Our children are being systematically turned into automatons that pass tests. That is, if their teachers think they can pass the test. Otherwise, they’re discarded, and teachers are trained not to spend time with kids they don’t think will pass. I received an advance copy of Barry Schwartz’s and Kenneth Sharpe’s Practical Wisdom just before Christmas, and it’s been making me crazy! You can watch the TED video now. The book is coming out this month.

The words, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE! from Howard Beale in the 1976 movie Network don’t come close to expressing my outrage. Schwartz talks about how standardized test scores and teaching affect our students. Low-performing schools in New York and other states are forced to teach all of their courses via standardized teaching materials that leave no room for teachers to be creative and help with individual student needs. The much-needed ability for teachers to think on their feet and create solutions as they go is actively being discouraged in most public school systems. Courses are scripted word by word!

Worse, starting in 2003, publishers like McGraw-Hill have trainers and consultants that interrupt lessons and chastise teachers in front of students for not following scripts. In Texas, a consultant hired to raise test scores came in and told the faculty of Beck Elementary School and handed out green, yellow and red highlighters. The consultant said, “Take out your classes’ latest benchmark scores, and divide your students into three groups. Color the “safe cases,” or kids who will pass, green. Now, here’s the most important part: Identify the kids who are “suitable cases for treatment.” Those are the ones who can pass with a little extra help. Color them yellow. Then, color the kids who have no chance of passing this year and the kids that don’t count, the “hopeless cases” - Red. You should focus your attention on the yellow kids. They’ll give you the biggest return on your investment.”

No child left behind my ass! More like every child doomed to mediocrity. Who’s bright idea was it to let the people selling the materials make the tests and evaluate their usage and outcomes? I was in tears as I read this. It’s why I’m sitting here writing now. I had to blow off some steam. This reads like a bad movie to me. The 1990 movie Pump up the Volume had a plot like this, but the principal was expelling the poor performers, not ignoring them.

I graduated from high school in 1982, and there were good teachers and bad ones, better and worse schools, but education was more accessible. Certainly, there was lots of room for improvement. I hated my grade school experiences. It was a special kind of hell. That’s what it’s like for someone who doesn’t fit neatly into square holes, but I did receive an education. Since I don’t have kids and haven’t been in classrooms much, I had no idea what was happening in them. Some of my friends homeschool their kids. Now I know why! It’s hard to believe that things have worsened since I was in school.

If we continue to judge the success of education on numbers alone, we will continue to doom future generations and, inevitably, our entire country to mediocrity at best. Numbers can and will be gamed to the advantage of the few and the detriment of the many.