Dear Students,
1. Find something you love to do, and do it as much as possible. The odds of your classes being a place that values self-expression, or various ways of solving a problem, are on their way out. Expect that the time you spend in school will do little to develop yourself as a person, as you will primarily be viewed as a number moving through a system from here on out. That means when school is out, you need to follow your passions, and seek out mentors that can help you actually learn things. Look at stuff on the internet, there’s some worthwhile stuff being done on the fringes, here’s a good example: Seth Godin, "Stop Stealing Dreams"
2. Read for fun. Trust me, this one’s going out the window. You’ll be doing mostly “informational” reading at school, sounds like a blast right? They’ll also want you annotating everything and proving that you understand the various intricacies of historical and scientific texts, yippee! Books are one of the best pleasures that you can take in life, don’t let them destroy that for you.
3. Ask your teachers and principals “Why?” whenever they ask you to do anything that sounds or feels like compliance, and not learning. When they run out of answers, work your way up to your Superintendent, Board of Education, and eventually the people your parents elect to represent them. Don’t expect a whole bunch of logical responses outside of demanding that you do as you are told... keep asking.
4. Remember what is happening to you, remember how it feels to be a part of this system. Go into the world, regardless of the cynical way you are being taught, and be an agent for change. Remember what you had to do outside of your school to be effective, smart, and caring. Do your best to force people to give our next group of kids a real shot at a quality, ethical, and humanistic education.
I’m sure there’s more to add to this list. I wish it didn’t have to exist, but as far as us educators are involved, it’s being decided for us, and is therefore our reality. While the adults are busy figuring this thing out though, time is passing, time that you need to spend protecting your biggest investment, your mind.
If you attend my district, you’ve probably noticed a slight chill in the air this week at school, that has unfortunately very little to do with the weather. Your teachers had a full staff meeting this week, where they were formally introduced to the newest reform initiative in our state, the “Excellent Educators for New Jersey” (EE4NJ) evaluation reform law that goes into effect next year. Now, that may sound like a strange thing to you, and it should. As much as it claims to be for your benefit, you can simply add it to the numerous other acronyms that will be done in your name over the rest of your public education; QSAC, PGO, CCSS, PLP, ASK, PARCC, HIB, SST, and SIP to name only a few more.
EE4NJ is essentially a guarantee. A guarantee that your teachers will probably have a latent, hopefully subconscious, level of disdain for you for the rest of their careers, now that your progress through school is directly tied to whether they get to keep their jobs.
It also guarantees that those once-a-year, mind-numbing, single measure tests that you’ve been taking will simply not be enough data to fire those terrible teachers, so expect standardized assessments in EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR CLASSES 4 TIMES A YEAR, until you graduate, or tap-out from exhaustion or anxiety. This doesn’t include the new and improved end-of-the-year standardized tests, which will also become 4-time-a-year as well. If you’re counting, that’s somewhere around 24 standardized assessments a year, and that’s the minimum. Over a public school career, the total conservative baseline number is 325 tests. Awesome.
You can expect that you’ll be well prepared for these tests, because if you fail them, half of your teacher’s evaluation is in jeopardy, so be ready for a year of test prep, every year. Teachers will also be observed about twice as many times as well, so the odds of a great teacher deciding to get a job in this state is probably going to decrease as well.
But enough about us teachers, you still need to learn don’t you?
I don’t hold a whole bunch of stock in Self-Help style texts, nor am I one who outwardly seeks out the various advice columns in my paper, but I think you all might need some assistance in the coming years. Here is a handy checklist of activities that you should be doing on your own, while us adults are busy “reforming” your education.
1. Find something you love to do, and do it as much as possible. The odds of your classes being a place that values self-expression, or various ways of solving a problem, are on their way out. Expect that the time you spend in school will do little to develop yourself as a person, as you will primarily be viewed as a number moving through a system from here on out. That means when school is out, you need to follow your passions, and seek out mentors that can help you actually learn things. Look at stuff on the internet, there’s some worthwhile stuff being done on the fringes, here’s a good example: Seth Godin, "Stop Stealing Dreams"
2. Read for fun. Trust me, this one’s going out the window. You’ll be doing mostly “informational” reading at school, sounds like a blast right? They’ll also want you annotating everything and proving that you understand the various intricacies of historical and scientific texts, yippee! Books are one of the best pleasures that you can take in life, don’t let them destroy that for you.
3. Ask your teachers and principals “Why?” whenever they ask you to do anything that sounds or feels like compliance, and not learning. When they run out of answers, work your way up to your Superintendent, Board of Education, and eventually the people your parents elect to represent them. Don’t expect a whole bunch of logical responses outside of demanding that you do as you are told... keep asking.
4. Remember what is happening to you, remember how it feels to be a part of this system. Go into the world, regardless of the cynical way you are being taught, and be an agent for change. Remember what you had to do outside of your school to be effective, smart, and caring. Do your best to force people to give our next group of kids a real shot at a quality, ethical, and humanistic education.
I’m sure there’s more to add to this list. I wish it didn’t have to exist, but as far as us educators are involved, it’s being decided for us, and is therefore our reality. While the adults are busy figuring this thing out though, time is passing, time that you need to spend protecting your biggest investment, your mind.
What advice do we still need to give? Students, teachers, parents, politicians, and community members, please let me know...
