Winter Break WK #2: “A solid education goes beyond curriculum”
Robert Archer
Special to the Spokesman-Review
December 29, 2007
T oday, I had four students show up to class with neither pencil nor pen. Another nine had no paper.
Yesterday, I took up student journals to grade. This was no surprise, since it had been written on the board. Six students did not even have their journals with them, even though these are daily required materials in my class.
Last week, I handed out a packet on fragments and run-ons, a packet that was their homework to turn in the next day. At the end of class, I found three of them left behind on the floor of my classroom.
So, just for a quick summary: 15 weeks into the school year, I had 13 students who had either nothing with which to write or nothing on which to write it, six who didn’t have a homework assignment that was a graded daily requirement and three who couldn’t possibly complete the graded assignment for the next day. And all of these numbers come from a single class of 25 ninth-graders!
The numbers are remarkably similar in my other classes.
Yet my department head, my principal, my district, my state, my entire society is mandating that I teach all students assigned to me what parallel structure is, what a comma splice is, what the theme is in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” what the difference is between a simile and a metaphor, what a good thesis sentence looks like, what the typical five-paragraph essay should be, what context clues can be used to decipher unfamiliar vocabulary words. And much more of the same.
Don’t get me wrong. As an English major, I fervently relish these concepts; as an English teacher, I fully appreciate the social value of attaining such skills; and as a professional, I am altogether committed to doing my best to impart such knowledge to every child who passes through my door daily.
The state and the district refer to such skills as GLEs, for grade-level expectations, and they are subject-specific to each secondary core curriculum needed for graduation from a Washington public high school; they are non-negotiable.
However, I’m wondering – just wondering, mind you – if I really am, at the heart of it all, teaching these children what I truly should be teaching them.
Curriculum, curriculum, curriculum – it’s on what the GLEs focus; it’s what the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) tests; it’s what the PSAT and SAT test; it’s on what the federal No Child Left Behind Act was built.
Thus, it certainly seems that our entire society values curriculum above all. Yet nowhere built into that mandated curriculum is the purposeful instruction in ethical principles. Nowhere. You can even check the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction Web site ( www.k12.wa.us) if you’d like to double-check my facts.
A solid work ethic? Timeliness? Preparedness? Organizational skills? Responsibility? Socially acceptable behavior? Integrity? Respect? Honor? Diligence? Nowhere to be found in any official curriculum guide; thus, not to be emphasized in the public school classroom.
But a comma splice must be both taught and tested. The same goes for the ability to comprehend a piece of text written by John Steinbeck or Harper Lee or Frederick Douglass. And the same for the definitions of the words “superfluous” and “pernicious.”
I am by no means suggesting that we begin to ignore the aforementioned curricular abilities; to me, they are still absolutely necessary in order for an individual to become a learned and productive member of the greater society. Rather, I desire that some perennial values be deliberately instilled in our children via an ethically comprehensive curriculum in our public schools.
Some may ask me why I don’t have pens, pencils and paper in my high school classroom for thoroughly unprepared students; or why I don’t allow for several days, or weeks even, for thoroughly neglectful students to turn in late work to me; or why I don’t run out and find thoroughly disorganized students in their next classes to get work to them they have left behind in my classroom.
The answer is pretty simple – I refuse to teach just curriculum. There are far more crucial issues that have been ignored in the education of our children for far too long. I want to remedy that deplorable fact. I want our state, our nation, our society to want the same.
Well to be honest i find it almost impossible to disagree with article because i was pretty much the sort of ninth grader Archer describes. I was unorganized and unprepared to learn about comma splices and Atticus Finch, but can you blame me? I had just come from a school where the teachers were hardasses, the walls were falling apart, and all i could think about was how much i hated school and how much i didnt care about it. I know its arrogant to blame schools exclusivly, much of it was also my lazy fault, but i do believe that being unprepared for high school comes from poor preparation from middle school teachers. Luckily high school managed to suck way, WAY less than middle school and i got my act together… sorta, but i feel that it was mostly on part with the fact that high school teachers knew we were unprepared and had a plan to fix it, unfortunatley not every school can be like Mt. Spokane.
I found it interesting how this article touched on the fact that America is so obsessed in having good education that it manages to slightly screw it up in the process. A few days ago me and a close family member spoke of how the WASL is a piece of crap test and how the nation is so obsessed with raising test scores that it makes its standardized tests unfairly hard. They expect teachers to prepare students for these tests but, like Archer said, its difficult when responsibility is not worked into the curriculum.
I can admit that I don’t turn in an assignment here and there, but I agree with Kirk can I be held responsible. Our whole life we are taught about responsibility and consequence for not coming through. Well if we didn’t learn this as many kid don’t whose fault is it? It starts at home then your parents send you off to school and at first the teacher go easy on you. You miss the first assignment not a big deal. You miss the second assignment most of the time not a big deal either. Not that I mind that teacher don’t make a big deal, but it teaches me nothing. What the teacher in this article is saying that he not only disagrees what the curriculum is in Washington, he also thinks that something deeper should be taught. When kid enter high school they enter a new world of responsibilities that they most of the time are not ready for it. Most teachers take it easy it’s their first year. Well the question is when do you start to be hard?
Kirk also brings up the part of the article where American is so caught up in education and how it should be taught. They forget a very important part of it. Responsibility and care ness. American education is so regulated with test and curriculums that kid this day only learn what’s on the test. They learn how to get by and not care. A test is not is not going mean anything to them in the real world there fore why should they learn it. I have to say I learn what needs to be remembered and then forget it later. Who cares about geometry the only reason you need it is for the WASL and now that I passed it what do I need it for. I strongly believe that you can’t blame these kids for being irresponsible and lazy because that is how America is taught. Who’s going to fix it?
Ok first off I’m a senior and I don’t know what the words “superfluous” and “pernicious.” (Mind you I also have a 4.0) It’s crazy now days what kids have to learn. I have a 7th grade sister and my parents couldn’t help her with math when she was in 6th. Sometimes my brother and I, who both like math, couldn’t help her. Some of the things they were asking her were ridiculous! Teachers now a days cant teach what they need to be taught. They can’t even really teach a curriculum! They have to teach the WASL and the WASL only. Like we were talking in class a while ago about how to get a bill passed, candidates stances on issue to get elected and such…well here’s Mr. Bush’s big plan to save Americas youth. No Child Left Behind (aka the WASL for us). Personally I think they should have passed it onto another couple subcommittees and committees to perfect it more.
In ninth grade I was excited to be out of MMS and have actual standing walls and working lockers. I also did not care about comma splices and why the heck an author named a book “To Kill a Mocking Bird” when that wasn’t what the book was about. The WASL SAT and PSAT are such horrible tests that make out teachers teach towards them only. The tests in general aren’t even a god measure of our skills. Even though I’m a year a head in math, when I took the SAT last year the only math on it was geometry. I took that freshman year, like I remember it. Like the article said, the government is doing so much to try and improve our education but end up screwing us over in the end. Education really does go past the curriculum. It has to start at home, on your own at school and in everyday life. If you don’t get taught the values of being a good person, like responsibility, organization, and stuff like that; when you get to 9th grade you’re going to get lost; and the No Child Left Behind program isn’t going to help you.
First off, I would like to point out that I found it hilariously funny that an English teacher wrote this article and there were a bunch of errors in it. It also makes me laugh that the students this teacher is complaining about are basically the same as the students at Mt. Spokane. We’re all slackers! I share the author’s frustration with the curriculum always pointing towards the WASL and other standardized tests. I’m with all the students when I say that I hate the WASL, but it’s just because it was harder for me than for others. It is only because I am a year ahead in math and science, so I had to remember things that I had learned two years before I took the WASL instead of stuff I had learned one year before. And I don’t even know what a comma slice is or what the word pernicious means…I had to look it up. But I appreciate that this teacher is trying to teach his students more than curriculum. It’s also cool that he is trying to encourage action on the part of, “our state, our nation, our society” to get teachers to teach their students more than just curriculum. But, we all know from this last chapter how hard it is to get bills passed. Even though this teacher could draft a bill to change the way things are if he wanted, he cannot introduce it, and the chances of the bill being passed is slim to none. But, nonetheless, it was an interesting article.
Shauna, I agree with you. I’m a senior. I don’t have a 4.0, but a 3.7 or 3.8. I know what the words “superfluous,” “obstreperous” and “supercilious” mean. I know upwards of fifty Greek and Latin root words and can pinpoint them in many words we use every day. English classes come easily to me; I passed the Reading and Writing portions of the WASL the first time I took them.
Math, on the other hand, is not my strong point. I didn’t pass the Math portion of the WASL the first time I took it and had to retake it in the summer. Mind you, I only missed the mark by four points. When I retook it, I passed by the same amount.
Now, math is important. We use it every day, much as I hate it. But I’m still not good at it. And when I graduate high school, I don’t expect to be a math genius. Actually, I only expect to know enough math to get by in life. For this, I blame my lack of skill as much as I blame our educational system. Teachers teach the WASL, and a fat lot of good it’s done in helping me pass it.
Am I making sense? My math teachers all taught The Curriculum, unable to take into account individual stregnths and weaknesses so they could tailor the math program accordingly. Maybe I’ve been spoiled (when you homeschool, you get an unlimited amount of individual tutoring for free), but I say public schools teaching JUST The Curriculum is dumb. Teachers need the freedom to take individual stregnths into account so they can truly help them become the best they can be. Because as you can clearly see, making students conform to a set standard isn’t helping anyone.
I like this guy. My mom comes home from work and will no doubt, at some point through each week, complain about how her students never have pencils, can’t find their own paper, need to borrow an eraser. She complains about how by December she has to still remind the kids to put their papers IN their backpack and to show their parents newsletters. But my mom is a first grade teacher. Not a high school English teacher. Her job is not only to teach the kids reading and writing, but to work with them on how to be a successful student, how to take responsibility for their own actions. There is no reason why, at middle school/high school level, these kids need to still be reminded to take things home and to be prepared for a day’s work at school. I mean, I agree with Rory and Kirk when they say that they were those kids once upon a time, and it was nice to be let off the hook if you forgot something in your locker or you didn’t have time to do your homework the night before…once or twice. But a repeating pattern of forgetfulness is absurd. My mom also gets annoyed when parents criticize her for not doing her job and for giving their child a ‘less than standard’ marking for whatever it may be when their child is an excellent student and they do their homework and they are so bright and responsible – well let’s take a look at the facts! More often than not, it’s the child who doesn’t take their homework out of the backpack, that’s why they have a first grade equivalent of a ‘zero’ in the gradebook. Not my mom’s fault for grading it hard for bad handwriting or poor coloring – it’s based on participation!!! Robert Archer, I think, is a smart man. He believes that he is trying to teach these kids more than just the curriculum, but how to be responsible and successful. How is he supposed to do all that when the students are without a simple pencil and paper?
This article deals with a significant issue in the subtext: the conflict between concrete numbers and intangible concepts. Grades, test scores, checkmarks next to specific curriculum areas, those are quantifiable; ethics and responsibility are not. Mandy’s post reminded me that our elementary school teachers (whom so many of us AP GO PO-ers call parents) teach much more than curriculum. Primary teachers are involved with every area of their students’ learning: math, reading, listening, sitting still, sharing, raising one’s hand, using a backpack and cubby and homework folders. Those teachers, due to their students’ young age, shape children as people, not just as students and thinkers. That close involvement usually wears off gradually as students get older. It is very easy for a secondary teacher to step back and focus only on the curriculum, the absolutes. Many of us have discussed this in AP English with Mr. Holbert, and we’ve all noticed which faculty choose to give assignments and grades without caring much about the knowledge and attitudes they impart on their students. I love Mr. Holbert’s class because it transcends grades and tests—we learn the subtle etiquette of group discussion while gaining the skills to analyze literature. The problem is that nothing on paper shows the difference between Holbert’s class and another, more curriculum-based one. Numbers cannot demonstrate that Mrs. Mockel’s maternal way of ushering us through calculus makes us stronger people as well as better mathematicians, or that Kautzman teaches us to be attentive, responsible citizens in addition to remembering the functions of the three branches of government. I heartily agree that secondary teachers should go beyond the curriculum, but no bill can mandate that. It is a choice on the part of the teacher, with the only reward a thank-you from those astute students or parents who recognize the teacher’s efforts and realize the value of a well-rounded education.
Response to Shauna Johnson:
I have to disagree with you on several points. First, “superfluous” unnecessary or in excess and “pernicious” (Okay, okay, I admit, I had to look this one up.) is something meaning to cause harm. Anyway, on to what I really want to talk about. I don’t think we can blame everything on the teachers and the “No Child Left Behind.” In my opinion, the biggest problem, the biggest reason we are still unprepared for standardized tests and struggle with our vocabulary even as seniors is because, like the good lazy Americans we are, we expect every door to be opened for us by someone else. We expect everything we need will be handed to us. Since middle school we have been taught about gleaning the meaning of words through their context, something that could have easily been done with a word like “superfluous.” It is not the responsibility of teachers to make sure we know every SAT word that is thrown at us, but we are given the resources to figure it out for ourselves. It’s our fault for not making those tools part of our arsenal. Not to mention, when not actually taking the SAT or an in class vocab test, I think it’s safe to say that dictionaries are pretty much constantly at our disposals. What stops students from looking up a word themselves? Laziness. Plain and simple as that.
I think “No Child Left Behind” has attributed even more to the laziness of both teachers and students. If students do poorly on the test, they can easily blame their teachers for having a lax curriculum or the state for making the test too hard and when all a teacher has to teach is the material for a test, it makes it easier for them to be lazy as well. It allows them to just make sure their students get by but gives no incentive for them to be a better teacher. Despite the fact that I agree with you on that one point of “No Child Left Behind” being unsuccessful, I must disagree on the math being too difficult. It’s common knowledge that the US is behind in math and science when compared with Japan, China, and some parts of Europe. We really do need to catch up.
Also, there is a bit of a fallacy in your “No Child Left Behind” argument. Maybe you know this as well as I do, but with the way you phrased your argument you made it sound like you think the SAT and PSAT are part of the “No Child Left Behind” program, which they are not. The SAT has been around FAR longer than the WASL. The point of the SAT is to see how well you apply the knowledge students gain in school to practical situations in order to gauge how well you will do in college and how good you will make your college look with your given knowledge, or power to apply it. Low scores, ESPECIALLY on the SAT, are entirely the students fault. The college board publishes plenty of study guides for the test, making it very easy to be prepared.
One last thing, I know this has been a long post, but the College Board also runs the AP program.
In order for a class to be considered AP, teachers have to have their curriculum approved by the college board. Despite the fact that I think responsibility should be taught to students, I think something like this would be more beneficial for “No Child Left Behind” than standardized testing. This way, teachers would be encouraged to improve and they wouldn’t feel restricted to just teaching to the test.
Okay, so it’s this type of article that just gets my blood boiling!!! I am in total agreement with the author of this article.
I can personally attest to the effects of teaching towards a certain curriculum – like teaching to a dumb, strict curriculum like the WASL!! In the 10th grade, I did not pass the Math section of the WASL – in fact, I did horribly! My parents, my current math teacher and I couldn’t figure out why. I had always gotten straight A’s in all of my math classes. I remember seeing the math problems on the WASL and sort of recognizing them but not to the ability where I could answer them. My math teacher had just touched based with us on what we might see on the test but refused to teach to the WASL precisely. So I was missing out while my friends in other classes got the sort of math education needed to pass the WASL.
First, I must say that you kind of can give “props” to Bush for the whole “No Child Left Behind” thing but in agreement with Shauna, I would have to say it really back-fires sometimes! If teachers would just teach what would give their students good, basic knowledge of the subject, everything would be fine and they wouldn’t have to worry about sticking to some curriculum. To further prove that, over the past 2 years I have been taking the required level math classes and just recently I scored above average on the SAT in the math section. Obviously something worked.
I wish someone would just get the guts to pass some bill about a new reform for the education of America’s youth. I know that it takes more than just a piece of paper and a pen because we covered that in class, but I think it is serious enough where something needs to be done! Let teachers educate us following obviously some kind of rubric, but where they don’t have to teach according to some test! Seeing my younger brother go through mountains and MOUNTAINS of pointless homework that comes nowhere near the little amount of homework I had in middle school is just aggravating. I graduated from MMS knowing what I needed to and even more. The focus on students just passing some test instead getting a good education is out of hand.
While I agree with the general class consensus that the WASL was no fun, I think that a lot of people who responded to this article either skimmed the article then went off on a WASL-bashing tangent or missed the point entirely. Archer wasn’t merely pointing out the problems that students are having with standardized tests, he was commenting on the decline of ethics and commitment in American schools. “I had 13 students who had either nothing with which to write or nothing on which to write it…from a single class of 25 ninth-graders!” I found this is to be absolutely ridiculous. What does it tell you that youth who are privileged enough to live in a country where education is not only free, but required and enforced aren’t even motivated enough to bring paper or pencils to class, much less take there education as the important matter that it truly is? Where do you think our country is headed, if our students aren’t taught the importance of “Timeliness? Preparedness? Organizational skills? Responsibility? Socially acceptable behavior? Integrity? Respect? Honor? Diligence?” Without these things can a curriculum based learning experience even be successfully applied to life? I very much agree with Archer that while curriculum is important these other traits must find a way into our educational system.
Andrew Barnes