Posted in Teachers Corner

My friend gottsegnet posted about a boy here in Washington who was reprimanded and pretty much emotionally abused by his school for not answering a question on the WASL because he thought it would mean calling his principal a witch.

That set me off. Here I'm quoting the reply I left her. Enjoy.

"You have to understand -- my dad and my MIL are music teachers, my mom is a secretary (now a sub, but still the most coveted one in the district and at the college level locally), my FIL is a maintenance/electrical/pool specialist, and one of my sisters is a biology teacher. WE ALL HATE THE WASL!!!!

"As background, my mom was on the committee for our local school district to take the state guidelines and apply them to our local EALRs (scope and sequence, really). At the time, she was explaining to me why these things were so horrible, but I didn't understand til I was researching what I thought I needed to teach Danika.

"Wow! Every single subject, from math to English to art to PE, includes as a goal "to ensure that the student is ready to be a productive member of the workforce." I'm not kidding! I happen to be one of the ones who believed the school-to-work/certificate-of-mastery thing was coming in the first place, but to see it on paper was creepy.

"So, going from that to this ridiculous test was not surprising. Who cares if they know basic math; now they are being pushed to be good workers. This thing about the boy not wanting to answer angers them because he's not doing what they want him to; who cares that his attitude was right or that he may have had a problem writing (not him in this case, but others) -- they only care that their students will be "found worthy" of the work certificates, and thus the school will get more funding and a higher rating. Ooooh! I get so mad!

"Even the music, art and PE courses are no longer exempt. Now the teachers in these fields have to test the students for their ability in each of these areas, but by subjective state standards. In music, the students who play instruments are being required to "show emotion that is appropriate to the piece being performed;" at the primary and secondary levels, very few students have this kind of understanding of the music, much less that kind of connection to the meaning and subtlety behind the piece. And who determines what level of emotion is appropriate?

"This is all just ridiculous! Thank God the homeschoolers aren't required to take this stupid test. Okay, off the soapbox."

Have any of you had any contact with this awful thing? Leave me a comment.