forget who we are fighting for--our students. And this is where Kohn and I begin to disagree.
Kohn makes the claim that "NCLB is not a step in the right direction. It is a deeply damaging, mostly ill-intentioned law, and no one genuinely committed to improving public schools (or to advancing the interests of those who have suffered from decades of neglect and oppression) would want to have anything to do with it" (4).
Excuse me?
Did he just insinuate that I, who do in fact see the good that NCLB has had on our traditionally under-served populations, am not in fact committed to those same children? Jerk.
In my time at AHS, I have witnessed the transformation of our school's collective mentality. When I started special education students were held to almost no standard, pulled out of classes not to help them better understand the material but rather to "keep the distractions down " in the classroom. There was also a general feeling that some students were cut out for learning and others were not. If a student regularly slept in your class, it wasn't your job to figure out how to get them to engage in class. It was perfectly acceptable to write them off in favor of those who showed more commitment to their education.
Nowadays, while certainly no educational utopia, those attitudes are no longer the norm. We've integrated our special education students into our classrooms and watched them succeed in ways that were previously thought impossible. We've created a culture that believes in the ability of all children to learn and grow and teachers have taken on the responsibility of actualizing that belief. There have been growing pains, our jobs have become a lot harder that's for damn sure, but I cannot in good conscience just dismiss this progress, for all its flaws, in some blanket dismissal of the catalyst that sparked these changes.
Kohn is right. We have sacrificed more authentic learning in favor of testing. He is right that this emphasis on grades and performance has done damage to students. But I think he is wrong in saying that NCLB has done nothing right for education. I do not believe AHS would have started really focusing on our "at risk" kids without the pressure of AYP. And so, if for no other reason then the attention that it has brought to students who were not being served by our education system, I will stick to my belief that NCLB is not the weapon of mass destruction that Kohn claims it be.
"Kohn is right. We have sacrificed more authentic learning in favor of testing."
ReplyDeleteI was looking at some old pictures today, because my friends from elementary school and I are in a Facebook competition to upload the cheesiest pictures. I have found pictures from Pioneer Day, Egyptian day, Australia sweatshirt making contests, Conestoga wagon making, hieroglyphic wall paintings, Rosetta stone tablets..... and all I thought was "wow, I did some pretty fun things when I was in elementary school!" Don't 4th grades do state testing now?? Man, I learned so much from really interacting with my classmates and dressing up. I wish school could be more fun for kids nowadays....