I currently spend some of my time tutoring middle school students in Dallas ISD. Even in the short time I have been doing this, it has been incredibly rewarding. Going back to middle school when you are in your 20s is much more pleasant than it was the first time around.
The tutoring that I do involves me attending the entire class and helping any students who have questions about the material, especially when they start to work on some activity. In order to do this, however, the teacher must have a lesson planned or there has to be at least some amount of in class work. I have had work cancelled 3 times already in the 2 weeks I have been doing this because the classes were all testing all day.
I understand that it is ‘testing season’ in Texas – students getting ready for and taking the TAKS test. But I would argue that testing season, for all practical purposes now extends from August to May.
I know that the almighty standardized test has a lot of controversy attached to it (the reality that teachers must teach to the test and have no room for other important lessons). But even just allowing that to serve as a microcosm of the state of education, I feel there is a deeper problem of which standardized tests are only a symptom.
We live in a world that is constantly pushing and being pushed forward. And we live in a world that admires the results of such progress. We want to see students becoming the best insert occupation here they can be as soon as they can be it. Our schools are pressing us to specialize in something earlier and earlier. Degree counselors urge incoming college freshmen to declare a major as soon as they apply. High schools offer classes to give students a head start on that major of choice that they should probably know by junior or senior year anyway. There are even middle school and high school ‘magnet’ programs that offer a specialized education (math and sciences, technology, arts, even beauty and cosmetology). These are not bad programs and often offer a lot to the students who attend. But is it the best? Is there anything missing?
The arts provides a perfect example. I speak lightly on the subject because I have only been peripherally involved in education in the arts through high school and college. But, let’s say you are an aspiring photographer as a middle schooler. Your parents notice your adept skill at taking pictures of yourself in the mirror to post on Facebook (you can even do it without showing a horrendous flash blur), and being artists themselves want to encourage and foster your God given talent. So, they do all they can to get you enrolled in the local arts magnet, and although you were initially on the waiting list, you get in at the last moment. You take some of the normal high school classes, but you also start learning about the technical aspects of photography and you have many photographic projects over the next four years.
Your parents were partly right and your skill has grown, so you apply to universities with renowned photography departments. You declare the major immediately and go even more in depth in technique, etc. of photography. The university also had a general education curriculum that was supposed to broaden your learning horizons, but you were so busy with all your photography classes (giving priority to them, of course) that you had no time to really soak in anything else. Plus, those classes don’t really relate to what you want to do anyway. You graduate as the best technical photographer in your class. If there was a photography test (and there probably were many) you would pass with flying colors. You know all the ins and outs of cameras and film. You may be a little worried about finding a job, because you soon realize all that you know is photography, but rest assured, you find one. Your pictures are beautiful, but something is missing. You have become a great technical photographer at age 22 – you have to some degree perfected your skill, but you never learned how to be a good reader or critical thinker. You take beautiful pictures, but what is the purpose? What statement are you making as an artist?
I got to interact with the filmmaker Fred Wiseman last year around this time and something he said has really stuck with me. Someone asked him what advice he would give to a class of aspiring photographers/filmmakers/professional artists. He said that he would tell them to read. To read and learn to think. He commented on how classes are far too geared at making photographers rather than more complete humans.
Besides, I bet some great artists were not necessarily the best at technically producing their art, but rather really deep thinkers and adept learners. And the issue is much broader - I think Mr. Wiseman’s advice rings true through all fields of study (computer science, chemistry, etc.).
We are more focused on passing a test or of becoming a profession than we are on truly learning. And on top of that we are tempted to think that learning is a temporary thing, something that stops once you graduate. Fortunately, it does not; but I think that such a mindset and focus has hindered many areas of our lives.
I think this also has deep ties to modern Christianity. We are too quick to look straight to the end. The, albeit very important, question ‘Am I saved?’ is asked far more often than ‘What is God telling me, teaching me right now – What can I learn from my walk with Christ today?’. What if we approached our life with Christ more as a learning opportunity than as a test? What if we approach our life in general more as a learning opportunity than as a test?
P.S.
Truly we need training in the skills of our profession. A photographer has to know how to operate a camera effectively. But, the way I see it, that is only half of what it takes to produce quality art. Being adept in a profession is important, but is only part of what it takes to develop a quality life.
P.P.S
A test may give some sense of urgency, but shouldn’t the desire to live in and learn from our Savior have just as much urgency? A test may call on us to do something with what we take in – to prove what we’ve learned, but shouldn’t our experience with and what we learn from Christ compel us to act out of and demonstrate the love He offers us?
…Or maybe I am just bitter about the effect the TAKS has had on my life recently…
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