By Nancy Creech
I didn’t come into teaching fresh out of
college. I wasn’t one of those kids that knew all their lives that teaching
was my vocation. I was an ice cream salesman, a dog grooming instructor,
a teller, a bill collector, a bank fraud investigator, and a stay at home
mom.But now, teaching is something
that has grown to be not only my job, but also much of how I define myself;
Nancy Creech, woman, wife, mother, teacher.And
from that foundation, I have now taken another step in my growth, teacher
activist. As I held a picket sign on a campus mall yesterday protesting
high stakes standardized testing, and thought of what I could say into
an open mike, I had memories of being a child of the 70’s. I held the signs
on the Wayne State mall back then too in defense of children. Those were
beautiful children, who weren’t of this country, but were innocent victims
of action taken by the United States Government. Back then I would chant
and listen to the speeches, afraid to make my own voice heard. I was mostly
a participatory spectator.
There
are children that are victims now too. Although they aren’t victims of
the horrible atrocities of the Viet man War, they are still victims of
bad government policy, and they need adults to be their voice. Once again
it is a question of who is doing “right” for the children. George
Bush says his way is right; rote learning, yearly testing, no social promotion,
mandatory summer school. Should those things be hanging over the head of
an eight year old? Children list failure in school as one of the three
biggest fears they could ever encounter. But George Bush says, not only
should kids be tested and retained, but their schools should be graded
as failures too. In Michigan last week, the headlines stated, 35% of schools
rated as failures. In most cases this was based on a low percentage of
children passing the middle school science MEAP. How many children are
going to feel good about waking up each morning going to a school that
their parents told them was listed as a failure in the paper. One of the
schools listed was a “second chance” school for kids who had already had
problems attending the regular high school because of teenage pregnancy
or behavior issues. Now these kids given a second chance are told that
it would be a second chance at a “failing school.” George Bush says his
way is right, but most of those failing kids in those failing schools are
from urban areas. They come from poor families many of which don’t speak
English. They are struggling to have the American dream. George Bush says
they will get it from rote learning, yearly testing, no social promotion,
andmandatory summer school. All
Mr. Bushhas isthe
empty claim about his so-calledTexas
educational"miracle.". All I have
is the smiles on the faces of the kids who come into my classroom every
day to learn, to wonder, to explore, to enjoy the fascination of discovery
and begin to build asense of who
they are..They are not learning
by rote.They are developing intellect.
Intellect that will serve them much better in the future than the rote
memorization of obscure facts. So,
I’m back on the mall of Wayne State University. There is no Rita Coolidge
or Kris Kristoferson. There is no passing around of the joint.It’s
thirty years later, and I am once again speaking for children. But this
time I am much more courageous, and hopefully much wiser, although the
people running the government don’t seem to be. |
