Educating the Nation
Freeing Our Lesson Plan T
ears fell gently from the wise, old eyes of my teacher as he taught us a lesson on immigration in our AP US History (APUSH) class. He had prepared a PowerPoint presentation with images of his family members who had immigrated to the United States from Europe a century or so ago. The pictures captured the sullen struggles and harsh tragedies his loved ones had endured. My teacher’s connection to the lesson captivated me. His willingness to be vulnerable and reveal to us this connection humbled me. It was yet another reminder for me of how blessed I was to be attending a school where the passions of my teachers for their subjects were palpable day in and day out. Yet, even at my high school, where the school culture allowed for the prioritization of the natural curiosities and interests of teachers and students alike, standardized testing sometimes limited the pursuit of these interests. The same history teacher who taught his students through the personal stories of his family, also made his students memorize around 60 history terms and three (essentially
opportunities our teacher also gave us to think critically about different aspects of American history. We should ask ourselves what other meaningful lessons—like the one on immigration—would our teacher have given us if he had not felt compelled to make sure we performed well on the AP test? Across America, teachers, like my AP US History teacher, face considerable criticism for supposedly being ineffective. Although it is understandable that people have come to this conclusion (according to the US Department of Education, educational outcomes have seen little to no progress since A Nation at Risk was released), perhaps the nation is misplacing the fault by blaming our teachers. It does not seem fair to condemn teachers for failing to prepare students when our reliance on standardization has robbed them of the ability to choose what and how to teach. My history teacher is fortunate because he works in a private school, where he has significantly more freedom to design his own curriculum. On the other hand, teachers at public schools are typically given set curricula from their school districts based on the state standards. Until we stop treating our teachers like robots programed only to teach a defined set of material in a minimal number of ways, we cannot blame them for the ways in which American education is failing students. It is time that we return to our teachers the control of the classroom. My teacher was able to manipulate the flawed system of standardization. It is true that he, like so many other teachers, hammered in those details and made his students write hundreds of
Photos Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
pre-written) essays for his unit tests. He modeled his term definitions and test questions after those found on the AP US History test. Looking back I wonder if he did this out of obligation to a system that demands we know facts and rarely measures if we understand them. Maybe he “taught to the test” because he knew performing well on the AP test was important to us, our parents, our school, our potential colleges and America in general. Many students felt they weren’t really learning anything in this class because of the emphasis on memorization. However, I think they allowed this less agreeable aspect of the class to overshadow the
notecards to drill seemingly disconnected facts into their heads. But he balanced this rote memorization as best he could by meticulously carving time out of our class curriculum to provide us with raw glimpses into the blemished beauty of our country’s history. For his effort, I consider him one of the most extraordinary teachers I’ve ever had. How much more remarkable could he be if we freed his lesson plans from the devastating constraints of standardized testing?
PhotoCourtesy Courtesy of Wikimedia Photo of Wikimedia Commons Commons
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Journal for Public Interest