Non-Cookie Cutter Kids in a Cookie Cutter World: What Do Teachers Really Do?

I've been thinking about my teaching career. I have looked back even further to when I was a student in public education. It seems that children of today are a different breed than the children in my school days. Really? Probably not! What has changed? What makes teaching so much more challenging today than 20, 30, 40 years ago?

In conversations I've had with other educators, the consensus is that teachers are now much more police officers, guidance counselors, and technology coaches. As distracted as children can be, the ability to hold a child's attention and interest is getting harder and harder to maintain.

I attended public school from K-12th grade in a small rural community in Ohio. The majority of children during that time period came from a nuclear family comprised of their original set of parents. Most families still attended church activities together through the week and ate dinner every night around the table. Education was valued. Parents encouraged children to have responsibility and manners that represented their family and community wherever they might go.

I realized during a conversation with other educators that the difficulty of teaching really isn't the children, it is the standardized school year. Most of my students do not do well sitting in a confined classroom. My teaching methodology is to facilitate as many small group collaborations and small group discovery activities. However, when you are on a timetable that is regulated by pre-scheduled standardized tests at the end of Christmas Term or Spring Term, there is an unspoken push to move on to the next topic in an effort to cover the allotted material before the tests. This moving on often comes at the expense of about one-third of the students still demonstrating below average competency in a particular concept.

I see this as a possible continued deficit in the education system as we move forward after the COVID-19 self-isolation. In an effort to educate students virtually, there may be a need to standardize the content and delivery in an effort to maximize teacher resources to more efficiently deliver content remotely. There will need to be a conscious effort to provide tutoring and enrichment activities to students so that students are still afforded an individual learning plan versus a one-size-fits-all education.

I believe the cycling method of teaching is a valuable style that could alleviate the stress of teaching to a test. I found this cycling method in several schools I researched in "Characteristics of Contemporary U.S. Middle Schools." In some of those schools, a teacher starts with the children in Kindergarten and spirals up the education ladder with these children until they reach 6th, 7th, or even 8th grade. Teachers know the end from the beginning of what children need to know by the time they exit their care and move on to another teacher at a higher level. These schools do have benchmark requirements and standards that need to be met at designated intervals. Many of these students transfer into highly prestigious high schools and colleges. Students learn through art, play, community service and real-life scenarios. These students learn the 21st Century skills of interaction with others and the ability to process information versus regurgitating facts to later be forgotten.

Join the conversation and comment on your views of teaching today in a "high-stakes virtual" environment and the difficulty that it creates for teachers, parents, and students.

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