Do parents still talk about permanent records? I remember hearing about mine all the time as a kid. “Do you want this to go on your permanent record?” was the common refrain, as if somewhere there would be a detailed report on my lack of interest in whatever we were doing at that moment in school. I was interested in many things, few of them were covered in school. If they were, I wasn’t interested in remembering the specific facts they wanted on a test. An elementary teacher once noted that I was reading all the time, but not the right kind of books. I wish I had the chance to thank her now for her insightful comment because I’m still reading those wrong books.
It’s the end of the school year and this seems a good time to revisit a series of short videos I made a couple of years ago as I was retiring after 30 years in public schools. These were originally shared on my classroom Instagram page and generated a lot of comments. Quite a few praising me for being so brave which seemed odd. I was simply telling the truth.
Assessment is essential in school, report cards with letter or number grades, especially in elementary school are not. Parents and caregivers can be told how their children are learning, what type of learner they are, what are their strengths and what are areas they are still developing without As, Bs, 1s, 2s etc. It’s a hard sell trying to convince the general public that while public schools are a vital part of society, some of the traditions are not vital at all and in fact are worthless at best and harmful at worst.
I will continue with these re-runs of video commentary as this school year winds down and encourage you, if you are a parent, to ask your children what they love about school. Ask them what they want to learn. Ask them where they want to go and what they want to see. All of this is more important than numbers on a report card.
That said, please read whatever comments teachers take the time to write. In my last few years of teaching one of the saddest things I encountered was the data on how few parents actually opened the report cards now that everything is online.
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