The Creative Tutor, Highlighting A Few Of The Issues Hobbling The Education System.

Children are as diverse as flowers in a garden. Some are mighty oaks, and some are tender orchids. Children have differing needs, just as you can't plant a flower wherever you wish, regardless of full sun or shade requirements, and water as much or as little as desired. Children require a varied approach, even more than plants do. So, if plants don't thrive with a cookie-cutter approach, then neither do children. So, why are schools using a cookie-cutter approach for the foundation of a child's education?

The field of teaching is hemorrhaging many of its professionals. Students are struggling to read at grade level or demonstrate grade-level math skills. Parents are beyond frustrated. Administrators are scrambling to find the magic fix. Why? What has changed?

Truly, it would be easier to list what hasn't changed, and that is this: children still need to gain fundamental life skills, i.e., reading, writing, and math, to be successful regardless of the path they choose. That has not changed. However, the way we go about teaching them these skills has changed immensely. Before we get into that, let me provide you with a bit of background, so you'll know I'm not just a frustrated novice.

When I began my journey as a Kindergarten teacher, twenty-three years ago, school was fun. Kids, their parents, and teachers looked forward to the rhythm of the seasons. The joys and accomplishments that marked every learning mile along the way. Sure, there were always students who made you want to pull your hair out. That kept you up at night with reflection, analysis, and varied strategies trying to reach them. However, with persistence, clear communication of expectations, and consistent consequences, ninety-eight to one hundred percent of them flourished. Literally, we teachers had control. Control of our schedule (other than when they ate lunch, went to recess, and had a special class). Everything else we controlled. We could select exemplary, classic books to read, and we chose what writing connections we wanted the students to engage in. We simply wrote out our lesson plans on a planner that the school provided. We could use any format we wanted as long as the principal understood it, and as long as the time, objective & application activity of each subject to be taught was clear. Writing out lesson plans, choosing great activities to bring deeper understanding to the books we read aloud, and having the opportunity to choose what fabulous books to teach from were a pleasure! We teachers shared lessons, great ideas about upcoming units, & created wonderful lesson plans collaboratively that really worked. We refined them individually for our students, modified, and adjusted as needed, and students truly thrived! Our students were reading & writing well beyond the expected benchmark for the end of Kindergarten. Students had two recesses (morning and afternoon), snack time, and a nap time every day. We utilized nap time for one-to-one interventions, assessments, and working extra with students who were really struggling. Grading consisted of an S for satisfactory, N for needs improvement, and a U for unsatisfactory. Grades were not averaged because, as any early childhood expert knows, one day it just clicks and they get it!! Why would you hold it over their head if they've not reached the cognitive ability of conservation yet? That is, unfortunately, history too.

In the first nine years, I rarely had to retain any students. Usually, if the child didn't make the needed progress and skill development, it was due to one of three reasons: excessive absences; moving in and out of the district, lost time, immature behavior, and or hyperactivity, or clear evidence of significant cognitive disabilities.

Now, to compare and contrast that with the current Kindergarten classroom. The teacher has little to no control over the curriculum, which is canned, meaning it is scripted out verbatim, conveying what the teacher is to say and is to be adhered to with "fidelity." Lesson plans are to be submitted at least a week in advance, digitally, with intricate detail regarding the lesson number and worksheet page numbers. Any and every supplementary worksheets had to be included in the lesson plans, and signed off on prior to printing and being initialed by our literacy coach (who literally had ALL the control at my last school). The CLASS schedule, and I mean ninety-five percent of the schedule, was taken up by this canned curriculum. That tiny five percent remaining fraction of time I just referred to always got swallowed up by dealing with behavioral interruptions, and or dealing with computer issues. So, if I ever snuck in reading a fantastic book (that connected with a topic of study for the week), I felt like a criminal because it wasn't included on the plans. There's honestly no extra time for the wonderfully enriching activities and books anymore. Grades are to be averaged from the first week to the last, and now it is the A, B, C, D, and F grading format, just like all other grades. There's no nap time, and I've been told clearly that it will NEVER come back. No free milk to go with their snack time. Never will Kindergarteners get two recesses again!! They were lucky to get a ten-minute recess at the last school I worked at. During which they had to walk across the campus and take a restroom break, prior to walking out to the playground. By the time my students used the restroom, got a drink, and walked outside, recess was over. We didn't have a bathroom in my classroom. That's another whole issue. Gone are the days of teachers being permitted to truly compose & design lessons, lead meaningful discussions about authors & books, or utilize those rare teachable moments that surface from connections made. How's that the case, you may ask? It's because the canned curriculum mini-stories are so shallow and boring. Sure, students have computers now, but that's another whole giant ball of issues.

Nowadays, it's not uncommon for half the class to have major behavioral issues, contrasted with just two or three in a class twenty years ago. The great majority of students don't know how to positively interact with their peers. Students who engage in hitting, biting, talking back, and throwing things across the room are not uncommon in every Kindergarten classroom, and occur weekly if not daily.

Lastly, too many administrators micromanage everything in the classroom, and if the class isn't on the stated workbook page on the day and time they were supposed to, well, that's cause for disciplinary action. Speaking of which, teachers are pleasers. They strive to succeed. So if given a ridiculous score when evaluated, of which they have no power to alter because it's set in stone, then they're told it really doesn't matter unless you try to get another job at a different school. Thus, it is for these many reasons that the great exodus of teachers is occurring. So many of our wonderful, experienced educators feel shriveled up and dehydrated due to this poor treatment. Furthermore, we are grieved by the way our little Kindergarteners are now treated like any other grade level! This should not be! This is not developmentally appropriate practice! Professionals who know this have been pushed out, have zero voice, opinions ignored, and degrees & years of experience completely disregarded.

How can it change? Now that the Federal Department of Education is being dismantled, I implore parents and retired teachers to run for your local school board. We can't fix the Public Education System overnight, but we must work to rectify & remedy this current debacle. It all starts in Kindergarten, with a firm foundation in reading, writing, and mathematics. If the cornerstone is off, the whole foundation will be too.