Kindergarten teacher: My job is now about tests and data, not children. I quit.

 

"Susan Sluyter is a veteran teacher of young children in the Cambridge Public Schools who has been connected to the district for nearly 20 years and teaching for more than 25 years. Last month she sent a resignation letter ( “with deep love and a broken heart”) explaining that she could no longer align her understanding of how young children learn best in safe, developmentally appropriate environments with the testing and data collection mandates imposed on teachers today."

Education needs to improve, but at what cost? Is there a happy medium?

Education needs to improve, but at what cost? Is there a happy medium?

 

Homes and families need to improve before anything.

Homes and families need to improve before anything.

 

Much easier said than done.

 

I kind of think that sometimes you can't change the current homes and families, but with education, you can change the homes and families of the next generation.

You can to an extent, but that doesn't give the immediate results that all want.

 

Most of that is just wishful thinking in terms of changing the masses (or even changing a fraction of the masses).

 

If improving home life and families is easier said than done, then education doesn't have a chance. One can hope, but what's that old saying about "Wishing in one hand and ....................... in another."??

When people write long resignation letters, do you think the employers actually read the whole thing?

When people write long resignation letters, do you think the employers actually read the whole thing?

 

Bet they have now.

...but what's that old saying about "Wishing in one hand and ....................... in another."??

 

Harry, my wife said her grandmother used to say that all the time. I've never heard it anywhere but you two!

Susan Sluyter has been a teacher for more than two decades. One can imagine that she’s seen and adjusted to her fair share of change within the educational system during her 25 years in the field, but the more recent shift in requirements was so dramatic that she resigned last month.

 

“In this disturbing era of testing and data collection in the public schools, I have seen my career transformed into a job that no longer fits my understanding of how children learn and what a teacher ought to do in the classroom to build a healthy, safe, developmentally appropriate environment for learning for each of our children,” Sluyter wrote in her resignation letter to the Cambridge Public School District in Massachusetts in February.

 

The kindergarten and pre-K teacher said she’s watched her job requirements “[swing] away from a focus on the children, their individual learning styles, emotional needs, and their individual families, interests and strengths to a focus on testing, assessing, and scoring young children, thereby ramping up the academic demands and pressures on them.”

 

Teacher?s Resignation Letter After 25 Years Describes ?Disturbing Era? in Public Schools | TheBlaze.com

Teachers out there, agree or disagree with the direction of education for young children?

 

Everyone else?

 

Does anyone agree the changes are mostly good? Why?

Obviously the U.S. is lagging behind many other nations in terms of our education system so it obviously has to be addressed so while I know she does have a legitimate concern, this is a needed process. Its just how fast should we make alterations to our education system to help improve testing and the kids' education.

 

Its hard to have both as when you strive for test scores, you might be taking away from how you take care of the kids and their learning experience so it'll take some time to have the best of both. These are just my superficial thoughts on the matter...

When parents stopped believing teachers and their kids instead.

 

Too much political correctness

Obviously the U.S. is lagging behind many other nations in terms of our education system so it obviously has to be addressed so while I know she does have a legitimate concern, this is a needed process. Its just how fast should we make alterations to our education system to help improve testing and the kids' education.

 

Its hard to have both as when you strive for test scores, you might be taking away from how you take care of the kids and their learning experience so it'll take some time to have the best of both. These are just my superficial thoughts on the matter...

 

Part of the problem is the way in which we test and quantify where we rank with other countries. I don't buy the fact some of these countries "ranked" ahead of us actually are more educated. A majority of these countries only educate the select few and millions of children go uneducated by modern standards. If we got to select just our elite minds these results would be much different.

When parents stopped believing teachers and their kids instead.

 

Too much political correctness

 

This.

 

Both of my parents being teachers, I never had the chance to tell my side of the story when I got in trouble.

 

Fact is (and looking back on it, they were right), but I was either a legit member (or person) of the guilty parties or it was one of those situations where I should have removed myself or done the 'right' thing.

 

I thank them for that now.

Part of the problem is the way in which we test and quantify where we rank with other countries. I don't buy the fact some of these countries "ranked" ahead of us actually are more educated. A majority of these countries only educate the select few and millions of children go uneducated by modern standards. If we got to select just our elite minds these results would be much different.

 

Exactly!!! This.

 

THIS. IS. IT.

 

Case closed.