Back in the day, both my parents were English teachers. Back then, schools were both structured and brought joy. Reading was a treat!

Now reading is training (we train dogs; we educate children). Math isn’t taught with much meaningful context, either. I sometimes wonder why kids even bother to show up?

I am very concerned that our current system has bought into the dogma of metrics and testing as the core measure of outcomes. I see that we have lost a lot of the joy in play and learning.

Testing and the tools to “teach to the test” are terrible! Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Standardized tests as a guide to education and leadership are failures!

Learning should be joy and motivated hard work.

Ryan Collay
Eugene