Again, this blog is not made to dis-respect or insult teachers more so it is made to challenge the educational institution. I realize post number one was very assumptive and somewhat generalized. By no means do all teachers dominate over students. A lot of teachers do not. I realize that teachers have certain "TEKS" they must teach to us. All students empowered by change wishes to do is to reform the way we teach those TEKS by shifting away from test prep and move to more project based learning. Can we not teach the TEKS without pre-prepared worksheets? I would say yes.
Now let us get to this weeks topic:
The Politics of Fear: The masked educational villain!
Let us start with history.
It starts at the beginning - the time in which progressive educators wish would have never happened. The world introduces standardized tests to measure education in schools. These tests are enforced through out the educational world. The "dark side" has now taken over. The educational world is told, "if you do not teach the mandates of these tests, you shall be fired". Now, here is where the politics of fear come in. Teachers fear that if they do not teach right they will be done away with. What does this lead to? The root cause of all evil in schools: TEST PREP! TEST PREP! TEST PREP!
As Sabrina from www.failingschools.wordpress.com puts it:
"The fear pushes administrators to crack down on those areas that are most visible to the district. If they don’t, they risk losing their own jobs in a turnaround or school closure. They pass the fear along. For teachers, there’s a difficult choice: should you teach to the Test, or to whatever your principal and district value at the moment, or teach to students’ needs, abilities, and interests? Theoretically, those things should not conflict, but when high-stakes assessments can’t be adjusted to suit different learning styles, only account for a narrow range of subjects, and produce information only after a cohort of students have left a given classroom, conflict is inevitable. The fear looms: is it best to go along with the program–”play the game”– even though it’s not real education? Is it worth it to risk a steady salary/your professional standing/your entire career to stand up for what’s right for the kids?"
Failing schools is a marvelous blog spot, and I would encourage readers of Students Empowered by Change to read it as well.
Let us get something straight. The politics of fear is not only enforced by tests. There is a surrounding student-to-teacher Relationship that causes, "fear". The teacher has a certain educational relationship with a learner. The learner must always find the way to adapt his/her self to critically recognize the teacher and the way that teacher teaches. In the process of this, the learner begins to become silent so that they can, "follow", the regular educational system. This "following" causes the learner to continually fear speaking out in the classroom environment. The problem in this relationship is students begin to feel that not understanding a concept is only their fault. In turn, the students quit asking questions because they fear their teachers criticism. Is this a healthy student-to-teacher relationship? Absolutely not.
How do we make these relationships better?
1. Students must not be scared to rise up and tell the world we are not "OK" with our education to continue in this way. We want a progressive change!
2. Teachers must move away from test prep materials and move to a more progressive project based learning system. The projects will eliminate fear because students are now critically thinking with their classmates and are not afraid of presenting their own ideas or questions. The best part is that the projects can teach students the materials they need to know for their tests! Teachers will be happy as well! I realize that all standardized testing is not going to go away anytime soon. One thing is for sure though, the way students are learning for these tests is evolving!
Here is a fantastic example of project based learning in a public texas school!
May the force be with Students Everywhere!
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