Teaching to the Test Gets an ‘F

In the article “Teaching to the Test Gets an ‘F’” by Steven Slon, Slon, discusses the issue of creativity in schools and how student creativity and futures are in jeopardy. Slon talks about how he, himself, has witnessed the destruction of creativity firsthand with his own son. Slon also brings up a conversation he had with Sir Ken Robinson about the current status of American education such as needs, wants, and expectations of the adult world and how they have changed from a routine world to a more complicated and complex place. The article brings up the issue of standardized testing, which has only brought harm to the education of the nations youth and has put tremendous amounts of pressure on school districts. The hard working efforts of the government, school districts, and teachers to stimulate a well educated nation has only created another routine outdated education system, and a loss of all passion for school when a more engaed and creative curriculum is needed for the youth of the nation.

When we imagine a six year old we think of a small child with an extensively creative and imaginative mind were we would normally expect a first grader to experience fun and unique ways to learn new material such as penmanship, math, and grammar skills. Slon when his son was in the first grade however, had experienced a darker side of the education system, which has become an increasingly common situation. The first grade teacher was using very routine teaching tactics and the students did the same practices everyday in the teachers attempt to liberate creativity from the children’s minds to prepare them for a more adult like world. Robinson explains that such routine practices “…made economic sense to teach people to do routi...

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...re of a focus then the needs of the students would be easily met and there would be no need for a test to see if education is successful. The best places in the world for education, such as Finland for example, don’t use a standardized test and invest highly into teachers and provide them the best resources for education (49). The education system can be fixed to provide the best teachers to create the best students for the increasingly complex world were the more intellectual people become the most successful. Though politicians, teachers, and school districts have created a very sluggish education system. It all can be fixed though providing teachers the necessary tools and resources to create a better education environment because if we teach teachers how to teach with a creative approach, we shouldn’t have to worry about the after of the future generation.