In today’s education system, standards, whether set by state or federal legislators, are the key focus of all instruction. In our high-stakes testing environment, these standards are what schools and by proxy, teachers live or die by. But are educational standards really what make education great?
When any of us think back to a great teacher that we once had, do we really remember how he or she taught us a certain standard? Or do we remember how they made us view ourselves or our world in a different way? Do we remember the way that they made us feel that we could be successful, or the way they dragged meaningful work out of us? As an English teacher, I know that my students will not remember that I taught them how to “summarize text and distinguish between a summary that captures the main ideas and elements of a text and a critique that takes a position and expresses an opinion.” However, I hope they remember the work that they put into reading and writing, the success that they achieved, and the potential that they discovered in themselves.
These standards are nowhere to be found in education. There is no commandment for students to “discover new things about themselves and the world around them.” I can’t point out a standard that states “student will fail and learn perseverance in the face of adversity.” And yet these are the greatest lessons we learn in school. As every teacher knows, the most important things that we give our students will never show up on our lesson plans or standardized testing. That’s why we must be mindful of these standards and their minimum expectations, but we cannot be focused on them. We must look beyond the short-sighted standards if we really want to impact our students’ lives.
DN
Bravo!
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