In the mid 1970's, as I worked on a Masters Degree in Special Education, a professor shared that most school reforms are about 50 years behind the culture. This was in the 1970's before personal computing, before the internet, before the social networks, before i pods, i pads, texting, webbing, twittering and tweeting, before the information age exploded. It was in an age I like to refer to as BCC or " Before Colossal Communication".
School Reform has been one of priorities of each Federal and State administration during the past forty years. The "Third Millenium" was touted as the time of real change in School Reform. But, do we have a Third Millenium Information-Age Education or a Third Reich Prison State in our Government and Private School Institutions?
Here is a cautionary tale.
Andy, an active fourth grader, who loves his i pod, loves building with leggos, loves baseball, loves hangin' with his buds, loves texting and communicating in his language of the 2010 male. He gets to school and it is TAKS Math day (Texas Assessment of Knowledge Skills). TAKS, a well intended (?) way to make teachers and government schools accountable. This 4th grader is in an advanced math class. He has to take the same test that all 4th graders take. He finishes by 10:30 a.m. However, the rule is that no one can do anything until all 4th graders have completed the TAKS Math test. This kid ends up sitting on a hard wooden seat with his feet on the floor under his little wooden desk for the rest of the day. Oh he was allowed to go for the group restroom break and the group lunch break. Then he had to return to his seat and sit and read. Now it is not a bad idea to have a kid read, but sitting on a hard wooden chair for four housr of free reading? Does this sound like warehousing? Does it sound a bit like a prison?
