A bittersweet reality comes to light for one educator
I have been teaching in the Hollister School District for 15
years and have accepted an offer to take early retirement. My
conscience is at a crossroad. I can no longer deliver the methods
of instruction as prescribed by my school district, the state of
California and federal mandates.
A bittersweet reality comes to light for one educator
I have been teaching in the Hollister School District for 15 years and have accepted an offer to take early retirement. My conscience is at a crossroad. I can no longer deliver the methods of instruction as prescribed by my school district, the state of California and federal mandates.
When I began teaching there were still ideals that included teaching to the whole child, bilingual/bicultural education, content mastery, equality, quality education, developing children into problem solvers and critical thinkers. Now, the quest for quality teaching has been replaced by the quest for the best test scores. Scripted lesson plans, rote memorization, English-only education, drill and skill instruction and overzealous test preparation now dominate teaching.
The carefully crafted wording for education reform has tapped into the righteous sentiments of low-income people and people of color who want education to be equal for all students of all nationalities. Phrases like “tougher,” “more rigorous,” “higher,” “run schools using the business model,” etc. have fooled people into believing that the only problem with education has been that we have gotten too soft on kids and cannot compete internationally.
Rote memorization and drill and skill instruction do not amount to higher quality learning. If you look at high performing schools in affluent communities they teach critical thinking skills and problem solving, while people of color and poor people receive higher doses of rote memorization and drill and skill instruction.
The U.S. produces huge numbers of scientists, engineers and intellectuals in comparison to the rest of the world and cannot be compared to countries that do not have the same multinational characteristics as the U.S. The reason that jobs for scientists, intellectuals and engineers are being exported to other nations is not because there are not enough of them in the U.S., but that scientists, intellectuals and engineers in the third world work cheaply.
The current U.S. standards are high. The problem is that there is a double standard of how education is delivered to schools, from teacher preparation, to policy makers, to administrators and teachers. No one wants to deal with issues like underfunding poor people and people of color; racist policies like zero tolerance; eliminating bilingual/bicultuaral education or whitening the curriculum. Paolo Freire, a brilliant educational scholar, argued for critical pedagogy where you create an education system that not only teaches children how to read, write and do math, but also to teach them to be analytical, critical thinkers and grow up to improve society.
I have argued this point, written letters to the editor, joined in the letters to Obama, written to my congresspersons, shared my research, disagreed with administrators and creatively infused teaching critical thinking skills, art and cultural awareness in my classroom. Yet I feel less like a teacher and more like an educational technician.
I do not know what is next for me. It is a bittersweet reality. I am sad and feel relieved at the same time.
Joe Navarro
Hollister
