In the chaos of my workday, amidst the constant bombardment and demands by others who cater to the propaganda of the intellectual and economic elite, in an attempt to dictate who I am as a teacher, I often forget what I believe about education and teaching - what is, and what it is not.
Education is not about statistics, data and assessment results. It is not for sorting out rankings and categorizing levels. It is not about numbers on a spreadsheet or points on a graph. Education is not about increasing certain numbers in a report while diminishing others. It is not a resumé enhancer for those who seek to control the system. Education is not a factory for churning out consumables for the business world. It is not a race to the top or a race to not be left behind - it is not a competition at all. It is not the cure for our insatiable desire to dominate the global economy and it is not the magic elixir that will that will convince the world of their need for our supremacy.
Students are not pieces in a puzzle or pawns to be manipulated. They are not portfolio case studies for doctoral candidates. They are not products. They are not economic indicators. Students are not the property of corporations. They are not the property of our government. They are not the hope of redemption for our past failures and the rectification for the mistakes of over zealous politicians.
Students are human beings with needs and wants. They come to school with problems, with dreams, with hope, with fear, with distractions, with baggage and with feelings and emotions. Students need an education system that asks them to learn, not to race. A system that treats them as individuals, not a collection of evidence. The education system should be attending to real needs - physical and emotional - and encouraging dreams, not dictating global conformity. The education system should nurture students to be respectful, honorable, responsible adults who use knowledge to be better people, not just better wage earners. The education system should respect their individuality, encourage them in their strengths, support them in their weaknesses and inspire them in their interests rather than mandate what each of those should be.
Teachers should be role models, not statisticians or masters of acronyms. Teachers should convey knowledge and stimulate learning about all of life, not just those standardized indicators of knowledge created by committees of self-absorbed PhD’s, greedy millionaires and power-hungry politicians measured to be performed on a test. Teachers should demonstrate responsibility, respect, mercy, compassion - humanness - not just knowledge. Teachers should be consumed with knowing their students, not fearful of building relationships and fleeing from contact outside of the classroom. Teachers should be open books, whose lives demonstrate, in the classroom and out, what it means to be a responsible adult.
Education is not just about knowledge. Education is about being human, learning to live with other humans in the best way possible. Education is about becoming a better person - about growing, maturing, learning in all aspects of life. It seems we have been blinded by economic greed and a lust for power and our education system is the main victim in our reckless reformation driven by our blindness.
I pray that common sense may capture our imaginations and lead us to humanness in education before too many accept the lie that the future success of the education of our children depends on our ability to can be measure, record, plot and manipulate numbers in spreadsheets, data bases, graphs and research papers.
