What are we building? What have we built? In this time of Adderall, Concerta, Strattera (atomoxetine), Focalin XR, Guanfacine, Clonidine, Tenex, CBD oil, methylphenidate, caffeine, melatonin, Vyvanse etc., what is happening to our students? Where do they spend their time? For the most part, our kids are in school and or at home.

What have we done to school? I’ve described my last school year before retirement elsewhere, but let me boil it down fast: Testing for over 20% of the year, mandatory tests and quizzes based on Common Core standards that were sometimes a full six years above where students were testing. I was a bilingual teacher, so I had seventh grade students testing in early elementary math and English. The special education teacher across from me had to give the same tests and quizzes. She took to going over the Friday test with her students on Friday and then giving them the test on Monday. When I observed this was making me look bad, since sped was sometimes outscoring bilingual, she said, “They don’t remember it anyway.” I didn’t protest and I didn’t get mad. The whole thing was so crazy it hardly mattered. They couldn’t READ these required tests that were sucking up my entire year.

The administration told students and teachers that grades were to be based entirely on tests and quizzes, no doubt to motivate everyone. At that point, of course, my students pretty much all felt FUCKED. And they felt that way for the entire year. So did I, of course. This was a no-win scenario.

To make sure students did their best, all parties and field trips were cancelled until after the spring PARCC test, which came in two batches that year, ensuring almost no recreation ever until the end of the year. I vividly remember how nervous another bilingual teacher in my grade felt because we quickly allowed a gift exchange right before winter break. Fortunately, when the Principal popped in that day, they were all slaving over worksheets.

Adults don’t do well without an occasional break. They don’t do well when the informal team-building activities disappear, and all the birthday cupcakes and celebratory moments vanish. As to field trips — those journeys become lifetime memories for many kids. To an adult, that bus trip may be just another visit to the aquarium. To a kid, those swimming fish can be magic. We did manage one trip to the Museum of Science and Industry after the tests were all over.

But magic doesn’t help on the annual test, and breaks take time away from drilling for that test. So mostly, my kids had a dreary, dreary year, an often incomprehensible year, as people in a now-failed consulting company on the East Coast wrote tests for them.

Eduhonesty: And now I’d like to circle back to where I started. My list of drugs isn’t complete either. What are we building? Well, the pharmaceutical industry just loves us I’m sure. Look at all those quieter kids on Adderall, Concerta, Strattera (atomoxetine), Focalin XR, Guanfacine, Clonidine, Tenex, CBD oil, methylphenidate, caffeine, melatonin, Vyvanse etc. — all the more peaceful kids who are getting help. Some hapless kids are just caroming all over the classroom in their anxiety. At worst, their doctor suggested a pharmaceutical but parents could not afford the drug’s cost.

I am not against medicating children who require help. Although I will always regard medication as a last resort, I have also watched as anxiety disorders and ADHD have been skyrocketing in America’s classrooms. I know that sometimes medications work wonders for kids who cannot sit and/or concentrate, who are falling behind and whose social lives are impacted by their hither and thither moves through friend groups. Those drugs rescue many students.

ADHD often runs hand-in-hand with anxiety disorders, and I have written before about the fact that I believe some ADHD diagnoses may be anxiety instead. But a connection is natural, regardless. If you keep forgetting to put that homework in the backpack, and you know Mr. X is likely to say something snarky since you forgot the last two assignments — well, that can make any sensitive person anxious. When ADHD stuff happens often enough, anxiety may be a natural, daily occurrence.

Meanwhile the pressure on kids is as high as it has ever been, largely as a result of excessive testing.

If readers want a reason to pull in all this testing, my list of drugs should be put out on the table. When educational leaders keep telling kids that they must take standardized tests, benchmark tests, and unit tests created by outside consulting firms, on top of regular classroom quizzes and tests — while regularly including tests with portions students sometimes cannot read or understand — those leaders keep adding stress into students’ daily lives. Those leaders keep scaring those kids, at least until the kids get tired and detach from the whole enterprise. I’ve watched this happen.

Stress affects behavior, behavior leads to interventions, and voila! Another successful Adderall XR intervention. But how many of those interventions are we making necessary by creating toxic classroom environments?

I’m not saying all of these behavioral challenges are environmental. I am ADHD. Some people are simply wired to lose their keys and ignore the many alarms that try to remind them of the latest glitch in their schedule. But environment forms a huge part of how more anxious children function. Desperate administrators trying to get students to take tests seriously often emphasize the importance of those tests, telling students certain tests will affect their ENTIRE scholastic future. Then they hand those kids tests the kids mostly cannot understand.

WE DON’T NEED ALL THIS TESTING. WE NEVER DID.

U.S. Schools began testing fiercely with nclb.
Nearly two decades later, education has shown
scant if any overall improvement.
Look up act and NAEP scores, reader, if you doubt this.
Testing to force academic improvement is a failed strategy.

For decade after decade, schools were getting by with one spring test, not heavily emphasized, and with tests designed by the classroom teacher. Those tests were much fairer measuring instruments since the teacher taught the material and then TESTED CHILDREN ON MATERIAL THEY HAD ACTUALLY BEEN TAUGHT. In this set-up, many more students knew they could succeed. A student could win at these tests by studying because students knew what to study. Often the exact topics for the test were conveniently laid out in a study guide, one that might include sample problems.

We desperately need to go back in time, back to the time before children became sources of exploding data. We need to stop using data as an excuse for supporting testing that steals irreplaceable classroom minutes for little or no advantage. We need to stage a full-scale retreat.

And I suggest those exploding pharmaceutical interventions in elementary school back up my case.

P.S. From an interesting article about differences between the U.S. and Great Britain: Generation meds: the US children who grow up on prescription drugs | Health | The Guardian

“According to America’s Centers for Disease Control, 11% of four- to 17-year-olds in the US have been diagnosed with ADHD, a label for those who are disruptive in class and unable to concentrate; just over 6% are taking medication.” 

That’s over one in ten with ADHD diagnoses, with over one in twenty medicated. That medication may be helpful and entirely appropriate. Nevertheless, it’s time to actively pursue an agenda of making school a kinder place — starting with reasonable targets and decreased TESTS and TESTING time.