I was reading an article in the Sunday New York Times called, “Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math” and it gave me a profound sense of loss. In order to satisfy the requirements laid out in No Child Left Behind, schools are reducing the amount of class time spent on other subjects like science, social studies and art. I read something else that said schools were even starting to eliminate recess in favor of more time preparing for the test. How can this be? How is this supposed to encourage low performing students to do better?
The practice is called, “narrowing the curriculum.” Unfortunately what it seems to narrow is opportunity — for growth and for exploration. Without the chance to connect ourselves to the world, reading and math are simply exercises in memorization. Without being able to apply those concepts to parts of our real life they are simply empty ideas. Without social studies, children would never learn about the civil rights movement or about Martin Luther King Jr. Without art, they’ll never feel what it’s like to mold something out of clay or to learn about Matisse. That is so very sad.
If we embrace the idea that a child is a “whole” person and more than just addition and subtraction than we can’t allow this narrowing to take place. To exist in our complex culture children need more knowledge in diverse areas. If we’re simply cutting out these other subjects to raise test scores and increase performance than we’re doing it to make President Bush feel better—not we as parents. Bush can articulate to his constituency how well his education policy is working but it does nothing to create new leaders. Leaders who have their own view of the world and ideas based on their exploration and experience. These are the leaders who help us evolve—as people and as society.
Posted on March 28th, 2006 by Sam
Filed under: Uncategorized
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