THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By JAKE PRIODE
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
The National Education Association certainly made its presence known on the night of March 27 at the State Board of Education meeting concerning Standards of Learning. As I sat in the auditorium listening to the first group of speakers, mostly teachers, several things were made clear to me.
First, these teachers think standards are important but they don't want any.
Second, they think children should learn at their own pace and study whatever interests them.
Third, they believe that concept is more important than application.
Finally, they think that if you are not a teacher, you have no authority to have any input in the educational process.
Standards are important. Not only do they gauge what we have learned; they also tell us where our weaknesses are and what we need to do to strengthen those weaknesses. Children need to be challenged and pushed to excel. That's just human nature.
If it had been left up to me, I would have done very little in school. Concept is important, but if you can't apply the concept, it is useless. I don't understand the concept of how a computer works, but I can use one. I do not know the concept of every math formula I use, but I know which one to use and when to use it.
I am not a teacher. I am not a car mechanic, either, but I can tell you when my car is defective. I can also tell you when students have not learned what is necessary to function properly in this competitive world.
Teachers generally have the students for one year and then pass them on to another teacher. I'm the one who has to live, work and deal with them for a lifetime.
It's very frustrating when I have to tell a cashier how to give me change, or teach a graduate engineer how to read a scale, or explain to a fellow worker what the three branches of government are.
In a discussion at work recently, a friend of mine told me that his four years of high school were a waste and all he had to do to graduate was show up. That's the education system we are dealing with.
Businesses across the country are complaining about the poor quality of education that today's graduates are bringing to the workplace. Of the top 10 nations in the industrial world, the United States ranks No. 10 in educational scores. For those who were taught with ``outcomes based education,'' No. 1 one is good and No. 10 is bad. It is no wonder that home schooling has increased dramatically.
As I drove home on March 27, I tried to understand why these teachers at the meeting did not want any standards. Then it hit me like a rock. Of course they don't want any measurable standards. If we went back to the basics of education and formulated a standard of measuring what a student has learned, then the teachers would also be held to a standard of teaching that could be measured. In other words, we could identify those teachers who were not doing their jobs properly. The NEA would never want that to happen.
I am grateful to my teachers for making me memorize the states and their capitols, for introducing the great works of literature to me, for making me learn the history of this great nation and for giving me a failing grade when I did not do what was required of me. I am grateful that they encouraging me to do more than I would have done on my own. My high-school diploma means a lot to me. MEMO: Mr. Priode lives in Portsmouth by CNB