"I am a teacher and today I'm standing up for my students, finally."
This is a moving speech from Jennifer Rickert, 6th grade teacher out of New York. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV6HoDLsnH8&feature=youtu.be
When you listen to Jennifer, through her sometimes broken voice, openly admit that she is a rule follower and remained quiet about Common Core State Standards rather than speak out you will understand just how hard it was for her to come forward.
I found her to be compelling for a couple of reasons.
First and foremost, Jennifer is a teacher, in the classroom today, attempting to work with the Common Core State Standards. Her frustration, like that of parents, is first hand. Jennifer is experiencing, along with her students, the shortcomings and overreaches of CCSS for herself.
Secondly, Jennifer points to Jean Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development when talking about what her students, ages 11 and 12, are being tasked with on the Common Core aligned tests saying, "This is not developmentally appropriate for my students. I find it cruel and harmful." Citing that the children will be asked to, "evaluate intricate arguments" and "will need to make hard choices between fully correct and plausible, but incorrect answers," Jennifer says she can, "no longer remain silent."
Jennifer is confirming what parents recognized immediately after the massive push of CCSSI into the classrooms of America -which is that the Common Core State Standards were designed outside of the cognitive abilities for their children. Parents know what their children are capable of accomplishing. Most parents I know are in favor of raising the bar for their own children. We want our children to be challenged - but challenged within reasonable limits.
It fascinates me no end that parents are continually marginalized or dismissed in the discussion of their own children. We’ve been told to leave it up to the “experts.” Well, I don’t consider an elite group of businessmen to be experts on my children. But, I bring up this point to ask why aren’t the “experts” listening to other experts?
Piaget’s work with children proved that, “Development is therefore biologically based and changes as the child matures. Cognition therefore develops in all children in the same sequence of stages.”
Simply stated the brain develops at its own pace, hence, a child develops at his or her own pace. This is widely known as individualism (yes, I’m being sarcastic). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce can press for a 21st century global workforce until cows fly, but that won't push the brain to suddenly develop faster. In fact, it’s been my experience that pushing a child usually results in the child’s shutting down and therefore no learning is possible.
Lying down these learning edicts, without taking into account the individualism of the children and the biological truth of a developing brain, as the government has done with NCLB and now CCSS, is about as effective as amputating the leg of a thoroughbred and then expecting it to finish first in the Kentucky Derby. Cruel and impossible.
I have spoken with many teachers, most of whom, admit to being afraid to speak up. Several are just fed up and, "counting the days" until they can get out of teaching. Common Core was the last straw for most of them. Jennifer's closing statement, "I am a teacher and today I'm standing up for my students, finally," gives me hope that more teachers will to stand up for their students and, in reality, stand up for themselves. Teaching is a noble calling. It shouldn't be reduced to Test Collector.
