LITTLE ROCK — The observation might have been from the autumn of 2003 when I asked public school teachers to share their thoughts on improving education.
It certainly sounded like a number of the responses received at that time. But no, it arrived earlier this month shortly after I revisited the topic.
“Discipline is a joke, politicians don’t have a clue what they’re asking us to do and society/parents are piling more responsibility on us,” this Central Arkansas teacher wrote. “Don’t get me wrong, I love my job. I love seeing my fourth-graders’ eyes light up. I love seeing them interested enough to take the initiative to learn and research a subject more. But I love my job, not all of the other stuff that comes with it!”
Recurring themes if ever there were any, and once again we arrive right back at where the frustration often begins: quality teaching time, with perhaps an emphasis on time. Where does it go? We touched on that in Friday’s column, where a teacher noted that she was “losing 48 days [in the school year] to testing or canned programs. I sometimes wonder when, as a teacher, I will be allowed to teach.”
This educator was a tad put out with all the ingredients of the alphabet soup many in her field must consume. The 48 lost days to which she referred went instead to such pursuits as “one day a week in the computer lab using a mandated program, eight days of TLI testing, five days of ASTAAP testing, four days of DRA testing and one day of STAR assessment.”
TLI is The Learning Institute, which, among other things, works with schools to develop literacy tests for students so that “meaningful assessments” of their performance and capability can be made.
ASTAAP stands for the Arkansas Comprehensive Testing, Assessment and Accountability Program, where you’ll find state mandates such as Benchmark testing and the Smart Start and Smart Step literacy programs.
DRA is Directed Reading Activity, “a strategy that provides students with instructional support before, during and after reading.”
Reading being my favorite pastime in all the world, I appreciate the importance of knowing how to do it, and how to do it well, but with all these tests, how do teachers have time to instruct and guide students in such pursuits, particularly when you add the professional development component to the mix?
“As for changes or remedies, there will be none as long as teachers seem to be the last ones considered or asked for ideas,” wrote another veteran teacher from Northwest Arkansas, echoing a familiar refrain. “Professional development is often a joke as I have sat through three hours ofsuch where the sole purpose was to devise a ‘mission statement.’ Silly me, I thought our mission was to teach.”
It seems little enough, granting teachers classroom time with those in their charge, but for all the extras demanded of them, overall their commitment is strong.
“[M]ost of the things you talked about are still problems-the paperwork, the class size, the other duties besides teaching your subject matter,” wrote another teacher. “Today at 3 p.m. I will be finishing up my 35th year teaching! It was a great year, although I am always tired at this time of year.
“I am ready for the summer break. Sometimes you think you are ready to throw in the towel because of all the hassles you have to deal with, but then you have a ‘teacher moment’ and it is all worth it.”
She had one in mind. A student kept getting into trouble for not wearing the appropriate shoes to school. It seems that extremely casual footwear like house shoes, flip-flops and such is against school policy. As it turned out, the student didn’t own anything better, so what did this teacher do uponlearning this?
“I went out and bought her some shoes. Nothing fancy. The other day in the cafeteria she was showing off those shoes to another teacher. Her face was just beaming!”
So, I imagine, was mine when I read this.
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Associate Editor Meredith Oakley is editor of the Voices page.
Editorial, Pages 85 on 06/27/2010