This was very interesting and definitely got my brain ticking. I feel that schooling is changing and will change as we advance in our society. Is the change always for the best, yes and no. The biggest issue I have with education at the present time is SOL's. I firmly believe this is the biggest reason for children not being able to keep or explore there creativity. SOL's create such a dictatorship when it comes to curriculum and what must be taught and accomplished by the end of the year. Then at the end of the year the children are suppose to take this test to prove they learned something. I don't know about the rest of you but I am a horrible test taker. So the children are required to take this test and the results show how well that child learned the material from the entire year. They are then judged by the results of this one test.
When I was in high school they just started this new plan where if you didn't pass your SOL you had to take special remedial classes, so now you are being singled out and then they would even go as far as not letting you continue on to the next grade. In Mr. Robinson's presentation he stated that we don't grow into creativity we grow out of it or educated out of it." My sister is 12 years old and all ready her concern in school is am I going to pass my SOL's. They pressure you and beat it into your head what they want you to know. There is no option or room with the way schooling is going to even begin to want to be creative. You have to outsource to find ways to be creative which means extra ciricular actvites with the school, if available or elsewhere.
So, do I think schools kill creativity absolutely. This does need to change and I feel in order to do so it will take much effort from the entire chain of command. We need more options. If SOL's are here to stay then the school really needs to make an effort at finding alternative routes of teaching that can still follow the guidelines of the SOL material. They need to offer more extra curricular activities all throughout education and let the children be more involved in what they are learning.
About Me
- Bryana
- My name is Bryana and I am a student. I am going to school to become an RN.
5 comments:
I absolutely agree with you. My child is also worried about the SOL’s and not passing them. It’s bad enough she is worried about passing her courses and now the test, just creates more pressure for these children.
They drum it into their heads what they need to know to pass these tests. Yet there isn’t any free time to spend on expanding their horizons in fields such as creativity and other subjects.
I agree with you about the SOL's. There is so much pressure being placed on the kids today to get the best scores they can. But do those scores really represent what one has achieved or learned, no. A lot of people don't test well under pressure.
You make a great point about SOL's but this goes back to the days of were the standardized tests fair to kids (inner-city) that did not experience "normal" living conditions. Even though schools are riddle with SOL testing creative arts are alotted time.
Bryana, suprisingly I think your the first person to bring up SOL's in their discussion of Sir Ken's talk. I agree with the points you made concerning SOL's and I too am against standardized testing for many reasons. I don't think it's the concept though, I just think it's the current implementation. Maybe we can create standardized tests that are really fair to all students, I really don't know.
I totally agree. I have said for the past couple years that the SOLs are doing more damage than good. I talked with one of my son's 5th grade teachers last year who told me that teaching to the SOLs was hindering her ability to teach. I belive that if we keep our children on such a narrow path with these SOLs they are going to pay for it later and the world will suffer too with the next generation of kids who lack imagination and creativity.
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