A Mini-Rant in May: Education's Sweet Irony

The Merriam Webster Dictionary offers three definitions for the oft-misused word "irony".  The third definition reads:

" incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result"

Boom.  American education in a nutshell.

I was inspired to look up the word "ironic" after a dear friend, and incredibly talented and dedicated fellow teacher underwent the process of taking a state-required teaching test to prove that she is worthy of being a teacher.

This test involved the following hurdles:

1. The test was 7 hours long.
2. A retinal scan was required to enter the test.
3. To go to the bathroom test takers had to have their right hands scanned.
4. The test was entirely computerized, composed of 4 long essays and 200 critical thinking questions.
5. The testing site could only accommodate 14 test-takers at a time.

How ironic.

In order to become a teacher and stay a teacher, one must undergo the same grueling, dehumanizing, disconnected testing process that all good teachers try so hard to counterbalance when teaching.

Good teachers try to humanize; tests such as these dehumanize.

Good teachers strive to build critical thinking skills, empathy, a global perspective and broad knowledge to prepare their students for life.  Tests are a flat, emotionless peek at what a student knows at that discrete moment about a specific selection of subjects.

Good teachers know that real learning is complex, full of frustrations and self-doubt as well as joy and growing confidence.   For the majority of people, tests are all about frustration and self-doubt.

Good teachers know that achievement is more about the process of learning than the product.  Tests are entirely product-driven, reducing the complexities of learning into a number.

How ironic.

Testing companies, like any company, are profit-driven.

Their job is to make money.

They make money through testing fees, selling study materials, offering test-prep classes and tutoring.

They make money by convincing us that when all of our experiences, knowledge and work have been reduced down to a single number, we are somehow worth more.

This is a horrid reduction of everything education can and should be.
And it is a huge lie.

My dear friend knows this.
I know this.
We all know this.

How ironic it is then that this lie still holds so much power over us all.