Parents: What do you do when faced w/ aggressive assessment calendars by public schools?

I think that is a question many of us are asking in Kingsport lately. What do you do when your local school system exchanges developmentally appropriate, experiential instruction for canned instruction which is almost entirely founded in test prep and critical thinking is jettisoned? What do you do when you can’t afford private schools and you are not in a position to move in order to have other options?

Tough questions. In some instances(depending on the school) students are trapped for seven hours a day in these stale learning environments. The problem when a system goes overboard with data driven decisions is that everything is affected. All resources are directed to getting good scores instead of molding students into people who will contribute to society in meaningful ways. In short data driven systems lose sight of the big picture. Some adults want a “data trophy” at the expense of the futures of students in their schools. It is a dreadful trap, and here in Kingsport, too many have fallen hook, line, and sinker for the deception in some circles.

So what do we do as parents? We are not helpless and do have some control over the matter. BUT, it is vitally important that we use non-schooling hours to provide enriching experiences for our own kids. For now, the best thing we can do is to provide experiences for our child(outside of the classroom) which will help them grow into productive young men and women. Use some common sense. If you have the means, then start making choices which will grow their minds instead of suppressing learning.

Knowing how to choose between A, B, C, D on a standardized assessment is about 0.000001% of what our kids need to survive and thrive in this world. As soon as they graduate from high school, those test prep skills rarely matter.

Provide for them rich experiences which teach them to adapt to a world which is rapidly changing. Allow for them to experience and be immersed into different cultures. Teach them how to manage information. Allow for them to soar above the meaningless assessments an data mining. Allow them to see for themselves a world which doesn’t see them as a number.

Once you make the decision to give your kids experiences, the option are indeed limitless. Get them in church. Teach them a musical instrument, and allow for them to participate in a musical ensemble. Take them to museums where they can see works by Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, van Gough, and more. Let them stick their feet in the oceans and seas of other places here or in another country. Go eat street food in in an open air market. Take them to places in nature which are still wild.

As parents, you gotta do what public schools won’t. Save up some money, cut your expenses, and invest in experiences for your kids. If you don’t have the money to travel far, there are plenty of museums, theaters, and musical opportunities locally. We are close to several national parks which are within a day’s drive.

I can promise you this….your kids are going to learn so much more(from experiences) when compared sitting in a data-driven classroom, AND more importantly, they will be able to use that information(gained from those experiences) for the rest of their lives.

ProTip: Some things which seem difficult while traveling are actually great learning experienes. Learning how to ride a subway or ferry in a country which doesn’t speak your language? Great learning. Having to figure-out how to order food in another language? Great learning. Shopping a grocery store where the products, language and currency are not familiar? Great learning. Catching their own food from a creek, river, or bay? Great learning. Your kids will learn more in a week from these types of experiences than they ever will in a lifetime while seated in a classroom which programs them to take a test.

I do believe parents are finally beginning to look for alternatives to the decaying ideologies of standardized assessments. Here is a link to a Wall Street Journal article. Take some time and think about this quote from the article…

“We recognize that education is likely broken the way it is and there’s going to be entrepreneurs that try to fix it,” he(Johnson) says. “You want someone to be able to think on their feet and navigate the world, not necessarily a recitation of facts in a particular discipline.”

What does that mean? Traditional public school instruction which was designed to train and produce workers for American factories is no longer efficient. In fact, smart people with money are already making decisions to exit that archaic process. Students are going to need to be adaptable in the workplace and have extensive abilities to operate creatively in marketplaces.

WSJ Article: High-Earner Families Are Ditching Traditional Schools for Life Skills and AI

This blog is dedicated to looking ahead, promoting innovation, and working to avoid the stalemate of the status quo. Don’t “settle” when it comes to what your own children need. You get one shot at shaping them as individuals.

Licensed thumbnail credit: Mihaela Rosu