The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

First, let it be written and let it be read that I am in no way maligning teachers.  I think that although Canadian poet Shayne Koyczan was talking about his grandfather when he said "not every superhero wears a cape", he could have just as easily been talking about teachers.  Too many kids in too small a room, not enough supplies and state mandates that continually change are all in their day's work.  The elementary school teachers deal with runny noses, tying shoes and bathroom issues all while building the framework of education for our children to grow on.  The middle school teachers deal with hormones gone wild and easing our kids into learning how to open lockers, how to transition between classes and how to grow as a person and a student.  High school teachers also deal with hormones gone wild, compete with cell phones and help lead these kids into young adulthood.  Superhero work for sure.

This said, I have to ask, what is with the rush on our kids?  I feel it is wrong that I have to google how to help my 4th grader with his math homework.  (Partially my own issues I know, but also shows the scope of what they are expecting kids to learn).  I remember years of simply adding and subtracting in elementary school.  Years to memorize my multiplication tables, and I wasn't pressured to take a test to prove I could do it all in under two minutes.  Why do they have to be fast?  Why are we running a race with our small kids?  I have one child who can write in cursive but chooses not to and I have two children who cannot write in cursive at all.  Why?  There is no time to teach it.  Remember when it was a whole class and got it's own grade?  I loved handwriting because I wasn't really learning, I was just doing and it meant I was a big kid.  That and being able to use pen.  I haven't had a kid bring home a crafty project in years and that makes me sad.  Messy, gluey projects are what makes grade school fun!

We are lighting fires under our big kids too.  We are asking 14 and 15 year old kids to try and pin down what it is they want to do when they grow up in order to choose classes for the next four years.  At 14 and 15. I couldn't even wash my face properly at that age and I clearly remember having a panic attack about choosing a major at age 18 and in college.  Not only are we asking, we are providing the opportunity to take college classes while in high school.  Between this and AP and IB courses, some kids are graduating with almost two years' worth of college credit.  Which is good for the parent's bankroll, but is it good for our kids?  Do they get to be kids if they are up until the wee hours of the morning doing homework?  Our big kids are stressed and they are anxious.  And again I am left wondering, why all the rush?

It's that state testing, isn't it?  The "No Child Left Behind" boiling down to treating every single student the same and expecting them to churn out the same results at the end of the year.  

I have one kid who may never pass one of these tests legitimately and one who gets such bad anxiety that she fails the first one and will worry for months about taking the makeup.  They have benchmark testing to see if they will pass the big test at the end of the year and they have practice testing so that they can see what the big test will be like.  They learn how to circle key words and underline numbers.  They learn to completely fill in the bubble on their scantron.  The emphasis on learning sadly replaced with the emphasis on learning how to test.  For kids with learning disabilities it is even worse.  More rushing when what they need is more time, accommodations that help but make them feel embarrassed to use as they get older.

Another thing I see with all this rushing is that there are no deadlines anymore.  Got a bad grade?  Take the make up test.  Forgot to turn in your homework?  Just get it in before the end of the six weeks.  Life does not always give you do-overs but we are teaching our kids that deadlines are negotiable, that we will wait for them, that we are not as important as what they have going on and that everything can be a debate.  We are rushing them into being little monsters!

I wish that we could get a handle on what we are rushing for and see if it is legitimate.  Are we in competition with the rest of the world?  Yes?  For what? Gold?  The Northwest Passage?  Space Travel? Is it worth creating kids who can test but don't remember anything they learned?

Calvin got it.

I wish that everyone would just simmer down.  I would like more glue and less math in grade school.  I would like us not to give phones to our middle schoolers because it makes them forget how to read.  Let's show our high schoolers what stress is really like by having them multi-task: work, do extracurricular activities AND homework.  I wish our teachers could spend more time on the subject they are teaching and less on the test for that subject.  This state testing is like kryptonite to their superpowers.  I am weary of TEKS, TAKS, STAAR and other acronyms rushing my kids through school.  I am not sure how we fix it and I am not sure how we keep from being caught up in the rush that is going on, but I am looking for the brakes and hope others are too.