I can’t stand numbers, and for good reason.
I am almost entirely right-brained, which means my mind sometimes works in mysterious and unconventional ways. Most people have a good balance between the analytical, logical left brain and the creative, conceptual right — but I have much less of a distinction.
My mind doesn’t work like an organized, functioning filing cabinet. Rather, it resembles a bundle of multicolored yarn that somebody dragged through a conspicuously quaint coffee shop.
In my senior year of high school, I dreaded taking the PSAT/NMSQT, ACT and SAT, along with the multitude of other barbaric acronyms students in this country are subjected to during their educational careers.
I was expected to stuff my wad of yarn neatly into a box and ship it off to some spreadsheet wizard I’ve never met, who would poke around in it for a while before turning it into a nice, neat number. It was horrifying.
I’m not alone in my frustration with the uncompromising rigidity of America’s standardized testing system. People all over the country have been expressing their discontent about these kinds of tests for years. Increasingly, parents of elementary, middle and high school students who are fed up with the kind of education their children are receiving have spoken out against these tests.
Opponents of standardized testing are also frustrated by the implementation of Common Core, a government initiative that seeks to establish a national standard for public education. A single national rule looks like a good idea, but the program relies heavily on standardized testing.
It seems the government has decided these tests are the best way to measure the yarn balls and filing cabinets of millions of American students.
Those pushing back against standardized testing received a bit of encouragement last week in a Lee County school district meeting, where the school board voted to abolish the Common Core standards in the district.
A crowd of concerned citizens showed their solidarity with the anti-Common Core movement by dressing in red. For three hours, they spoke their minds.
One woman said the district sent a proctor to watch her son take the FCAT at his home because he was terminally ill and couldn’t take it at school.
Cheers erupted when the board made its decision; the crowd booed down dissenting opinions from the superintendent, who said the decision would hurt the district’s children. Attendees also booed another speaker, who agreed with the decision but also asked for some sort of standardized plan to be put in place.
Unfortunately, the board met a few days later and reversed its decision, voting to opt back into the Common Core standards. The school board was likely responding to a warning from the superintendent that the district could lose $280 million in education funding if it didn’t fall in line with the rest of the state.
Common Core has evolved from an idea meant to streamline education into a potent piece of political ammunition, with enough supporters among the rich and powerful that millions of dollars can be tossed around to protect it.
Although the program has a number of wealthy supporters, Common Core is losing support among the general public. As much as 60 percent of the American public disagrees with Common Core standards in some capacity.
Common Core has one major advantage: It is an existing and realistic plan to fix America’s public education system. The plan is flawed, drains the joy out of learning and turns kids into numbers — but it’s a plan nonetheless.
It’s not enough for anti-Common Core groups to feel good about themselves for opposing a broken system. If anything is to be learned from Lee County, it’s that criticism and vetoes aren’t going to cut it any longer.
If Common Core opponents want to challenge the status quo, they must present a realistic alternative to modern America’s inadequate system of standardized testing.
Alec Carver is a UF journalism sophomore. His columns appear on Thursdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 9/4/2014 under the headline "title"]
