Angela and I will be first year teachers in the fall of ’09. We understand that Georgia is becoming more of a standard based state. We believe standards are important to some extent, but should we be accountable to teach every standard? There are many concepts outside of standards such as health, recess, manners, etc. that are being ignored because of the high demand of meeting the standards. We understand that we cannot change the state regulations, so how are some way that we can integrate manners, health, etc. in everyday teaching?
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I agree that standards are important. At the same time, I think it is critical to point out that standard-based assessments aren’t always the best ways to judge what our students do and do not know. The recent CRCT test results illustrate this point. Statewide, over half of all 6th and 7th grade students failed the social studies portion of this year’s test. They didn’t fail because of a lack of knowledge. Rather, they failed because the test was not an accurate reflection of the concepts these students were taught. The aim of many middle school teachers is not to have their students memorize specific facts or names, but to understand general concepts and to learn how to use critical thinking skills that will help them later on in high school and college. Is it really that critical for our 6th graders to know who Andrew Lloyd Webber was (and yes, that was one of the CRCT test questions), or is it more important for students to understand the general workings of our government? Standards are important, but they need to be realistic and practical.
I agree with you guys that this is being done in our schools today. The things you talk about being left out are part of the hidden curriculum that is hard to incorporate when worrying about the content standards. The best way I’ve seen to incorporate things like manners is to be ever mindful of opportunities to teach these concepts in the hallways and in the lunchroom. As far as health matters, shouldn’t that be in the standards for health and physical education teachers?