Some school districts are canceling recess because students haven't made the "benchmarks" set for the battery of standardized tests they have to take every year.
What a swell idea!
Additional test prep and drilling will certainly make them better test takers.
Maybe.
Or maybe not.
Sometimes taking a break to move around, socialize, breathe, or just run with joy to not be doing test prep goes a long way toward helping students to focus later on test prep and drills.
But in the current climate, I'm sure all the ed deform editorial boards and politicians will applaud this move to cancel recess and replace it with test prep and drills.
Perhaps they will even call for the canceling of evenings and weekends as well.
There can never be too much test prep for these people.
Unless their own children attend a school in that district, of course.
You can be sure President Accountability would hit the roof if this happened at Sasha's school.
As the forty-hour week disappears, and adults are expected to work longer for less pay, so too must the kids be conditioned for the endless workday and week that awaits them (or at least those fortunate enough to have employment).
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, did you log into ARIS yet today? They are monitoring it, you know.
I think that is the plan with the hours/days/years of work. More, more, more...
ReplyDeleteAs for monitoring ARIS, I have logged in once or twice. The thing makes my head hurt. When you say they are monitoring it, do you mean the DOE or the school administration or both?
What an Orwellian nightmare we now live in.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/22/912169/-The-Department-of-Faith-Based-Education-Initiatives
ReplyDeleteMaybe if there is a sound proven Ed initiative, we should make it sound as if it has not been proven. So President Accountability will adopt it after his Ed secretary Bill Gates blesses it.Since both of them disdain scientifically proven strategies.