More and more this metaphor for the roles of teachers, administrators, parents, and students is proving true. Education today is like its new form of technology. It is constantly changing and evolving to “change” or “improve” the efficiency and knowledge of the upcoming generations. I feel like implementing excessive standardize testing is hindering teachers, administrators, parents, and students to have a formulaic strategy to teaching and learning. Students don’t feel the need to go out and figure out information when they know their teachers are going to fill in all the gaps in order for the teacher to have her students do well on standardize testing. Teachers are teaching for the test and not to shape and guide students to become life long learners. The administration is focused on how much funding the school will get for the following year which is based off how well the students do on the standardize testing. Parents are so emerged in how high of a grade or score their student makes because that says something about their child’s worth in a fast paced and ever changing society that is focused around new and evolving technology. Therefore school teachers have no other choice but to join the rat race of gaining more money and teach for a test if they are going to be evaluated based off how well a student performs. In Georgia, govenor Sonny Perdue is trying to pass a law stating that teachers pay will be based off of how well their students perform on standardize tests. This is only hindering the real learning that should be taking place in the classroom and reinforces the statement that teachers are like a cog in a machine.
It is getting harder for teachers to keep their raw and passionate drive to teach like a first year teacher because once new teachers are thrown into this hierarchical power hungry business called “free” education they begin to lose that sense of purpose. Standardize Testing and the thurst of more money in education is driving our houses of public knowledge to a halt. Parents want to blame the teachers, teachers want to blame the administration, the administration wants to blame the government, and the cycle will continue if we as future educators don’t step in to do the job we are being trained for. This job isn’t to change the way this system operates or get rid of standardize testing because lets be honest the system will continue to be disfuctional and the testing will never go away, so lets learn to work around it and improve the learning for our students. This generation of teachers are here to work through any struggle that we are thrown and jump through all the hoops to keep our job, but only to keep doing what we love to do, and that is to make a difference and facilitate real learning.
We are not alone. There are some teachers out there fighting to make a difference. These days our society is so focused on how much money you make and how well you succeed in this evolving business society that they look down to those who are called or compelled to teach, as if our profession is “the easy way out,” or that we aren’t “qualifed” to do anything else. I believe what Taylor Mali says about what teachers make. Teaching, I believe, is a noble and rewarding career, and like many other professions, this job is not about the money, but the hope to make a difference. For me, that is enough.
