Today's recommended reading comes from Anne Geiger, A resident of Arlington Virginia and a self described “recovering school board member”.
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 Messrs. Duncan and Gates- Why are you promoting a factory model for our children?

On the subject of public education, the first words out of politicians' and business leaders' mouths are "America's public schools are failing." They point to the need to raise test scores and graduation rates. They then reliably say that our children must be prepared for the 21st century. In recent speeches, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and our shadow Secretary of Education, Bill Gates, declared that our schools must move from the "factory model" and institute a menu of business reforms that includes compensating teachers more on their students' test scores than their academic credentials or experience and using more on-line and virtual schooling. But there's a grave disconnect in their rhetoric and their ideas.


Computer programs, virtual classrooms, teachers trained to teach students how to pass standardized tests----->Teachers compensated by how many students pass tests----->Students graduate by passing standardized tests----->Students prepared for the 21st century.

Right?

Wrong.

Let's try it again.

Computer programs, virtual classrooms, teachers trained to teach students how to pass standardized tests----->Teachers compensated by how many students pass tests----->Students graduate by passing standardized tests----->Students prepared to take tests.

Students wired to think, "Is this on the test? What is the basic information I need to know to get by?

~What does "factory model" mean?

A factory is a building that employs laborers who process materials to manufacture products.

Using that definition....

~A school is a building in competition that uses technology and minimally trained teachers to process students for manufacturing good test-takers.

~What does "preparing students for the 21st century" mean?

Students who are literate and able to communicate well,

who can think intuitively, creatively, critically, flexibly and collaboratively,

who have working knowledge of literature, history, math, science, physics, geography, civics and the arts, and

who are ready to be engaged, informed citizens.

~So a school should be.....

a building linked to a community that houses well-educated teachers who work creatively and collaboratively to educate students to be literate and able to communicate well,

think intuitively, creatively, critically, flexibly and collaboratively,

have a working knowledge of literature, history, math, science, physics, geography, civics and the arts, and ready to be engaged, informed citizens.

Technology has its important role to play in this dynamic kind of learning, but so do books, rich curriculum, hands-on materials and tools, real-life experiences...

Some questions for Sec. Duncan, Mr. Gates and their alliance of corporate reformers (who are well supported so far by President Obama)....

~If you honestly and genuinely want students to be prepared for the 21st century, why are you promoting a "factory model" of educating our children?

~Why do you not facilitate in our public schools the kind of whole-child, dynamic education provided in the private schools where most of you enroll your own children?

~Why do you think it's OK for other children to be taught by a young college graduate without an education degree and trained to teach in five weeks when you would never accept that for your own children?

~Why do you misuse the examples of top-ranked Finland and Singapore who reject the factory model of education and provide ample safety nets for its citizens' families?

~Why do you stubbornly dismiss the fact that poverty affects learning most profoundly?

~Why do you insist that teachers who teach in urban and rural schools most challenged by poverty should shoulder the entire burden of reversing the conditions of poverty?

~Why do you cling to the idea that a four-year graduation rate should be the rigid (shall I say, "factory model") time frame for all students, especially those who are learning English, live in poverty, have learning exceptionalities or experience life-altering circumstances?

~Why do you promote the myth to Americans and the world that our schools are failing when that is not true?

~Why do you tell Americans that there are simple formulas for educating children and simple ways to measure the effectiveness of teachers when neither are true?

The child must know that he (or she) is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world, there will not be another child like him (or her).

~ Pablo Casals

Despite their rhetoric that their reforms are "putting kids first," these corporate reformers are defining kids more as data points than unique, complex human beings. And you know why? Because education based primarily on test score data is cheaper and more replicable. Sounds more like a factory model than 21st century thinking, doesn't it?