Something has occurred to me

     In education we spent enormous amounts of time testing, assessing and progress monitoring students, and then  more time entering, graphing and evaluating the data collected.  So much time, in fact, that we have significantly less time to spend teaching, and planning for excellent teaching.  Sooner or later the pendulum will surely swing a bit, and we'll begin to see the ridiculous side of this.

 But now for the analogy that popped into my head the other day:
 
     In the 1950's, science was revered as the path to progress, enlightenment and success.  As a result, it became more common for women to bottle feed their babies, instead of relying on  the age old tradition of breast feeding.  This shift was a reflection of the new found faith in science, which manufactured formula was a product of.
     Eventually, we began to see (via science!) that the original way of feeding our babies actually was the very best way.  So did we outlaw formula?  Stop manufacturing it?  No, of course not.  It wasn't in itself a bad thing, just not the very best thing.  And in some circumstances, it actually was the best thing, and a very wonderful thing, if breastfeeding wasn't possible.  Baby formula is a great innovation to support infant nutrition, but its not the be all end all it was once considered to be.
     Okay.  Now on to data--one of my least favorite words, due to massive over use.  It's not a bad thing, at all.  Nor are testing and progress monitoring.  But right now we are worshipping at the altar of data in education, and acting as though it is the answer to everything.  The trouble is, it isn't.  The vast majority of the time it tells us exactly what we already knew--this child is struggling, this child is moving right along.  Should we throw out testing and data collection? YES!!  No, just kidding.  Let's just treat them more  like formula is used now--a useful tool, a piece of the puzzle, but not the primary focus of our time and effort with students.

There--I feel better.



"Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire".  --William Butler Yeats