the following is an email i received from a student whom i taught several years back...and my rambling responses...enjoy!
your questions: i have a question of opinion, perhaps, rather than methodology..but what do you think of high school english standards? just the regular courses, not honors necessarily. do you think school standards and tests (like the sophmore writing test) are adaqutely preparing students for college? can teachers do more than what's just required, or do you have to really stick to what the school (or state) says you have to teach? i'm investigating the No Child Left Behind Act, and i'm hoping to do a persuasive speech on it. i'm looking for some real insight, especially since my soap box leans toward why kids in college can't seem to write a decent two-page essay. thanks for the time!
my responses: your questions are apt as i am working on my national boards and i am having to revisit language arts adolescent and young adult level standards. you can find a list on the nc dpi site and the more in-depth ones on the nbpts site. however, i think that your questions were a bit more general with regards to english teaching standards. if i am wrong in this assumption, please let me know. i will try not to let this be a complete diatribe, but i am looking at this as a catharsis of sorts. but remember, you've asked some REALLY general and open-ended questions here...the more specific the question, the more helpful the answer in most cases...
at any rate, here are my thoughts: what do i think of high school english standards? by and large, they are poor...across nc and the united states. like the standards across the curriculum, the standards have continued to abate in the past years and decades...even further if you do your homework into the beginning of the 20th century. look up the 8th grade test in the early 1900s...most college graduates today couldn't pass it. add to that the increasing number of administrators who push everything but academics...this is one of the main reasons i left mount pleasant because the administration didn't have the maturity nor the intelligence to support academia. and as a result, high schools pander to spoiled parents and their even more spoiled children and enable them...not realizing they are weakening them for a society...forget university...that will require them to be genuine life-long learners. no, susie, you don't REALLY have to learn how to research and incorporate MLA citations into your paper...that's alright...go back to your nap, or your make-up, or your ipod...and tune out. most administrations will tell you they want high standards, but the problem is that most of them don't know the standards nor really support teachers on enforcing the standards.
next question: do you think school standards and tests (like the sophomore writing test) are adequately preparing students for college?
again, increasingly the students arriving at the high school doors cannot write in complete sentences or in some cases spell their own name. so the learning curve is much greater for more and more. the tests? they were devised and written with the benefit of the students in mind, but they are increasingly becoming antiquated due to shifts in lifestyles and technology. the tests are a means to an end. 9th grade EOC is reading comprehension and identification of basic literary terms. 10th grade has been the writing test (literary analysis has given way to informational writing--cause/effect, term definition, and problem solution) for the past 9 years that i have been teaching and i believe this is its final year...it is being phased out in order to phase in the nc graduation project. check out my website (www.newtonhomestead.com) link to graduation project to learn more about it. it is, like the others, well intentioned i believe, but it has been ill-executed. but there is a learning curve for teachers as well. i do believe, though, despite the tediousness of the research paper, the meetings, the portfolio, the presentation, etc, etc, etc...that this project will better benefit those college-bound students more in the sense that they will be better suited for college writing--even basic comp. stuff like informational, persuasive, research, narrative, etc. and the students will be better at communication skills both in written and verbal form. so nc is getting there test-wise. although i am not sure that the damage, overall, that testing has incurred will ever be remedied. objective testings breeds black and white thinkers and thus, no true thinkers at all...and we wonder why they can't problem solve...
can teachers do more than what's just required, or do you have to really stick to what the school (or state) says you have to teach?
during my first few years teaching, i taught exactly what i was told to teach. since then i have learned that although there are set curricula for every course, you can add or detract from the course to fit the needs of individual students at times. the good teachers go above and beyond the state mandated curriculum (such as ones who answer questions from inquiring college kids whom he has taught in the past:). to be honest, most teachers don't know the standards and teach the best they can...there are so many lateral entry folks nowadays who haven't a clue about methodology and they sometimes cover the standards better using their own style without having taken courses in "how to teach." translation, they develop their own style more quickly. this can be good and bad...most lateral entry whom i have observed have burned out within a year or two at the most. i know the standards and go about teaching them in my own way...getting kids to write and reflect on print and non-print texts daily and developing persuasion and research often without their even being aware of it. but that's just me. every teacher is different with regards to sticking to the state mandates, although most teachers are just as stressed, if not more so, than the students...which leads me to No Child Left Behind...
to be honest, i haven't found the teacher yet who, even if this program was funded, would support it. it is simply an under-funded joke that helps the politicians sleep at night...and perhaps provides fodder for campaign speeches. the whole system needs an overhaul and legislation like NCLB is just delaying the inevitable. the system cannot continue as it is today. but that is another discussion for another day. i hope to have directly, or indirectly answered some of your questions. if my writings page of my website if helpful to you, then help yourself (http://www.newtonhomestead.com/mywritings.html)
take care,
and on your speech, bonne chance.
cheers,
j. newton
