Thursday, September 23, 2010

WE NO LONGER TEACH TO THE TEST, WE TEACH ‘TIL THE TEST


Last week, the Camp Nickleby staff suffered through yet another mind-numbing exercise in futility, described as Professional Development. Dr. Kim Chee, armed with another of her professionally-produced (and outsourced) PowerPoint presentations, told us (read to us), once again, what lousy teachers we are and why we should all be fired, or at least lose our union affiliation! “You teachers are all so laaaaaazy. You are not good. Arne Duncan doesn’t like you either,” Dr. Chee screamed. Bless her heart.

The main focus of the meeting was to berate us for our abysmal test scores from last spring’s standardized tests. The scores just came out! We were told, once again, that we must raise our scores to acceptable federal levels, or we will be purchased by Bill Gates or Eli Broad, or one of the many other education ‘experts’ circling overhead and, having never taught before, know how it should be done. Bless them

The bright moment of the day came when one of our veteran teachers summed up the current incarnation of school ‘reform’ by stating, “I just teach until they take the tests in April. After April, I don’t care anymore. Nothing matters after the tests.” And that’s where education in the United States has landed, folks. Hope all of the villagers are happy. Blessings be upon us all.

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