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Essays, Opinion, & Commentary |
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by John Boleyn
Is there anything inherent in the current standard of learning ideal emphasized by the Virginia Board of Education which actually helps schools, along with parents and children achieve a new understanding of learning and education? Will the students having to undertake these standards and the other education-reform fads which are dumped on them help to facilitate their becoming educated in the course of a lifetime of learning? I am certainly not going to hold my breath. This debate seems to be approaching a pivotal moment in our education process in Virginia, and across the country. More and more teachers are in a panic due to teacher shortages in a growing number school districts, especially in special education. And in Virginia, the alarm among many teachers has reached a new level as they have had to devote additional classroom time to prepare their students for the new Standards of Learning (SOLs) exams. The SOLs are the commonwealth's outline for what kindergarten-through-12th-grade students should accomplish. The SOL examinations are given in third, fifth and eighth grades and are used as a determination of readiness for graduation from high school. Many teachers and parents are expressing strong concern over this process; more time and energy is required of teachers as an increasing number of localities find the number of new teachers dropping each fall. Teachers have had to cut the time needed to exploring topics in depth because they must cover a huge volume of material. Long-standing activities such as junior literature programs and specific attention to more intellectually-challenged students have been consolidated, and recess time has been reduced. This complicates schooling more than ever. Why? I know most people view our public and private schools as student-centered, but they are actually teacher-centered (and have been for most of America's educational history). They will become more so as this process swallows the time of teachers, parents and kids to serve a so called standard which measures little, if any learning at all. It is the classroom which is the most important aspect of schooling -- what is being taught and what is being learned. This is the battleground. So, should not the classroom revolve around the teacher as the center point of learning? To suppose that the teacher is the exclusive cause of learning is to believe that the activity of a teacher can by itself suffice to cause learning to occur in another person even though that person remains entirely inactive. Mere teaching or lecturing by teachers is not necessarily learning on the part of students. Teaching is a cooperative art meaning the teacher cooperates or assists the student in the process of discovery. The teacher doesn't produce knowledge in the same way a painter creates an object of beauty or a machinist produces a product of utility. The only real learning is learning which is the product of discovery. If genuine learning cannot occur without activity on the part of the learner (passive absorption or memorization do not deserve to be called learning), then we must also recognize that all learning is process of discovery on the part of the learner. The teacher and the student must be active in learning together. Teachers are tools which aid their students in the activity of learning; while many times they are instrumental, they are not the sole cause learning. And the emphasis on the current SOLs will just reinforce the typical standard of teaching, which is reflective of a didactic or lecturing approach. The quest for excellence in our students will continue to wither and the attainment of mere technical competence is yet again esteemed.
Mr. Boleyn is a writer in the fields of education, philosophy and politics. You can respond to this essay in The Radical Academy Forum
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