UO rant

MelissaMiso

This may be an unpopular opinion but...

I believe that parents should not be opting their kids out of taking the common core tests. Now don't get me wrong. Not understanding the full nature of the common core, I am not judging whether the testing is a beneficial or useless educational decision, I'm just talking about opting kids out of taking tests that are up an running. I think this is sending a bad message to kids. e.g. "This is something the school is currently telling you to take but you don't have to." How about teaching our children that sometimes you have responsibilities and have to do things that you don't want to do or that make you feel stress. You can still be teaching them about what they can do to change the system and empower them that way. I have heard over and over that these tests cause "too much anxiety" Wah, wah wah! Can we please stop raising a generation of coddled kids that don't have to feel anything negative? Can we please start teaching them that challenges are a chance to grow? Can we stop worrying that keeping score in T-ball will ruin little Johnny's self esteem but rather be a great opportunity to teach them about healthy competition and that sometimes in life you lose but that doesn't devalue you as a human? Can we start teaching our children that they are human beings and human beings have a full range of emotions which is a good thing? Can we start teaching and showing them how they can manage stress in their own lives in healthy ways? Come on, rub a little dirt in it, get up and keep moving forward before we end up with another generation ill prepared for handling the stresses of life.

Okay, I just had to get that out. Thoughts?

ReTRoRenegade07

I love what you've said here   As a scientist, the only way to deem something "wrong" or "needs improvement" is through experimentation.  You're right, you're not always going to be able to "opt out". They might as well learn

MelissaMiso said:

Come on, rub a little dirt in it, get up and keep moving forward before we end up with another generation ill prepared for handling the stresses of life.

littleredfish

Totally agree. I remember once in grade 6 I left the playground to use the washroom and there were girls in there smoking. A teacher walked in and lumped us all together as one group and said we all would doo 3 days of detention and our parents would be called. Now I didn't smoke then and have never smoked a cigarette ever, I told my mother my punishment was unfair, but she did not come to my rescue. She could have been like some mothers I know, stormed in there and demanded "justice" for me but she didn't. She told me to bring the facts to the teacher myself. I was a very shy kid so this was VERY difficult for me being that he was not a teacher I knew well, only that I did know he was known to be strict. He listened to my story. I told him I had never received a punishment or discipline of any kind in my years there, or even associate with these girls. He listened but in the end the punishment stood. 

My mother sat me down and said that she loved me and believed me, but that life isn't always fair. She told me that punishments in grade 6 will not scar your record for life, just take your lumps and see what you can learn from this. I did learn very valuable lessons from that moment that have helped me as an adult in life probably a better lesson than those other girls did and FAR better lessons than the example of mommy coming to my rescue would have done.

picklesx

*insert Hallelujah chorus here*

MelissaMiso

picklesx said:

*insert Hallelujah chorus here*

hahahaha!

MelissaMiso

I posted this on my fb wall this morning and though there were differences of opinions people kept the discussion very civil and most had some well thought out dialogue. Unfortunately I worked all day and didn't get into the active discussion.

@littleredfish you mom sounds awesome.

littleredfish

She is. I hope to adopt a lot of her parenting style

bellelamb

I agree 1000000% and I have. Son who is taking the ela's for the second time this week!! They aren't that bad it's 90minutes of testing for three days, if you prep your kid well "do your best but they do not determine how smart you are it how well you do in school" type of stuff they are no big deal!!!!!!!!!

I can't tell you how many whinny self entitled brats there are in school these days because parents let their kids never do anything hard or uncomfortable!!!

chicagoirish2

I usually don't post in here but felt like this was a good post to get started with. I am a special education teacher at a public school so I see the common core through two different view points as an educator and a parent. I do agree that we should as parents encourage our kids to do their best in all of the assessments that they are expected to take during their educational career no matter what it is. But as an educator these common core standards and the new PARC assessment that our kids will be taking will be more than challenging and in many aspects setting our kids up to fail. We assess our kids multiple times a year 3 for MAP testing and soon 2 for PARC assessment. Plus any other progress monitoring hey receive for interventions, so as a kid wouldn't you hate testing. When do we really teach our kids if they are getting assessed 5 times with high stakes testing during the year and I know that this is not just Illinois testing regimine.

MelissaMiso

@chicagoirish2 Thank you so much for the perspective. Years ago, I used to work in schools and definitely believe there must be a balance between assessing how students are doing and allowing for true education (not just teaching for the tests). There definitely needs to be an overhaul of our education system. We are lagging behind so many other nations and are certainly letting too many kids fall between the cracks by not fostering their particular strengths simply bc they don't fit the mold of how education is set up. If it's not too lengthy to explain, what is the PARC assessment?

As a side rant, I believe that teachers are some of the hardest working, under appreciated professionals. I don't know if this is true where you live but so many people around here bitch and moan that teachers are "overpaid". That drives me nuts, particularly when it comes from people who are completely not involved with their kids' education and want the teachers to "fix" their kids' problems. I believe teachers should get paid their worth for the hard work and caring that they provide.