The Junk Food of Education
“The Junk Food of Education.” A topic that no longer applies to us who are long out of the classroom. We may have taken outside tests and may even have had teachers prep us for them. But we sense they did not make much difference. (Except perhaps the SAT’s, a whole different category.)
Kim Marshall asks educators to reflect on the impact of test prep, how it steers students away from “expressing ideas in an authentic voice.”
Those of us (most of my readers), who are not in schools, cannot counter this trend. But we can let the young people who we know understand who they are, what they value, and what they care about is most important in life. And listen to what they have to say.
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Kim Marshall awakens teachers to be cognizant to what’s happening to kids in this test-preparation world. Debilitating is an inadequate word. Given testing’s embedded place in school culture, voiced with proclamations from Washington, overcoming the bureaucracy of America’s test-dominance will be a formidable challenge, perhaps impossible at the moment.
Yet, voices like Marshall’s and this Substack can stir the pot of reform. How, then, will we advocate for education, to challenge this “junk food” spewing out to kids? It will take a strong commitment. If we succeed, students will be grateful and undoubtably be better educated.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward.” (Kierkegaard)
I write to bring ideas and methods from my life as a teacher in the latter half of the 20th century to help teachers and the public to “live forward” in this century. My latest book, Teacher in the Rye: Doing It My Way is available on Amazon. And I welcome comments here on my Blog or by email at frankthoms3@gmail.com.
