Standard Eyes: Looking Backward
Once upon a time in a land far, far away there lived a young couple with their baby son.
The boy grew quickly showing unmistakable signs of brilliant creativity and reflective thought, genius proclivity and independence, along the way.
But alas, he soon turned 5 and started to attend one of the standardized schools of the standardized system in the land. In this standardized school he had to follow a standardized curriculum delivered in a standardized fashion by standardized teachers, themselves guided by standardized lesson plans.
Eventually he was forced to take standardized tests for which he was told he could get awards but only if he attained the standardized score.
Standardized preparation for the standardized tests was standard throughout the school year. People witnessed the standardized child shopping frantically with his (by now) standardized parents, for every advertised standardized resource that was drawn to their standardized attention.
Off to standardized extra classes the child went at greater than standard speed, where he was taught about diversity, creativity and individuality of people in other lands, other people – not himself- in a largely rigid, “child friendly” and standardized climate.
After school and on weekends- the very times when nonstandard activity should have taken place: at home and on the playground, the very places where discovery and organic learning and free play live and grow – he had little chance to unwind. Every waking hour was reserved for standardized extra classes for the standardized child.
“Boy you ain’t got homework? Go tek up a book and put dung di stupid game!” The standardized order tolled in his weary, standardized ears.
As the time for the standardized tests approached, the final days were accompanied by standardized pressure, standardized anxiety and anxiety medication for the child, and standardized guilt for the parents.
The days also brought with them standardized hopes to family and friends that their favorite candidate will win a standardized award sponsored by the local power company operating in the land far, far away, once upon a time .
What award could really compensate for all that standardized inconvenience ?
To think that the child was often and altogether confused, because although he was not a standardized child or learner at first, he had to learn in a standardized way since the standardized system would normally frown upon non standardized teaching and non standardized measurement.
In order for the standardized system to work, the children and their individuality, their innocence and natural genius had to be suppressed. The time that it would take to interact effectively and successfully for many students was not standard but extended and therefore could not be afforded.
It was better – well not better – it was more convenient by far just to set standardized tests even if it was unclear what the standards were, or how the tests were to benefit the children in this far-away land.
The people of that day reflected on a time before theirs when the standardized system was changed to fit the needs of the now standardized child. They recalled that it was during the Industrial Revolution around 1760, when students were batched and taught the basics to meet factory labor requirements and standardized manufacturing standards.
As time wore on, some people in the land got tired of the situation. They became impatient with inaction. They spoke out about the plight of their children in the standardized system. They claimed that in too many cases the students were still educated during formative years as if to meet ‘cheap labour’ only for their bosses to complain later about their lack of acceptable standards.
As they contemplated agitation for change, the people questioned one another “What standards have we attained?” and “How have our children and our land really progressed?”
As people of integrity having a genuine interest in the island’s children and future, the inhabitants banded themselves together, eager to solve the problems of the system. They had town hall gatherings and panel discussions. They formed think-tanks and conducted forums where many attended and actively participated.
No ideas were bad. All were included and workable, common sense solutions were sought. All the issues were personal yet no one took what was said personally.
Thoughts flowed and people were engaged and eager and shared without trepidation among themselves, seeking a good, functional alternative.
They thought hard about the issues. They discussed how, before factories, the standard was slave labor and it did not require any education except standardized religion. They remembered reading how the plantation owners held strong objections to the education of their slaves, concluding that to educate would be to unfit them for their standardized task.
What a standardized catastrophe that was!
But the people of the land recognized that in a strange and similar way, standardized learning and teaching held their children hostage, imprisoned and enslaved in a standardized holding area. A very low standardized meaning of success.
The village people wrestled with how they should be endeavoring to rush, in standardized harmony, in full rescue mode, to seize the opportunity to deliver the young through new birth.
Eventually it happened. The people of the land acted. They became brave and true to themselves, speaking up with their own loud voices and saying what used to be said quietly before, on behalf of the children.
The people emphatically proclaimed and questioned on behalf of their children – all of the children in the standardized system of the land.
They persevered and challenged, they argued and reasoned and were enlightened and persuaded. The people were encouraged with new thought and the refreshing possibilities of revolutionary systems from which their children – the children of land would benefit.
At long last the walls enclosing hopelessness crumbled, doors were unhinged and the locks securing the standardized prison cells were cut. The dungeons that held standardized children in bondage for centuries had surrendered their inmates.
In other words, the people of the land began raising standards (not testing them alone ) as they raised their precious, promising young.
The people of the land far, far away once upon a time, raised the standards with will and might: raised the standards with the implementation of good intentions and recommendations from policies and reports and consultations.
They set in motion the wheels of collaboration and apprenticeship: they valued the worth of real literacy where children read well and were capable of thinking critically and communicating effectively as a strong foundation : the climate was one where access and equity had meaning in a comprehensive and systematic way.
The people raised the standards by attaching meaning to words- they meant what they said. They did what they had to do on behalf and for the sake of all the children in the land.
All of this happened. It really did happen – once upon a time, in a land far, far away.
And everyone in the land lived happily ever after.
Lennox Vanterpool
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
