Why Can't My Fourth Graders Think?

The following is the first post from a blog I started a few years ago. Sadly, not much has changed in the intervening years. What has changed has not been to the benefit of students. We don’t have a “scripted curriculum” anymore but we do have a heavy emphasis on inflexible standards and standardized testing. When did we forget that we have taken on the weighty responsibility of teaching other people’s young children? These are children, young minds eager…at first…to learn. These are not inanimate objects to be molded into a certain configuration in a factory. As the name of my blog states- It’s time to “free the students”.

Originally posted March 2, 2013
A few days ago I was talking with my colleague about our shared students. "Why can't they read and understand what they are reading? Why can't they effectively put their thoughts into writing? Why can't they think through math problems?" These were the questions we were asking one another.

These fourth graders are products of the data-driven, standardized teaching and testing phase in public education that has been in place for several years now. Their entire school career has been characterized by scripted curriculum ("teaching to fidelity") and seemingly endless testing.

Their early childhood years were spent with word cards, flash cards, leveled readers, memorization, benchmark tests, timed tests, and bubble-in multiple choice tests. An inordinate amount of their teachers' time was spent on scoring tests, completing item analyses, and analyzing the data. (Let me insert a note here that the teachers are not to blame. Many of the teachers at my school work very hard to try to squeeze into their day opportunities for real learning, but are confined by mandated curriculum.)

Wonder what my fourth graders would be like if their early childhood years had been spent hearing quality literature read daily, learning poems and songs, using their own ideas to experiment with writing, exploring and investigating patterns and numbers through math games, pattern blocks and other such materials? These are things that are now considered fluff and put aside in favor of a prepackaged scripted reading or math program!

Which provides a richer opportunity for thinking - a week of worksheets and flashcards for kindergartners teaching them to identify a circle - or daily opportunities for kindergartners to create designs using a variety of shapes and materials?

Which provides a richer opportunity for thinking - first graders timing each other on fluency passages - or first graders learning to self-select books, reading and writing about them with their peers?

Which provides a richer opportunity for thinking - multiple choice reading tests every week beginning in kindergarten - or student projects based on cross-curricular units of study?

So...maybe the problem is not that my fourth graders can't think, maybe they have never had the opportunity!

What can I do about it? It is very easy to tell myself that me...one insignificant teacher among thousands in my state alone...can't really do anything. But if all of the "one insignificant" teachers out there begin to speak up about this systemic problem with our system, maybe we can begin to find ways to change it. 

It's time to free the students!