When did education lose sight of the student?  When did the ideals of those in power trump the desires of those in the trenches? When did we stop teaching students to be members of society?  When did we tell them that unless you go to college, you are less?  When did teaching become a chore and not a joy?

Like most of my colleagues, I became a teacher because I love learning and wanted to pass that love along to others.  I work with a very diverse population of students.  Many of my students start school with a severe language delay-5 or more years behind their hearing peers-and it is improbable, not impossible, that they will ever catch up, Sadly often making college and college driven careers unattainable. Therefore, from the lens of data driven educational standards, my students are failures, when in essence, education is failing them.  According to state and federal mandated educational standards, I have to teach all of my students using the same standards, expecting the same outcome, preparing them all for a transition to college from high school.  Please note that I am not anti-standard, I am anti-”one shoe fits all” theory of education. For students at or near grade level or who have the desire to go to college, these standards are mostly sufficient (but that is a blog for another day).

We are judging intelligence on one set of criteria, negating to look at the talents of the masses.  Just look at Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and one sees my the spectrum of students in my classroom! Intelligence is not only measured by how well you read and write.   Yet, I am forced to plan lessons for all of the students, regardless of their varied desires and drives, in the same manner.  I work with students who would blossom in a vocational program, learning a trade, yet I teach concepts such as persuasive essays and Shakespeare, to all of them!  I have students who need real world experiences, to make connections to the tangible, yet they are standardized assessments eight grades above their ability level and deemed failures when they do not pass.  This keeps me up most nights, it haunts me. I am failing my students and there is little I can do.

Karen Martinko (2016) states in her article, What Happened to Vocational Training in Schools – and Can it Come Back? that the removal of vocational training was shortsighted and over generalized as all students, “…come with varied skill sets, strengths, and interests. Some kids are cut out for college; others are not, and there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that.”  This is what I face almost daily.  My students may be behind their hearing peers, but they are by no means stupid.  They want what we all want, the ability and the right to be free and independent citizens.  Schools need to start realizing that all students are not made from the same mold.  They also need to realize that fact is ok. Education must address the actual needs of the students and not their perceived needs.  A one size fits all standardized system is not measuring up.  It’s about time to acknowledge it and change it, for the sake of our students and their future.