The Reality of Education

Growing up, my dad always told me the reason to get an education was so that I could learn how to learn. Seems redundant, but the ability to have an open mind willing and able to learn has opened so many doors in my life and career. And as a result, I am now addicted to learning and am always trying to learn more. Which has led to me having a career in education. But through my teaching experience, I have learned that the focus of schools isn’t to teach students how to learn. Rather, it is to have them regurgitate what they’re learning in order to show their progress on standardized tests which control funding and whether or not the school is considered successful.

This reality of education has caused me more anxiety than any other career I’ve had. The countless hours and days spent on lesson planning and delivery only to set my students up for success on their standardized tests seem like such a waste. Yes, they might improve. Or, they might drop in their scores since the bar is continuously being raised as they go through the school year(s). But are they actually learning? And will what I’m cramming down their throats long enough to regurgitate for a test really help them in the future when they become young adults? Likelihood is low.

I can’t even count the number of times my students have asked me why they learn Algebra, but not how to budget. Why they learn how to find the area of a triangle, but not how to file their taxes. Why they need to memorize the US Constitution but still don’t understand how to vote or how their local politicians affect their everyday lives (including school policies and resources). Honestly, my students are hungry to learn life skills, and instead we are teaching them how to find the square root of 144 and how to answer questions the right way in order to do well on standardized tests.

Test-taking strategies aside, I am a science teacher who ends up dedicating way too many days and weeks to teaching my students how to do well on their math and reading tests. You know, the ones they take 3 times a year and need to show progress in order to make sure both the school and me as a teacher are doing our jobs. Add on top of that the test-taking strategies that I am also teaching my students and sometimes I don’t even feel like I’m teaching science or anything useful to my students outside of what they need within the school system.

Testing is big business though, and it is unlikely going away anytime soon. My proposal would to bring back low-stakes testing and do away with the high-stakes testing. This way I think the tests would be more accurate. They would actually show what students know rather than what they’ve been taught to do for the test. And instead of focusing on test-taking strategies and crash courses in math and reading, I could focus on teaching my students science and life-skills that will help them in 7th grade and beyond.