A couple weeks ago I helped my sister with a wedding photography shoot. Often wedding shoots are full days. My sister brings me along to help capture memories. Wedding ceremonies and reception events can sometimes move quickly. An extra camera snapping shots is a great bonus.
Often the days start slowly, with photos of the bride getting ready. This wedding shoot had us at the home of the bride's mother, where a make-up artist and a hair stylist were working on the entire bridal party, the mom, and the bride.
As often happens, conversations flowed. While the mom of the bride was getting her hair styled, the stylist was asking questions about the mom's career. She had spent her life as a teacher, but had recently chosen to retire early. I kept quiet through the conversation, content to listen to this life-long educator's opinions about changing education, Common Core, and the new demands.
The following is a paraphrase of her words. I didn't write them down verbatim, but her feelings were very clear.
"I spent my life teaching at a school where most of the students come from low-income homes. I spent more and more time over the years preparing the kids for the ISTEP (standardized test for the state). Of course our students didn't score well. Some of them lived in homes without electricity. Now the school system is trying to get a grant for IPads for every student. How will that work? If some don't have electricity, they surely don't have internet or Wi-Fi. Then I saw the new curriculum. It's not teaching. I read from a script. Why do I need a college degree to read from a script? They wanted me to retire. They can hire two new teachers for my salary, and the new teachers won't care that they aren't really teaching or that everything is about test scores. They just finished college, so everything centering around a test is all they know."
I kept quiet, but my heart was grieved. This lady is in her fifties, still young enough to impact lives. However, she's old enough to remember the thrill of teaching, of watching eyes light up as students grasp concepts. As a homeschooling mom, I've had my fair share of teacher's guides. Most of them come with an explanation the teacher can read to the student. I've used them occasionally, but these explanations aren't overly inspiring. They are basic facts. Can you imagine an entire education of teacher's guide explanations...a script? This lady taught for over thirty years, before the standardized test was the end-all and be-all of education. She knows the difference between creativity and inspiration versus reading a dry script.
Long after the wedding this retired teacher's words played over and over in my mind. Is this what we want for our children?
I don't.
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