I yelled at the television last night. I know…rookie
mistake. Legislators don’t listen to real people anyway, much less those trying
to talk to them through the screen. But seriously…what are going to do next to
undermine education in this state?
First we adopted Common Core without the money to fully
implement it. We don’t have the money to update our technology and make
computers available to all of our students, even though CC requires that we do
so. We don’t have the money to hire more regular ed. teachers and reduce class
sizes. We don’t have the money to hire more special ed. teachers and provide
individual students with the added assistance they will need to pass the new
expectations. We don’t have the money to hire more teaching assistants. We don’t
have the money for new materials and supplies. We don’t have the money for
extra training.
Then we asked some school districts to teach the new CC goals
and demand higher levels of performance from students while at the same time
packing more of them into overcrowded classrooms with less and less one-to-one
teacher time. Some elementary classes now boast 25-30 students! Most experts agree
that 15-20 is the optimum class size for truly effective teaching. Most
classrooms were designed for 15-20.
Now…now we are going to “allow” some schools to meet the
requirements of Common Core in half the time???? Optional half-day
kindergarten? What in the world are we thinking? I am a pretty good teacher and
I have a difficult time teaching everything my students need in the time allotted
to us from 7:45 to 2:45. By the time we subtract two meals, bathroom breaks,
two recesses, and a little music, art, and science, we barely have enough time
to fully teach the language, reading, writing, and math skills now required by the
state. We don’t even have naps anymore! So how is a teacher going to accomplish
just as much in half the time?? We can’t overlook anything in the curriculum or
let students slide on any skill because mandatory retention (also passed as
law) is just around the corner in third grade! These students must be fully
prepared and capable of passing the state reading test. So are half-day
kindergarten teachers going to completely give up on recess, art, music, and
science in order to teach enough reading, writing, and math?
And what will the teachers do during the other half of the
day? Teach another kindergarten class, thus doubling their planning and assessment
time? Or teach another subject/class? I was once offered a job teaching
kindergarten in the morning and three classes of fifth grade English in the
afternoon. Does anyone understand how incredibly difficult it would be to do
any of that effectively?
What will working parents do with their kindergarten
children in the afternoon? Put them into a daycare that may or may not support our
educational goals? Leave them with someone who parks them in front of a
television or hands them a game device?
Of course this law is being proposed for the sake of the
budget, not to improve the education of our children.
What next? What will the guys in the suits- who haven’t been
near a real classroom in years- think of to undermine our attempts to educate
our children to compete in a world that is plagued by financial and political
problems created by more guys in suits?
