This is the kind of digressions I go into when given a keyboard and 45 minutes of nothing to do because I'm stupid. All grammar and spelling errors stay, 'cos I'm lazy.
This. I mean, this is what disillusioned me so much about the education system to actually make me lose interest in teaching, to an extent even lose interest in reading.
It is ridiculous, which I think I've said before. And the education system is entirely to blame. It's No Child Left Behind and it's standardized testing, and all we're doing is leaving everyone behind. And it's as simple as this.
The tests are all facts, all standardized, all 'perfected' by people who stopped learning things 20+ years ago, few to none of whom have actually degrees in education. And this is how No Child Left Behind works; first, they terrorized the teachers, the schools, the states with standards to be met, progress to be made, incredibly, horribly difficult tests full of things that have nothing at all to actually do with (in example) literature. Voltaire and Socrates knew nothing of paragraph structure, Shakespeare probably didn't know a noun by any other name was still a freaking noun, and Hugo quite obviously didn't know squid from marshmallow in his writing (it's about Thanksgiving - squid doesn't belong, marshmallow does 'cause sweet potatoes and yum). But this is what they were forced to drill into our heads, on pain of budget cuts, on pain of schools closing down. And then, to meet those high, annually raising standards, you know what they did? What they do? They dumb the tests down. This is fact, this is proven fact. States were cheating, not sending in special ed scores, so they decided to lower the standards year by year. So not only are they teaching us useless drivel, but they are teaching us less and less useless drivel. Bravo, go team, we're getting stupider just because it's more important for everyone to be at the same level than it is for anyone to excel.
Another interesting thing that I've discovered, which I'm sure you'll be pleased to know has nothing do with NCLB, and as I've also mentioned, is that when you talk about the Depression, people generally know 'it was bad, everyone was poor, no one had jobs, my grampa still poaches his egg in his morning coffee.' I did learn about the Depression, but I didn't learn much about the cause but 'everyone panicked,' and when I ask people on either coast, they never, ever know about the Dust Bowl. And that disgusts me. There are things on tests today that my grandparents cannot answer; however, there was a study done somewhere (don't ask me where, I read it in some thing or other) and high school students today took tests from the '30s... and failed them. That's only about eighty years ago. Sure, the knowledge was specialized - if you lived in an agricultural area you learned more agricultural math than if you didn't - but still.
Don't get me started about history. Even if we continue to ignore the history outside of our country, even if we continue to ignore women, especially dynamic, impolite women, y'know, the ones that are supposed to make history (and that's why the Iron Jawed Angels are ignored, forgotten; they didn't protest the Correct way), heck, even if we continue to ignore anyone who isn't Caucasian, male, and over 30...
Where the heck is the information about the midwest? I know stuff happens here! I know it does! I just don't know what! I know way too much about the east coast, though! An eensy, self-educated bit about the west coast. A surprising amount about Texas, thank you to Spanish class. But that's it.
Other things I want to know. Why did we got to Vietnam? The actual, political reason, not the press release. Heck, why did we join WWI? I was never taught either. I know why we went to Korea because I did a paper, and everyone knows why we got into WWII finally. But what happened in 1812? Where was the Hundred Year War? I know my history education wasn't precisely stellar, but c'mon now.
It is ridiculous, which I think I've said before. And the education system is entirely to blame. It's No Child Left Behind and it's standardized testing, and all we're doing is leaving everyone behind. And it's as simple as this.
The tests are all facts, all standardized, all 'perfected' by people who stopped learning things 20+ years ago, few to none of whom have actually degrees in education. And this is how No Child Left Behind works; first, they terrorized the teachers, the schools, the states with standards to be met, progress to be made, incredibly, horribly difficult tests full of things that have nothing at all to actually do with (in example) literature. Voltaire and Socrates knew nothing of paragraph structure, Shakespeare probably didn't know a noun by any other name was still a freaking noun, and Hugo quite obviously didn't know squid from marshmallow in his writing (it's about Thanksgiving - squid doesn't belong, marshmallow does 'cause sweet potatoes and yum). But this is what they were forced to drill into our heads, on pain of budget cuts, on pain of schools closing down. And then, to meet those high, annually raising standards, you know what they did? What they do? They dumb the tests down. This is fact, this is proven fact. States were cheating, not sending in special ed scores, so they decided to lower the standards year by year. So not only are they teaching us useless drivel, but they are teaching us less and less useless drivel. Bravo, go team, we're getting stupider just because it's more important for everyone to be at the same level than it is for anyone to excel.
Another interesting thing that I've discovered, which I'm sure you'll be pleased to know has nothing do with NCLB, and as I've also mentioned, is that when you talk about the Depression, people generally know 'it was bad, everyone was poor, no one had jobs, my grampa still poaches his egg in his morning coffee.' I did learn about the Depression, but I didn't learn much about the cause but 'everyone panicked,' and when I ask people on either coast, they never, ever know about the Dust Bowl. And that disgusts me. There are things on tests today that my grandparents cannot answer; however, there was a study done somewhere (don't ask me where, I read it in some thing or other) and high school students today took tests from the '30s... and failed them. That's only about eighty years ago. Sure, the knowledge was specialized - if you lived in an agricultural area you learned more agricultural math than if you didn't - but still.
Don't get me started about history. Even if we continue to ignore the history outside of our country, even if we continue to ignore women, especially dynamic, impolite women, y'know, the ones that are supposed to make history (and that's why the Iron Jawed Angels are ignored, forgotten; they didn't protest the Correct way), heck, even if we continue to ignore anyone who isn't Caucasian, male, and over 30...
Where the heck is the information about the midwest? I know stuff happens here! I know it does! I just don't know what! I know way too much about the east coast, though! An eensy, self-educated bit about the west coast. A surprising amount about Texas, thank you to Spanish class. But that's it.
Other things I want to know. Why did we got to Vietnam? The actual, political reason, not the press release. Heck, why did we join WWI? I was never taught either. I know why we went to Korea because I did a paper, and everyone knows why we got into WWII finally. But what happened in 1812? Where was the Hundred Year War? I know my history education wasn't precisely stellar, but c'mon now.
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