Recently, one of the writer's for our local paper decided to compare football to education, or, more so, standardized testing. His statement was that those who are opposed to standardized testing should not be attending football games due to the fact that the players and coaches are being "tested" and "graded" on the field every Friday night. This was my letter to the editor in reply:
Football players choose to play football. As do baseball players, soccer players, basketball players, you get my drift. Students in classrooms are forced to participate in standardized testing. They do not choose to do so. They are required to do so. Regardless of their capabilities to do so.
Coaches, whom he compared to teachers, choose to be on that sideline, either due to their love of the game, or their hunger for glory. Most educators choose teaching because they want to make a difference in the lives of their students. To better our society, to help our youth become successful young men and women, to prepare them for the real world. They do not do so for the glory, they do not expect fame, they do not care for the spotlight, nor do they ever receive such. Like coaches, they work with what they are given, a coach may have to work around a slow runner or someone with slippery hands, however a teacher much work around a learning disability, a testing disability, a mental disability, or a behavioral disability. If half of the coaches team are strong enough to carry the rest, he/she has the opportunity to pull out a winning season and receive his/her praise, however, if half of a classroom does poorly on a standardized test, the teacher is thought to not be doing his/her job and is at risk of losing his/her position. Would a coach have a handicapped child, mentally or physically, starting on his/her ball team? Or a child who can play the game, but just not so well? If so, would that child be expected to accomplish the same goals as the rest of the players? Would that coach be held responsible for that child's success if he or she could not do so? How about if a player had the potential to succeed but needed extra time and attention to reach that goal? Would a coach be expected to take on that responsibility? These are situations our teachers are faced with each and every day. They are not allowed to simply bench a child or not "play" them (test them) because they are not as "good" as the others, and they are also not supposed to focus on the needs of the individual student's to try to make them stronger academically. They are to teach to the test, to the middle, what they are given by the state. All students learn in different ways, they all comprehend differently, express themselves differently, and should be given the opportunity to have a educator, and a test system, that is allowed to help them in the style that best guarantees their success.
Standardized testing, teaching towards standardized testing, takes away the opportunity for the teachers to give students the individual attention, and education, that they need in order to achieve their goals. A coach is not normally going to focus on one player, spend his/her time one on one with that player, help mold that player and continue to find ways to make that player successful, not when he/she has a whole team, many with talent, to work with instead. And, in sports, that is how it should be. Sports, are about winning, it is competition, it is a game. The classroom is not a game. The classroom should not be about winning or losing, or competition, it should be about teaching and learning..
So, I suppose if you are speaking of statistics and expectations, yes, you could possibly compare football to the classroom. Both are expected to succeed, both are expected to be the best, both are expected to shine. However, what is being forgotten, is that for some students, success may not come as easily as with others, and, unlike in football, they are not allowed to simply sit out or not participate. And, it is normally not because they do not WANT to do well, it is because they simply need to go about it a different way than the standard. I fully believe that educators, like coaches, should be held accountable for their success. I simply do not agree that their success can be determined by a state test score without looking at the underlying classroom and student conditions for which they are responsible for coping with on a daily basis, nor, that anyone who has not stood in front of a classroom and had to go through this process, can understand the obstacles that our educators are faced with each and every day. There needs to be system in place, I agree, however it should be system that both allows the student and the teacher to reach their full potential, as individuals, and not simply as a statistic.
Now, as for sports, as for football, it's all about statistics, as it should be, because, again, it is a sport, a game, and, any coach will tell you, they want the best of the best on that field when that whistle blows, and, they will choose the best of the best to help them gain the highest possible score. Educators, do not have, and should not have, that option. If so, they would only test the highest learners for each class, grade, and school, and the rest, like in most sports, would not even be a factor. However, that is not what the classroom should be about, it's not about the best of the best, it's about teaching EACH student and helping them ALL to find success, even if it means straying from the standardized test plans to do so.
So, maybe I see things a bit differently than some others, Lord knows it's not the first time, but, in my world, receiving a education should not be about how high you scored on a test, it should be about what you learned while you were in school and how you are taught to apply that to your adult life. And, goodness knows, as much as I love the game and support the players, it's not always all about football.
