Leave Your Sanity With the Nearest Customs Agent

I am Sevilla today and had an interesting day. This morning was spent looking at Spanish tile and art that has been influence by the Moor. It was very interesting and those math video I had to watch in class about repeating patterns made sense. If my teachers had only TAKEN me to Sevilla during school, I would have enjoyed those videos more. It would have made more since to me.

The most interesting part of my day was when I was eating lunch. I just went to a grocery store and found a park to sit in. The park I found was full of kids and their parents. Even as a teacher of kindergarten, I have moments when I recoil from kids outside of work. Today though, I just sat and watched and realized the extent that Taiwan had creep into my system. There was a boy with his father playing soccer (or football) and getting dirty. In Taiwan the child would have been chastised for getting dirt on his or hers clothes. Kids were running around playing hide and seek. Little toddlers were waddling about and parents just followed behind. There was no extended lesson in the play time. There was no perfecting the sport technique. There was no science lesson involved. And there was no foreign teacher making the kids who didn't want to get dirty to go play in the sandbox. Kids were playing on a Saturday afternoon just to play. Today was the first nice day since I have traveled or I am sure I would have seen the same thing in other countries.

In Taiwan, children in kindergarten or older would be ushered to extra classes. There are English classes, music classes, art classes, computer classes, math classes or whatever else parents feel the need to get their kids in. Or they would be at a sports lesson to perfect their game so they will win. It is all about the competition and the number you get at the end of the day. I was enjoying the fact that kids are still able to be kids and enjoy a day at the park.

Then I read this article(If the link doesn´t work, go to Yahoo.com and read the article about extending school days). Because at the end of the day, it is all about the number that a child gets, right? That is the point of education now? Just be able to take that standardized test and regurgitate that information your teacher throw at you today. Smash that creativity, it isn't important at all. It is important to understand math, reading, and science. They are all very important subjects, but you have to know how to solve a problem as well. If the number is the most important outcome of school, why are Asians, with the highest standardized test scores in school, have such a small percentage of Nobel Laureates?I say this with 3.5 years of life in Taiwan behind me, because they are not taught to think, they are taught to reproduce the right answer. A score that is too low will result in a parent hitting or beating a child. Not just a spanking, but a couple of smacks across the face. Is that the way to motivate a child to work harder? And parents in Taiwan will not believe there is any chance that their child might have a learning disability as well.

I say this as a teacher and not a parent and sure as hell not as a politician. (I welcome any politician to take over my class for a week and then tell me how the hell to teach my class and what goals my students are suppose to achieve at the end of the year)  I love my job, I love being a teacher, and I love being in my classroom. But I don't want to end up a teacher who just teaches for the test at the end of the year. If that is the direction teaching in taking, I am going to have to change careers eventually. Teacher burnout will hit and then I hope I have enough sense to get out of the classroom and into a completely different field.