Why is Standards-Based Teaching a Hopeless Way to Educate Youth?  That is the question to be explored in this post.  At the end of this post is a YouTube video of a high school student’s speech in which he provides research evidence that the Common Core State Standands (CCSS) is a contrivance of educational testing executives who were funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and that educators did not play a role in the final draft of the CCSS.  And he shows that these standards are nothing more than goals that support an industrial model of education.

He explains, better than I can here, why basing education on these standards is harmful to the education of his peers.

But before you view the video, here are some words for thought.

We start with Shakespeare.  You all remember reading the opening phrase of a soliloquy in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.

To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles…”

Or as the American journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson puts it, the question is whether to float with the tide or to swim for a goal.  In a book recently published in the U.K., Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, one of Thompson’s letters appears (written when he was 20) to a friend.  In this letter he writes about what it means to find your purpose.

Maria Popova, in her blog Brain Pickings provides extensive quotes from and her own discussion of Thompson’s letter.  Here is a key idea, especially since I want to relate this to our obsession with telling students what goals they must follow and meet in K-12 schooling, and not only that, but when to meet the goal, and at what level.  Thompson probably wouldn’t be an admirer of the Common Core State Standards.

Hunter, in his letter to a friend, says:

To give advice to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal — to point with a trembling finger in the RIGHT direction is something only a fool would take upon himself. (Quoted from Maria Popova. “20-Year Old Hunter S. Thompon’s Superb Advice on How to Find your Purpose and Live a Meaningful Life.” Brain Pickings. November 2013. Web. November 13, 2013).

Floating or Swimming, Which is it?

In American classrooms, the question is whether to follow (float along) other people’s goals–that is, adjust our time in schools to a set of standards-based goals we had no part in choosing, or swim meaningfully making choices along the way that draws you closer to a way of life that you choose and you enjoy.

There are two views of school implicit in this thesis: float or swim.

Floaters

The standards-based accountability system of schooling treats students as androids who come to school to mechanically learn to follow a path established by adults, many of whom have no idea what it is like in a 3rd, 8th, or 12th grade classroom.  Nor do these adults have any idea about the aspirations, creativity, and inventiveness of students in these grades.  Yet, these policy makers have established a system of education that is a meticulous set of performance statements that all students should learn in mathematics, English language arts (The Common Core State Standards), and science (The Next Generation Science Standards).

As a result of the Race to the Top, policy makers have funneled the performance standards into what is known as College and Career Readiness.  According to Achieve (Achieve. “College and Career Readiness.” Achieve 2013, Web. 13 November 2013) being college and career-ready means students have the knowledge and skills in English and mathematics to qualify for success in entry-level, credit-bearing postsecondary coursework with out the need for remediation”, or to get a job (career readiness).

Now, mind you, the students have no say in what knowledge and skills others claim they need.  Apparently, the others have a crystal ball, and are able to look into the future and tell the rest of us what knowledge and skills will be needed for success.   And to make it even worse, teachers have very little independence in interpreting the standards because their students will be tested using high-stakes examinations based on the standards. As ethical educators, they protect their students as much as they can by preparing them for the testing wars.

Have you ever examined the lists of performance standards in the CCSS or the NGSS?  Which ones of the vast list of goals will be tested?  To what extent is the test related to the real curriculum implemented by teachers?

Swimmers

Schooling should help open minds, not close them. Requiring students to learn content that may or may not be important to them is not based on science, its mere opinion.  More than that, much of the pedagogy that is used directs students to master content in preparation for a test.

The goals that have been devised by committees of experts are not what schooling should be about.  We should be teaching mathematics, English, and science because it nurtures the student’s imagination, not because it might help get a job, or reach someone else’s goals.

Hunter Thompson talks about goals, and says this:

In short, he has not dedicated his life to reaching a pre-defined goal, but he has rather chosen a way of life he KNOWS he will enjoy. The goal is absolutely secondary: it is thefunctioning toward the goal which is important. And it seems almost ridiculous to say that a man MUST function in a pattern of his own choosing; for to let another man define your own goals is to give up one of the most meaningful aspects of life — the definitive act of will which makes a man an individual.  (Quoted from Maria Popova. “20-Year Old Hunter S. Thompon’s Superb Advice on How to Find your Purpose and Live a Meaningful Life.” Brain Pickings. November 2013. Web. November 13, 2013).

A High School Student Speaks Out Against Standards-Based Education

Diane Ravitch posted a link to a speech made by Ethan Young, a Tennessee high school student at the Knox County School Board regular meeting.  In his speech, Mr. Young lets the school board know what is in the best interests of student learning. Here is his speech.

What do you think?  How can we begin to change education to show Hunter Thompson’s views of goals, and Ethan Young’s view of school?