Cheating? No Way!

Okay, I know it’s hard to believe, but guess what?  The New York Times discovered rampant cheating in Atlanta’s school system.  Teachers and administrators were fudging student scores in order to meet the expectations of society.  Who could possibly have guessed that requiring schools to make students do better on standardized tests would make teachers just write down better numbers?

As hard as I try to believe that people are not stupid and corrupt, I am proved wrong every time I read the newspaper. Ever since this No Child Left Under the Bus bullshit was passed by President Bush, I’ve been saying the cheating will happen, and everyone just calls me cynical and jaded.  Well … it’s happening, and not just in Atlanta.  In every single school district across the nation, there are teachers who inflate their grades in order to look better on paper.  I’m not saying every teacher does it (because I don’t, and I’m sure I’m not the only teacher who wants to puke when he or she sees the teaching profession get prostituted until we look like a bunch of whiny, slacking idiots), but I AM saying that it happens.  And almost none of the things the government is doing will change student achievement. 

Eventually, school is going to have to return to being educational.  We are going to have to stop pandering to parents who want their child’s grade raised because they are “A” students not “B” students, or parents who are in crisis because they’ve already ordered a graduation cake even though their child is failing two of the courses required for graduation, or parents who insist that their child’s esteem will be forever ruined if their child doesn’t advance to the second grade with his peers even though he can’t even read yet.  The onus of a child’s education should rest directly on the CHILD’s shoulders.  I understand that every child is entitled to a free, public education, but when a child repeatedly does not take advantage of the opportunities presented to them, the school should not have to hold their hand and drag them along so they aren’t “left behind.”  Some students actively try to be left behind.  They don’t care about their education, so … let them go.  Society will always need a “manual labor” class. 

School should be challenging.  Students should have to think.  And yes, some students are not as smart as others.  That’s okay.  Grouping students according to ability is not a bad thing, even when they are in elementary school.  I know it’s a commonly held belief that the smarter students will inspire those who struggle, but I absolutely disagree with this theory.  From my own experiences as a student, as a teacher, and as a parent of three children, I can say with conviction that the less intelligent and/or less motivated kids slow everyone else down.  By the time public school students are in 7^th grade, they know where they fit in the continuum.  Very intelligent and motivated kids realize at some point that they can either push themselves to succeed, or they can settle back and enjoy the ride, because their teachers don’t expect much.  Most teachers just want to make it through to summer.

So…my point?  The education system is BROKEN.  Our expectations for students and teachers are pathetic.  I am almost embarrassed to be a part of a system that bastardizes learning so badly.  Education is NOT about test scores, even though they look so pretty in the paper (or not).  People can’t judge a school or its administration or its teachers unless they spend day after day watching the machine from the inside.  I happen to be lucky that I work in a great school district with high expectations, but there is room for improvement in even the best schools.   

When others ask what I do for a living, I want to announce my profession with pride.  I want teaching to be a job that is hard to get and hard to keep, because the competition for jobs is fiercely competitive.  And I don’t want that competition to be about which teachers generate the highest test scores, because those numbers mean next to nothing.  How are we going to take this profession to the next level?  How is America going to get its children to respect and venerate education in and of itself, and not as a means to an end? 

Call me, Michelle Rhee, we need to talk.