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Saturday, May 31, 2014

The difference between 1961 and 2014, in 61 we had childhoods


No one tracked the data online,
No teacher listed his/her SLO on the board,
We took 3 standardized tests,
One in grade 3,
One in grade 6, and
One in grade 9.
The total time spent on this testing was less than 2 days each time.
The state sent no color-coded reports home.
No newspapers published any schools scores.

Our teachers and administrators told us do your test, and remember they really don't count.
There were no Education Reformers without decades of teaching experience.
Teachers and administrators were valued and respected.

The standards educators and parents worried about were bigger than any bubbles on a test.
Their standards in 61 were
Honesty,
Doing our best,
Being fair,
Respect for others,
Being timely,
Being Trustworthy, and
Do the right thing.
All beyond the scope and sequence of any curriculum.
None of it was perfect, but childhood strived and survived.
Parents and teachers tried to stretch it out for as long as possible for their children.
No one ever said he is smart, he'll go places, no they said anyone could go anywhere they wanted as long as they tried their best.
I was not shaped by data, but by my school experience, my time on the playground, my wanderings through our neighborhood, and a million opportunities to be just another boy.
It's simple young people are tested for nearly two months a year these days. With the Common Core it will be every year for 13 years.
That is 516 more days than in my youth. When you break it down by 180 day school years, children today spent nearly three years taking, practicing, or preparing for some standardized test. Testing is not teaching. It time to start teaching our children again.
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you are wondering what this Walking Man will be doing on Sunday June 1, 2014, I be talking to a room full of parents asking them to join in this fight to take back childhood. It's what I seem to be doing every day these days. If you are wondering what the Walking is listening on his way to his talk it's "For what it's worth" >


1 comment:

  1. Glad to see you are still walking Jesse. 6 days vs 3 years certainly helped shape the man who would become the activist that started a movement to take back our schools.

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