01.29.2003 | 10:20 pm

Education is the movement from darkness to light.~ Allan Brown

Today, a friend, l-empress, wrote about her many and varied experiences with teachers, the teaching profession, and teaching her own children. There are so many opinions on how best to educate a child...what constitutes a good education...who is best qualified to administer the teaching...what is required of each teacher so as to be said, �You are qualified to teach...� this child has met the proper standards... this child has been given the tools to face the world, educated...and on and on. Having been a student, on the college track to become a teacher, a parent of four students that attended public school, and a professional educator at present, I feel I am well versed in many aspects of the educational world.

I get very annoyed when people make statements of a general nature to define anything concerning education. Every component of a child�s education is as individual as the child themselves. Each child, when presented with opportunities to learn, will react and take away form those experiences, knowledge and insight unique to them alone. Just as each student is a one-of-a-kind model, so must the approach be that is taken to train and educate each child. Although states and school districts �set standards� by which students are assessed, successfully reaching those educational standards is as unique and individual as the children. Administrators, teachers, and parents need to view the individual, individually when making a determination of success or failure.

Often, children who are placed in special services for learning disabilities are given the opportunity to set and achieve very individualized goals and objectives. Unfortunately, the main body of students do not get the opportunity to be taught and evaluated as unique individuals. Standards for passing or failing, mastery or non-mastery, are rigidly set, thus disallowing any room for fair and flexible treatment of each student. I always felt like my own children were given the "fuzzy end" of the lolly-pop, simply because they were right in the middle... not too smart and not needy enough. And now, as I teach in what would be considered a regular class room, my students continue to miss out on the advantages of special curriculum, small class size, and added teaching staff.

I don�t suggest that the extra staff that is in place for special needs children be suddenly given to me. On the contrary...I will be the first to say that special needs students, whether learning disabled or gifted, need the specialized staff provided in order for them to receive that individualized attention they need and deserve. But the little guys "in the middle of the pack" deserve the same advantage.

Administrators, legislators, and parents should hear the call that is coming from the weary halls of education...and respond!
*Provide a competitive pay scale, thus enabling school districts to attract and keep qualified and motivated staff.
*Provide fair compensation for training and time spent in acquiring Masters or other post-graduate education/degrees
*Reduce class sizes to a reasonable number at all levels of education...K through 12.
*Provide teachers with an adequate supply budget that would include money for: paper, pencils, scissors, glue, crayons, rulers, calculators, math manipulatives, consumable workbooks for the selected texts, bulletin board and copy supplies.
*Provide resources to the classroom teacher, whereby she/he may tailor and individualize instruction to meet the needs of all types of learners. i.e. professional development courses and collegial planning time.
*Provide ALL classroom teachers with permanent, full time, and qualified instructional assistants.
*Coordinate state and national curriculum objectives with standardized tests, so as to enable teachers to present material in a meaningful framework.

On the whole, I feel there is entirely too much emphasis placed on national, standardized tests. So often precious classroom time is ripped away from students, as they are pressed and prodded to prepare for and take standardized tests. Teachers are frustrated as mountains of curriculum goals are left by the wayside in order to prepare for testing. The pressure is ever present and very public. In our community, test percentages are printed IN THE PAPER by district and school. Sometimes the paper goes so far as to publish names of teachers in individual classes. This is outrageous pressure...which is so unfair and lopsided. No accounting is ever made for the lack of resources, limited instructional time, lack of parental support and involvement, or the strengths and weaknesses of each child. For the most part, legislators and editors, alike, are so far removed from the reality that is education, that they are unqualified to pass judgment or offer solutions.

In spite of what may sound like a discouraging view of education, I have great hope in the future and in the young people who come through the doors of my school. They come with smiles and happiness...eager to learn. Most days, I too, enter the building eager and hopeful for a new day. I try to face the challenges of public education with an eye squarely focused on each child...viewing the road of potentials ahead for each of them. Daily I see growth, life, and progress as we wrestle together with all the obstacles which are thrust upon us. A toothless grin, from a wiggly little boy or girl is sometimes the only motivation necessary to see a bright future in their education.

catsnapples~ in first grade and at life

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