Education Rant

A child cried in one of my lessons today as their test score was much lower than their previous one. I've since had three conversations with them, and others, reassuring that it won't affect their semester grade too much. They are eleven years old and have already learned to treat themselves as numbers and levels. This is not, I believe, the fault of teachers and parents, they are just following the system. 

But pupils are not letters, they are not grades, they are not percentages. They are people. 

In the UK, the big thing with tracking data at the moment is called 'value added'. How much value have we added to that child? Value. Not academic knowledge, which is all we really measure. But it is termed value, the number of sub levels that 'data set' has increased. 

The system doesn't care if they can work as a team, have empathy, are a global citizen, are kind to animals, can look at a problem in a novel way, care about the environment, are good to their mum or are just damn great at making cake. 

Schools are not about education, they are exam factories. I am daily frustrated by not being able to talk much about the real issues in science that will affect these young people in the future. I can't see another pupil label themselves as a failure because they can't rearrange an equation in the pressure of an hour's test. I can't stand another student asking me if the cutting edge science we are discussing will be on the test. I can't give another F to a pupil who is trying their best.

I'm out.