"Your job is not to tell their story but to be a microphone held to their lips"
Olivia Fantini is a public school teacher. She's put some of her thoughts on standardized testing into a poem. Button Poetry films these poetry performances. Olivia attacks standardized testing, the lack of support for both ESL students as well as for teachers, and the inherent issues many well-meaning teachers face trying to save children who don't need saving but understanding.
Enjoy.
You can read a transcript of the poem below the fold.
"Good morning boys and girls!
Welcome to the 6th Grade National Assessment of Educational Progress!
Technological devices, which provide an unfair advantage, are not permitted.
If you are in possession of such a device, including, but not limited to, cellphones, iPads, tablets, calculators, white privilege, parents with a College education, or a household with an annual income above the poverty line, please power it down now and raise your hand.
The proctor will return your device at the end of the testing period.
One: If Peter reads at a rate of 200 words per minute in the 4th grade of a local private school, and his reading level is growing exponentially, how long will it take Peter to read all seven of the Harry Potter books?
I ask the ESL specialist what resources are available for my students who have just immigrated to the US.
She sends me a link to an online language program none of my students can afford.
Two: If Monica reads 20 words per minute in English and 30 words per minute in Spanish, in the 6th grade of the public Middle School in Providence, how long will it take her to read the 500 word article on the failings of public education?
I ask the ESL specialist what resources are available for a student who spent 4th and 5th grade in a refugee camp.
She tells me her boss will reach out to the family, he never does.
Three: Students who are not proficient readers by the end of 3rd grade are four times less likely to graduate from High School by age 19.
At poverty, these students become thirteen times less likely to graduate on time.
Multiply by one out of ten High School drop-outs spends time in prison, divide by racism, take the square root reality, subtract irrational numbers and unreal dreams, where will Monica be in five years?
Please put down your pencils and close your testing booklets.
Wait silently while the white teacher who grew up in a wealthy suburb and has never taken a standardized test collects your materials, feels like a cog in the bowels of the things she despises, begins another letter to the ESL specialist who has stop responding, gives up and addresses it to herself:
Dear Olivia,
Do not think you know their struggle because you drive into their neighborhood every morning at 7 and back to the East side at 4.
Do not think you see through the window what they see: You are not looking through the same window, you will never be looking through the same window, it is impossible to shed a heritage of privilege. Examine your reflection in the window.
Do not try to give your students a voice by lending your own.
Your job is not to tell their story but to be a microphone held to their lips, a stepping stool, a cheerleader.
Olivia, do not stop teaching. Do not move to a school in the suburbs. Do not switch to private education.
Do not write an end to this poem, Olivia.
This isn't over. "