Each week I look at several publications hoping to come across something to inspire my column. Education stories often repeat themselves with slightly new spins. For instance, money gets taken out and put back into education budgets yearly; the high school where I taught kept track of how often our planetarium was threatened, and it was well over double digits when I left! That’s why President Obama’s statements this week about standardized testing are so refreshing. When last have we heard a president state that a focus on testing makes schools boring? He is not trotting out the same old education rhetoric.
| What kids are reading |
| This weekly column looks at lists of books kids are reading in various categories. Information on the books below came from Amazon.com’s list of poetry best-sellers for children. They are listed in order of popularity. |
| Poetry Children Will Love |
| 1. Poetry for Young People: Maya Angelou by Edwin Graves Wilson and Jerome Lagarrigue (Ages 9-12) |
| 2. The Random House Book of Poetry for Children by Jack Prelutsky and Arnold Lobel (Ages 9-12) |
| 3. If You’re Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand: Poems About School by Kalli Dakos and G. Brian Karas (Ages 4-8) |
| 4. Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost by Gary Schmidt and Henri Sorensen (Ages 9-12) |
| 5. Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out by Ralph Fletcher (Ages 9-12) |
| 6. Poetry Speaks to Children by Elise Paschen, Dominique Raccah, Wendy Rasmussen, and Judy Love (Ages 4-8) |
| 7. The 20th Century Children’s Poetry Treasure by Jack Prelutsky and Meilo So (Ages 9-12) |
| 8. Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry by Jane Yolen, Andrew Peters, and Polly Dunbar (Ages 4-8) |
In Virginia high schools, the focus all spring is on the Standards of Learning tests. Schedules are turned upside down so that tests can be administered in the morning, when students — theoretically — are more awake. The weeks leading up to each test are spent practicing dry runs and seeking special help for students in danger of doing poorly. Once the SOLs in English stopped testing knowledge of poetry, English teachers cut back on the teaching of poems. (Sorry, Keats and Wordsworth, we don’t need you anymore.)
This scenario plays out during testing months in every state. Students and teachers are resigned to “boring,” but we never expected a president to say it out loud. However, it’s not enough to pay lip service to the stultifying nature of testing. What are the alternatives? Clearly tests are part of the school experience and not going away. But when they take on gargantuan proportions, as they have with the No Child Left Behind Act, they begin to take the place of the real business of education: thinking.
There are a few tests that allow schools to spend time writing, thinking and problem solving with their students. The English Advanced Placement tests do just that, and I have long been a proponent of “teaching to the test” when it measures how well students write, how well they understand the nuances of language, and helps them see that the power of words transcends a literal rendition of what is said. Every day we look at politicians’ words and deconstruct them to gauge what they mean beyond what they merely say. That’s a useful skill for every citizen!
Obama’s words, therefore, may be significant beyond their literal meaning. Do they indicate he understands that a few measures of a teacher or a school are inadequate to give us a true idea of their worth? He claims he would like a new education act to include other measures — including student attendance.
Do his words imply he will push for tests that do not stop at facts and skills that can be memorized but will require students to solve problems and use their critical faculties? Will the new act also cut down on the number of tests administered?
We can only hope so. Let’s support a bipartisan effort to take the boring out of school as tests loom large this spring. Perhaps by next spring, students will be preparing for a less rote round of testing — one of many ways to see into a school. Perhaps we could even return poetry to all Virginia English classrooms and welcome back Keats and Wordsworth!
Erica Jacobs, whose column appears Wednesday, teaches at George Mason University. Email her at [email protected].
