A terrible place to teach: too many students, too little time and too many tests are ruining schools today. .

A terrible place to teach: too many students, too little time and too many tests are ruining schools today. . It seemed funny at the time. I was in junior high school,seventh-grade Spanish class, to be exact. It was mining outside, so Ibrought my squirt gun to class. I held it in my lap, hidden from theteacher's view, and strategically squirted the ceiling when shewasn't looking. I then dutifully du��ti��ful?adj.1. Careful to fulfill obligations.2. Expressing or filled with a sense of obligation.du raised my hand and pointed out to the teacher thatwater was dripping from the ceiling. She studied it momentarily and thencalled the office to report that the roof was leaking. I wish Ihadn't done it, but at the time it seemed like a great experiment. "That's a great one!" one friend told me as three ofus traded such stories during a recent lunch. Then we got talking aboutteaching. It was fun reminiscing about catching students who tried ourold tricks, but my focus quickly turned to how much I loved teaching. Mymind's instant replay kept calling up experiences with specificstudents and classes, and the mixture of successes and challenges thatmake teaching so rewarding. As I enthusiastically told story after story to my friends, one ofthem finally asked, "So, how come you left?" My immediate, almost involuntary response was, "Because schoolis a terrible place to teach." As soon as I said it, I knew I had the topic for this column. Thesearen't just empty words Noun 1. empty words - loud and confused and empty talk; "mere rhetoric"empty talk, hot air, palaver, rhetorichokum, meaninglessness, nonsense, nonsensicality, bunk - a message that seems to convey no meaning . After 20 years of reform in earnest,little has changed. Sure, we've moved from a junior high schoolmodel to a middle school model, but has there been any significantincrease in middle-grade student achievement? We've tinkered withblock scheduling Block scheduling is a type of academic scheduling in which each student has fewer classes per day for a longer period of time. This is intended to result in more time for teaching due to less time wasted due to class switching and preparation. , but let's face it: school is still mostly what itwas; 25 little desks and one big desk. The bell still waits for noone--forget teachable teach��a��ble?adj.1. That can be taught: teachable skills.2. Able and willing to learn: teachable youngsters. moments, just keep moving because you've onlygot four minutes to get to your next class. We talk aboutinterdisciplinary curriculum, but content is still divided into discreetsubjects and the day into fixed periods. That's just the way we doit. IT MIGHT BE WORSE TODAY Unfortunately, some of our attempts atreform may actually have made things worse. One veteran high schoolhistory teacher told me he's never been more frustrated frus��trate?tr.v. frus��trat��ed, frus��trat��ing, frus��trates1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: . Hisgripes gripe?v. griped, grip��ing, gripesv.intr.1. Informal To complain naggingly or petulantly; grumble.2. To have sharp pains in the bowels.v.tr.1. : too many students, too little time and too many tests. He argues that for achievement to go up, teachers need more timewith fewer students. That would allow him to set higher expectations andimplement accountability that's grounded in deeper and moreeffective interactions. Today, he has so many students for such shortperiods of time that accountability, rarely goes any deeper than basicclassroom management, where students meet the standard simply by notbeing disruptive. MORE IS MORE, AND LESS IS ... Today his curriculum focuses almostexclusively on test preparation. The steadily increasing emphasis onobjective measurement has forced him to put aside the role playing role playing,n in behavioral medicine, learning exercise in which individuals assume characters different from their own. The individual may also be asked to simulate a particularly difficult situation and apply the characteristics that are common to his thatis his favorite teaching method. According to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. this teacher, studyinghistory through role playing gives students a deeper understanding intothe unfolding of history, and more practical insight into currentevents. It's a classic example of the "less-is-more"principle promoted so heavily in the early days of reform. But now, moreis more, and less won't help you pass the test. Having to change classrooms several times per day compounds hisproblems. Without a permanent classroom, it's nearly impossible tocreate and maintain lessons and projects that continue over severalclass periods. Several limes limesplural limites(Latin; “path”)In ancient Rome, a strip of open land along which troops advanced into unfriendly territory. It came to mean a Roman military road, fortified with watchtowers and forts. each day he has to pack up all of hismaterials and move to the next class. A shared desk (and sharedcomputer) in the faculty room just doesn't cut it. He still believes good teaching is the key to academic achievement,but has come to the conclusion that his school is a terrible place toteach. Then he watches his students. Like him, they have to gather allof their things every 50 minutes or so, and hustle to another locationto start afresh a��fresh?adv.Once more; anew; again: start afresh.afreshAdverbonce moreAdv. 1. on another subject. He believes it's just as hard for them to find continuity andconnections in their courses. Everything is so fragmented. Maybe thetypical school environment lends itself best to rote rote?1?n.1. A memorizing process using routine or repetition, often without full attention or comprehension: learn by rote.2. Mechanical routine. memorization mem��o��rize?tr.v. mem��o��rized, mem��o��riz��ing, mem��o��riz��es1. To commit to memory; learn by heart.2. Computer Science To store in memory: andobjective tests. But is that the kind of learning we want? No, andit's ... wait ... Sorry, I've got to go; I think the roof isleaking again. Daniel E. Kinnaman, dkinnaman@promediagrp.com, is publisher.