Education, as I see it, is to provide students with the skills, tools, and confidence for a life of inquisitiveness. Nary a day goes by where I fail to learn something. Some days what I learn is rather pedestrian, or inconsequential. Some days what I learn is eye opening, mind bending, or life changing. Sometimes, something I may not have given much value to will become extraordinary when put together with something new! And that is one of those skills every child needs to develop; the ability to synthesize what they learn, and the ability to transfer knowledge from one part of life, or one subject, to another.
Instead, most children have the love of learning slowing strangled, or wrestled from them by the very nature of school. The architecture of today's education system forces teachers to make decisions which do not encourage children's natural curiosity. Rather, teachers are concerned about meeting ever increasing, externally levied, measures of student progress. While working on my Masters of Education: Best Practices, I have discovered there are any number of ways to measure student progress. The thing is, the teacher has to be able to make informed decisions on how best to do that. I am not yet a full time teacher, though I do spend quite a bit of time in classrooms as a substitute. There is still a lot of originality in classrooms, but less and less of that originality is geared towards educating students because of the focus on students' test scores.
If you are concerned at all about your child's education, get to know your teachers, principals, and district officials. I don't recommend telling them how to do their job, but you can ask them questions. Let them get to know you, while getting to know them. Find out what their views on education are. Find out what they think about standardized testing, and what they think the best sorts of assessment are. If you disagree, that's OK. Try to find out why they think the way they do, and consider what leads you to the conclusions you hold dear.
One of the most important tools in a good, or great, teacher's arsenal is reflection. Any teacher worth their salt is constantly asking themselves what they could do better, how can they reach a seemingly difficult child. Yes a lot of teachers hold fast and hard to points of view, who doesn't. The question is, are you willing to review you point of view. Are you willing to ask why, or what lead you to that point of view. I think you'll find that engaging in civil dialog, rather than telling a teacher how to do something will have far greater pay-offs than being confrontational. No matter what you may think of the person who runs your child's classroom, in all but a few cases, they hold the best interest of everyone in their stewardship as top priority, so find out who is behind - whatever it is that makes you uncomfortable.
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