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State Board of Education

And

Why It Needs To Go

 

It has been a while since I have updated some of the basic pages of this website. The time has long since passed that I add to the State Board of Education section of this site. I have struggled with how to pursue this section. The state board of education serves a purpose otherwise, it would not exist as a governmental entity. The state board serves as a kind administrative role in the unification of the education process across the state. Board members even advise the governor in the governance of state approved laws and programs. Unfortunately it does not guarantee that teachers can teach nor does it seek to remove those who cannot teach. Moreover it does not guarantee that the curriculum is adequate for the children's age or development stage.

 

The impetus behind this writing was spurred on March 11 when I was discussing the vocabulary that my daughter was studying for science. She was searching my Webster's New World Dictionary for definitions of scientific terms instead of using her textbook. Since I was watching the television beside where she was studying, I could hear her mouth the words and definitions as she wrote. The talking did not bother me as much as her desire to make these definitions complex. I heard “artery,” “ventricle,” “atrium,” “heart,” “vein,” “chlorophyll.”

 

I said, “Did you say chlorophyll? What are you studying?”

 

She replied that she was just studying vocabulary for TCAP's (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program). We talked about the fact that since she was not studying any particular segment of science why worry about the dictionary definition. Also I was bothered that by the 7^th grade, she could not define heart, artery or vein. I told her there were countless references to the heart and bleeding in various novels of which she should have done a book report . She told me that she had not done a “book report.” To my surprise, she had only covered literature as a group effort in classes. My experience was that from the 6^th grade through the end of the eighth grade, we read two (2) books every six (6) weeks. From those books, we stood in front of the class and gave reports.

 

The next day happened to be parent-teacher conferences. I definitely wanted to discuss book reports in English and useless vocabulary in science. Just to clarify “useless,” if the words do not pertain to a specific section of study then the children are not learning anything of value.

 

The first teacher that I talked to was an English teacher from a different grade. She discussed the fact that children are being crammed with so much information that rather than retaining it all, they are forgetting everything since it does not pertain to them or their lives. She would love to do book reports but the state has the curriculum full of things that look good on the tests but teaches the children nothing. “We just hope they (the children) can recognize something on the TCAP just enough to fill in the correct circle.” said the teacher. I explained my feelings on something as simple as a book report:

· By reading a book outside of a group effort, the child learns self-reliance because that the child does not receive input from a teacher while reading.

 

· By giving the oral report in front of the class, the child learns self-confidence because the child must stand in front of the peer group and speak intelligently about a work of literature.

 

· By using a few index cards, the child learns retention because only the high points of the report are referenced.

 

· By reading a novel, the child learns about culture, society, personal struggles, as well as overcoming adversity from a method other than a television screen or a YouTube© video.

 

Unfortunately, the state does not consider these lessons to be valuable. The state prefers rote memorization of useless trivia over the process of logical thinking.

 

From another English teacher and a Reading teacher, I got more takes on the TCAPs. Both of these teachers confirm that the children were being crammed with the mechanics of education as opposed to actual learning. Each expressed concern that parents were not paying attention to the curriculum and speaking out. A teacher of 5^th grade, explained it like this, “We are trying to make miniature adults out of children because of the people sitting in tall, white cathedrals from far away trying to one-up the previous administrations.” From there, I went to the science teacher. She was newer to teaching and was rather accepting of all of the requirements of the state and took it with a grain of salt. She showed me that the textbooks referred to mitosis and its phases one way but the TCAP test prep guide showed mitosis with its phases listed another way.

 

In the back of my mind, I was trying to discern why we, as a community or even a state, are pushing mitosis, at all, to 7^th grade children. I want my children to learn science; however, this material is the same material that I covered in Cellular Biology in college. If my daughter was not up to speed on how the circulatory system works, why in the world, would I want her worrying about how a cell divides or how a cells phases occur? To put this into perspective, what 13 year old child may go to work in a microbiology lab? What 16 year old child may go to work in a microbiology lab? How many high school graduates are hired to work in a microbiology lab as a scientist? Without a college degree, I highly doubt that any person would be hired to intelligently discuss cellular processes at the professional, academic or medical levels. Yet we will waste these children's lives teaching them something that in the end will be absolutely irrelevant; but, at least these answers make our children look smart on a test. Who cares if these children can balance a checkbook? Who care if these children can do a household budget? I suspect that more children in Tennessee will grow up to file bankruptcy than will grow up to work in an environment that needs to know microbiology.

 

At the Tennessee Department of Education website, CURRICULUM, the state tells schools what they expect of children. As an example, lets look at KINDERGARTEN English. (Make no mistake, to some people, this site is extremely cumbersome. The state prefers that parents remain ignorant about state demands on children and teachers.)

GLE 0001.4.1 Define and narrow a topic for research.

GLE 0001.4.2 Gather relevant information from a variety of sources.

GLE 0001.4.3 Prepare and deliver an oral research report.

Checks for Understanding (Formative/Summative Assessment)

􀀹 0001.5.1 Narrow a topic so that the research process is manageable.

􀀹 0001.5.2 Use the family and community as resources of information.

􀀹 0001.5.3 Visit the library as a resource of information for research.

􀀹 0001.5.4 Recognize and identify a variety of print and electronic resources available for

information (e.g., books, newspapers, technology, magazines, graphs).

􀀹 0001.5.5 Prepare and deliver an oral research report that evidences a systematic gathering of

information.

I remember learning to write, count, say and spell the A,B,C's and numbers. I remember doing arts and crafts, and show and tell. I remember recess and dodgeball. I remember naptime and learning to listen while the teacher was reading. What I do not remember is independent research and oral reports. Unfortunately, the curriculum for 2009-2010 has replaced the previous curriculum.

 

Under the KINDERGARTEN SCIENCE curriculum, the old website listed that children need to discuss rain forest deforestation and/or the population explosion and come up with ideas on how to deal with these problems. When I saw that, I thought, “how ridiculous.” Children of that age do not need to be stressed about those things that they as 5 and 6 year-olds cannot change. Moreover, how do you explain the “population explosion” without explaining where babies come from? I understand that some children are abused and pushed into sexual awareness at an early age. Unfortunately the state must view that to level the playing all children must be made sexually aware at Kindergarten. However we have replaced that with the fundamental beginning of EVOLUTION in Kindergarten: Guiding Question 5 How does natural selection explain how organisms have changed over time? This question is the overriding principle of Darwin's Evolution. The question seems innocuous but it lays the foundation for other teachers to fill in with Darwinism, the only state-funded religion in the United States.

 

While I did not save the old STATE curriculum, the fact that it changed amplifies the problem in Tennessee. The curriculum changes from year to year. Kindergarten through 5^th grade should never need changes in the curriculum. What was good for me in K-5 is just as relevant today as it was then. Most home foundations haven't change in 100 years or more and neither should educational foundations. K-8 could probably remain unchanged. Yet we must reach a balance in the system where different administrators are not “tinkering” with the system either to make themselves feel more like leaders or to justify their existence on the state payrolls and our children are receiving quality instruction that will be relevant to their lives. For this reason, people must demand the removal of the state from micromanaging education in our children's lives and return that control to the local level. People must stop buying into the argument, “We are doing it to help the children!”