CT Blue

Diane Ravitch’s blog is on my RSS reader, so I am kept aware of the continuing decline of American public education, both by the encroachments of charter (read for profit) schools and various educational “improvements” and strategies that are so obviously horrendous if not cruel that one wonders how anyone could advocate for them. In her latest post she quotes a former elementary school principal who quit in disgust in part because the school system in which he worked was inflicting standardized test on kindergarten students:

One of the experiences that made me aware that my time with public education was coming to an end was when our district began testing kindergartners. I would walk into kindergarten classrooms and watch students struggle and often cry over the inability to navigate iPads. I would leave those classrooms shaken to the core. The students who could work with the devices were not making decisions about correct answers but through simply getting the program to move from question to question. Almost none of these students could understand what the test was asking them to do. This angered me significantly because what we were focusing on ignored the activities that were needed to build an actual foundational developmental standard. No focus on gross and fine motor skill development or social and emotional growth. No test below third grade will give us meaningful understanding of what children actually know and that really is beside the point. The poor quality of most of the tests I have seen keep us from understanding what those form third grade through twelve understand! What we are doing to children, or being asked to do, is criminal and a denial of how the brain can get to a point of meaningful inquiry.

It’s worth noting that a relatively more affluent kindergartner is likely to have a greater ability to navigate an Ipad that one from a less affluent family. Our tests tend to skew favorably toward the fortunate. Funny about that.

Then there’s the movement in red-states to teach fictional history. It’s always been a thing down there, but the movement to legislate it and to punish anyone who attempts to teach the truth is an innovation.

The decline of public education is yet another long term process under way in this country to which we pay little or no attention. It takes various forms. Here in Groton, the number of elementary schools has declined precipitously. Little kids are now being sent to mega schools. I went to a high school where my freshman class exceeded 1500 students, and that was a bit overwhelming, though I was 14 when I started there. Imagine going to a school of comparable size when you’re in kindergarten. All to save a few bucks. I’m thankful that my own kids got through the school system before the town took a wrecking ball to so many schools, but I worry about my grandkids, who may have to attend a mega school, not to mention having meaningless tests inflicted on them for no reason. Luckily they live in blue states, so maybe they’ll learn real history, though you never know what may happen if the Republicans take power in 2024.