I kid you not. Before line-up this morning, one of the girls in my son’s third grade class put her official “Test Prep” folder on the ground, and then she and her and friends took turns stomping on it, each with a different style. It was kind of like they were taking turns jumping into the middle a Double Dutch game. They were really unleashing themselves. One parent described it as “pagan.” They were having fun, but it also seemed kind of cathartic. I was amused and startled.
I imagine my son’s schooling for the past three months or so has been typical of a lot of third and fourth graders in public schools around the city. The schools have been given a new curriculum to help the children meet Common Core State Standards for math and English language arts. Learning has been accelerated and wholly geared to two big annual tests. Educators have seemed frazzled and discouraged; kids have seemed. . .less than inspired. Parents are concerned. Whatever the State’s goals for classroom learning, the reality of how it has played out, so far, has been, ugh, exactly what you don’t want: Children learning by rote all day long, rushed into tackling new concepts before they’re ready for them. They’re too young to have the joy and play squeezed out of the learning process.
But there are lots of good ideas floating around about how to better go about achieving the Common Core Standards—so we’ll see what adjustments are made.
Today’s little exhibition, however, made me wonder if parents are being too vocal about the situation, sharing our anxieties and resentments about all the test prep with our children at home. Today’s display felt like it had a point of view—and that probably came from parents.
