They Don't Get It

The other night I attended a forum of the legislatures, both incumbents or newly elected officials were there.  As their usual political way, with a room full of educators, they told us their family tree of educators and how much they supported us.  We'll see when their votes are cast in the current session.
A couple of topics really sparked my interest though.

They talked about testing and how we must of have a way to measure kids.  Right!  This made me reflect on when my sister and I had to put our mother in a nursing home.  My sister would go out everyday for dinner with my mom and when I was in town both of us would go.  Mom sat at a table with our 2nd grade and 3rd grade teachers, and we had great visits about school, they way education had changed, and various other topics.  Amazingly, it never crossed my mind to thank them for giving me the Iowa Basic Skills Test, as if that was the highlight of my time with them.

Our governor has put together an Efficiency Task Force to make sure we are spending our money wisely.  No educator was appointed to this until the outcry was so loud he finally put a superintendent on it, 1 educator with 12 CPA's, insurance businessmen, and independent businessmen.  Curious how many of their clients are below the age of 10.  They don't know the education field and are trying to reduce our profession to mere dollars and cents.

WE ARE A PEOPLE BUSINESS.  The relationships and memories we create are of a human nature, not of tests and money.  I don't think they will ever get that because they don't understand what we really do.  I just find it ironic that people outside our profession are so eager to run our profession when they have such little understanding of our true impact on students.  The old saying is certainly true "They will never remember everything you teach them, but they will always remember how you treated them."

I hope I never go into classroom and announce, I saved the district money today, or I sure hope you enjoyed the standardized tests we're making you take.

It Makes No Sense to Me

Saturday our school hosted a Scholars Bowl tournament, which my wife, daughter, and I helped at.  My daughters were both involved with Scholars Bowl when they were in high school, in fact at the high school I was principal our oldest daughter was a member of the Scholars Bowl team that won the state championship.  I was as proud as if she had been a member of a state championship basketball team, and it is the only state title the school has won.

I think it is called Quiz Bowl in some other states, at any rate it is an academic competition.  The students are allowed 10 seconds, except most math questions are longer, to answer questions.  To me this type of competition is the very essence of our profession and its fun.  If you like Jeopardy you'll like Scholars Bowl.

Here is the part that confuses me.  It is a competition, there is a winner and loser.  The students are allowed to talk to each other or look at each others papers when working math problems, until a contestant buzzes in.  Which is legal, once a contestant buzzes in the talking must cease.

My one and only question is:  If we allow this type of collaboration during a competition why is it considered cheating in day to day operation of school?  It makes no sense to me.