After viewing an art exhibition this evening with
my son, we ran into one of his high school friends who just happened to have in
tow with her a young visitor from Finland. I found out our visitor is attending
a popular suburban high school here in the Midwest. During our discussion the
Finnish visitor revealed American high schools “treat their students like
10-year olds.” "You have to ask permission to use the bathroom!"
"At my old school we just get up and leave." “Here it's like being in
juvenile detention.” In Finland we emphasize creativity and thinking outside
the box, and we have no testing like you do here!"
There seems to be much ignorance within the body
politic responsible for US education policy regarding learning experience and
matters of the mind. Then again, perhaps it’s not ignorance at all. Perhaps
there is a reason why our schools look like factories, learning is fragmented
outside children’s interests and intellectual development is measured like meat
on a butcher’s scale.
Of course the American “bewildered herd” doesn’t
know anything except testing and rating schools by test scores. Who is
responsible for that drum beat? Mass media? Who is selling that message?
No mention that over 20% of children in the US
over the age of 18 suffer from mental illness. No mention that testing drives
curriculum into a year-long radical behaviorist drill exercise for high stakes
standardized tests with little time for creative or personal learning
experience.
Looking at US juvenile incarceration rates ( http://www.aecf.org/resources/youth-incarceration-in-the-united-states/ ),
crime rates, poverty rates, drop out rates…highest in the industrialized world,
one can make the inference there is a reasonable causation for these
statistics.
US children suffer under structural violence.
Who is responsible for this structure?
