The pandemic and social media on phones are not the reason long form content is dying, though if one of those is to bear responsibility it would be social media. But it’s the death of individual passion in the teaching professions at the lower grade levels that is the direct result of common core that has a major, ongoing role in the disengagement of students from school.
It’s remarkable to sit and work with my teenagers on their homework these days. Almost all of their assignments are readily referenced online in common flash cards and study guides, and so much of the homework is droll repetition. But what strikes me is that there is no relief like there was in my time. There is no “now read chapters 3-7 of this book” in any of her homework. The passages, when there is reading, is assigned by packet and accompanied by some packaged lesson that requires you to fill in the blanks on the point of the reading, it’s key characters, and it’s learned themes and elements. It is perfect educational material put together by panels of experts and crafted to achieve the highest standardized level of understanding for most students.
And it’s incredibly, sincerely uninspiring and frequently boring.
I often spend time with my kids talking to them about subjects like ancient history, philosophy, writing, poetry, math and science in ways that are stimulating and it’s a constant refrain, “I wish school were this interesting.” We pick a theme a few times a week for dinner and have discussions with friends and family on that subject. Recently this has included subjects like demographics, geology, quantum mechanics, deep space research, sustainable energy, etc. Anyone can pick the subject.
School fails to be interesting, and we are in one of the better schools in our area. The kids are bored to tears and the format of school is incredibly unpleasant for kids that actually want to learn. This school won’t even let the kids take college classes and apply them, despite being less than five minutes from a UC and 20 minutes from a junior college. They can’t give me a good explanation as to why: they just say it’s against their policy.
So, we do our best to keep kids interested in reading and learning, but it’s fighting against their mandatory education to do so. And I really think the school, despite their best efforts, is failing these kids.
And I blame common core. More than anything else. When I sit down with teachers the better of them confide sometimes that they are really not happy with how they have to teach, but they have to teach that way and have little flexibility in customizing things in their classrooms.
They have become “presenters” of material developed far away in academic laboratories, and while they are still teaching they are far removed from any innovation in curriculum. And without that control, they really aren’t able to overcome the gigantic bureaucracy of the educational apparatus.