Another false assumption of the current movement in mass education is the basis for standards. It sounds so good to assure parents and tax payers that all schools know and teach the knowledge that all children need at each grade. But, the lie is right there on the surface. There is no magic list of what all children should know at any age!
For example: at one time, it seemed to make sense to teach the social sciences according to the theory of ‘expanding horizons.’ The youngest children learn about self and families, followed by neighborhoods then their own city and state, next comes one’s own country and finally hemisphere or world. This was based on the assumption that children had a concrete world of local experience which would make sense to them followed by a growing ability to understand similarities and differences as broader places and social differences were studied. That child no longer exists in the global information age. Buckminster Fuller used to love to point out that the world where the mama and children only knew the world of home until daddy came home and shared the news disappeared the day daddy came home and the children by the radio excitedly told him, “Daddy, Daddy, Lindbergh landed in Paris!” Today’s child has ready access and constant exposure to information from and about the whole world. Who possesses the magic list that says which place and topic she must know at what age? Nobody.
To tell the child that is excited about Africa or Japan, whales or polar bears, large numbers, squares or geometric shapes that some all knowing committee of adults declared the topic off limits because it is not on this year’s test is obscene as well as absurd. But, unless the child pursues education outside of the school environment, that is exactly how the current standards movement works. Teachers are repeatedly told by trainers and evaluators that anything that will not appear on this year’s test is a waste of time and not to be covered. So children get only what the teachers are required to teach. Never mind if you are lucky enough to have a teacher or classmate who just got back or moved to your town from a far off land with stories and pictures. Never mind if you saw a special on television or the Internet that excited you to the core of your being about some topic. Never mind if only what you struggle with is on the school list and what you love and excel at is not. Everything has been decided for you by a political process far from the local classroom, parents or voters. The whole thing is deadening to natural enthusiasm for knowledge. The universe of possibilities is traded for a myopic list.
And we have agreed to look only at the nasty emporer, and never turn our eyes to anything of beauty elsewhere, because we have bought the lie that there is a magic list of what children should learn and when. The entire concept is contrary to the nature of children and how they (or we) learn. No wonder Gatto’s fans point to us and say what you do is schooling, not education.
peace