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Education News
Home›Education News›Maya Angelou challenges Obama

Maya Angelou challenges Obama

By Matthew Lynch
April 16, 2014
5
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Along with 120 other children’s book authors, beloved poet and activist Maya Angelou has called President Obama on the carpet for his “testing overuse and abuse.” The authors say that the pressure on children to learn narrow testing materials, and then perform well, robs them of a love for learning. Among the authors on the list are Ruth Spiro, Whitney Stewart and Alma Flor Ada.

The letter, addressed to President Obama himself, scolds the Administration’s role in heightening standardized test ramifications and therefore putting more pressure on students and teachers to perform. Some highlights of the letter include:

“Our public school students spend far too much time preparing for reading tests and too little time curling up with books that fire their imaginations.” 

“Students spend time on test practice instead of perusing books. Too many schools devote their library budgets to test-prep materials, depriving students of access to real literature. Without this access, children also lack exposure to our country’s rich cultural range.”

“We offer our full support for a national campaign to change the way we assess learning so that schools nurture creativity, exploration, and a love of literature from the first day of school through high school graduation.”

While many teachers, parents and education experts (like Diane Ravitch) have spoken out about their concerns with teaching-to-the-test, and most recently the Common Core Standards, this is the first time such a list of “who’s who” has come out against reading and testing culture. Angelou has always been a strong and vocal supporter of Obama so it will be interesting to see if and how he responds to this latest point.

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5 comments

  1. HeidiBelt 19 April, 2014 at 20:56 Reply

    It’s interesting to see so many authors concerned about testing standards. Especially the caliber of Maya Angelou. But is teaching to the test really the norm in K-12 schools as these authors suggest? If so, I’m a bit concerned too. However, I know a lot of very literate teachers who who are passionate about what they teach. Why would they teach if they can’t share with their student the passion toward the subject that they love?

    Is teaching to the test really the norm or is that just the public’s perception?

  2. AftonChristine 21 April, 2014 at 00:41 Reply

    Yep. . . They’re right! They teach to the test and do so unashamedly! That goes for all public schools! Do they over test? You bet! I can’t believe anyone would think differently! The schools have incentives to do well on these tests and the better they do the more money they get. Of course, money drives the teaching. Money drives everything!

    • johanna 21 April, 2014 at 02:18 Reply

      Why are you so sure that this is happening? Are you a teacher? Do you oversee school districts all over the country? I have no doubt that there are school districts that do teach to the test, but do all K-12 schools all over the country teach to the test? I have my doubts there. . .

  3. hollysuel 21 April, 2014 at 04:22 Reply

    This made me think of a friend of mine who teaches at a state university. She has been seeing the level and caliber of students decline in the past ten years because of the ‘no child left behind’ initiative. Teachers are no longer teaching skills, they are teaching to the test, which is a tragedy to the American education system.

  4. guy 27 July, 2014 at 01:21 Reply

    .

    ñïñ çà èíôó.

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