NYS education from a counselor's perspective
I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent person. 6
years of college, a master’s degree, a certificate in advanced study and 5
years of job experience. I definitely don’t know everything but I feel like
there is one thing that I know pretty well, and that kids. I pride myself in
getting to know the kids in my building and taking the time to not only know
each kid (all 400) by name but to also get to know things about them (likes,
dislikes, etc). Since the start of common core and testing standards changing,
I can’t help but think that all of these politicians and curriculum writers are
forgetting that we are talking about children. Children who face more trauma
and adverse experiences than they should be and are being required to tackle
academics at an extremely rigorous pace. If we were talking solely about
curriculum and a child’s capacity for learning, then the current educational
standards might seem to be justifiable. They push the limits and challenge
students and I don’t think anyone would question this is important. However, we
aren’t just talking about whether a child is capable of learning and achieving
these high standards. If you were to eliminate all extraneous factors that
could potentially impact a child’s life, then I would say go for it and test
the limits. However, the reality is we aren’t talking about kids who come in to
school every day after waking up refreshed, putting on clean clothes, eating a
healthy breakfast and kissing mom and dad goodbye as they get on the bus. We
aren’t talking about kids who go home from school, sit and talk with their
family about their day, sit down with parents to do their homework each night,
have a healthy dinner, and read with their families before bed each night. More than 16 million
children in the United States – 22% of all children – live in families
with incomes below the federal
poverty level – $23,550 a year for a family of four (National
Center for Children in Poverty). It is estimated that 13 –20 percent of
children living in the United States (up to 1 out of 5 children) experience a
mental disorder in a given year (Center for Disease Control and Development).
These children are coming in to school hungry, dirty, anxious, confused,
worried, scared, frustrated, angry and defeated on a daily basis.
On top of these challenges (outside of their control), they
are also coming to school with family and friendship stressors. Each year, over
1 million American children suffer the divorce of their parents. It is also estimated
that half of the children born each year to parents who are married will see
their parents’ divorce before they turn 18. There is also mounting evidence in
social science journals demonstrating that the devastating physical, emotional,
and financial effects that divorce is having on children will last well into
adulthood (Dr. Patrick F. Fagan) Each day I meet with students who are coming
to school wondering if their parents are going to get into another fight
tonight, wondering if they are going to have dinner today, wondering if their
friends are mad at them. They are coming to school not being properly dressed
for the current weather or hungry from not having an adequate dinner, breakfast
or both. They are coming to school angry because of their parent’s recent
divorce, or sad because they just lost a loved one. Every day, I see kids doing
their best to make it through a school day filled with algebra, writing
prompts, slow reading, essential questions, and DBQs while they are struggling
inside because of these extraneous factors.
Now I am not saying reading, writing, math, etc. are not
important because they are. I’m not even saying we shouldn’t have rigorous
educational standards. I am definitely not saying we should stop pushing our
students to do their best and to achieve high academic goals. All I am saying is that I think we are asking ourselves
the wrong questions. It shouldn’t be what do we need to change in education and
how can we hold our teachers more accountable. It shouldn’t solely be about
raising standards and changing curriculum to be more rigorous without taking
every aspect of our society into consideration. The fact is, you can change the
curriculum all you want, but until we change what the children in this country
experience on a day to day basis, you are never going to reach these kids the
way policy makers are hoping. We need to be looking at improving the
environmental factors contributing to a child’s education, we need to be
talking more about early education and supporting families in each community,
and we need to be increasing funding for schools, not taking it away. I am drawn to the quote by the authors of the
book “The heart of learning and teaching” (I think I might send a copy to the
NYS education department and ask if they want to discuss it). The quote is “you
can’t teach the mind until you reach the heart.” Think about this for yourself.
How hard is it to focus and concentrate when you are hungry? How hard is it to
go into work after you have lost a loved one? Can you do your best work when
you are angry and frustrated? Yet we ask children to do this every day and
teachers are forced to continue to teach to the test. Teachers and students are
stressed, anxious and worried daily. Children are being asked to push their
brain power to the limit and use a part of their brain that can’t be accessed.
We know how the brain works, it has been researched for years, and yet when it
comes to education we completely throw science out the window and focus on
numbers, data, and rankings. The Dr’s and scientists who have studied the brain
(who made it just fine through their education) have given us so much
information on how the brain works and how the brain communicates with itself.
Yet we ignore these facts and statistics, and only focus on graduation rates
and test scores. Since when is one facet of information enough to lead the
charge in an educational reform? Dr. Daniel Siegel has even developed a hand
model of the brain to put things in the most simplistic terms possible. It has
been proven that your frontal lobe (the part of your brain needed for thinking)
will not function if your limbic system (emotional part of your brain) is
overloaded. In other words, how can we
expect children to learn, when their basic needs are not being met. How can we
expect children to learn when they are in a constant state of fight or flight?
I also think about
Maslow and his hierarchy of needs. Maslow states that if a person’s basic needs
are not met, not only will it create anxiety and tension, but an individual
will not desire or be motivated to achieve success or reach a level of
self-actualization. Yet we expect
children to be motivated to learn and intrinsically driven to success, when
their physiological and safety needs aren’t even being met. How can we do that?
Why are we doing that? We need to stop looking at the wrong data and stop
blaming the wrong people. I know one thing is for sure, teachers are definitely
not to blame for falling graduation rates or low test scores. What we need is
to stop looking at what to teach and how to teach and go back to remembering
WHY we teach. We need to stop increasing demands and go back to making sure
each child develops and is getting their needs met. We need to put money back
into our schools and provide families with the support they need to ensure
their child’s success. We need to remember that these students are still
children and that these children need their teachers. They need their teachers
who are there for them when they are having a bad day, their teachers who
listen to them when they are sad, and their teachers who are the added role
models in their lives. So if I had a say and someone asked me what I think we
should do, this is what I would say. STOP looking at test data and start
looking at what kids need. STOP taking money away from schools and start
allocating funds where they need to be. Money should be going to early
intervention programs and building fundamental skills in elementary students.
Teachers should be trusted to provide a strong education to their students
without feeling like they are being scrutinized every moment of every day. Put
money back into education (and back where it needs to be) and see what happens.
But hey, I’m just a school counselor….what do I know.
No comments:
Post a Comment