Get them ready for a test or for life?

Today it seems that children aren’t really learning anymore. It seems as if the Board of Education is just preparing the children for their state tests and they aren’t learning for the sake of learning. I tutor children at an elementary school. The way that I know what to focus on is first having a meeting with the child’s teacher and I meet with their parents to find out what exactly it is that they want me to do. My main purpose was to get them ready for the Math and ELA state Exams. From time to time I did homework with them. At one point I had to help him study for his vocabulary test. This particular test was about contractions. So ‘can’t’ stems from ‘cannot’ ‘wouldn’t’ from ‘would not’. Seems simple right? Apparently not!! He did not know what ‘don’t’ came from or ‘shouldn’t.’ Another day he had a social studies exam and I helped him prepare for it. He didn’t know that New York City was broken up into 5 boroughs, the capital, and the abbreviations of States. He literally didn’t know a lot.

I didn’t want to just assume that it was the teacher because I know that there are some kids that don’t pay attention or don’t remember learning that. So I decided to go to the teacher and ask her about these things (contractions, social studies). She said well we don’t really need to focus on those things because they are not on the state exam. So I said well doesn’t he need to know them for …I don’t know maybe …for LIFE. She said yeah these are important things to know but only if you have time after you do test prep. After that convo I was a bit disappointed, are we grooming them for life or just to pass a test. The poor kid always comes down to our sessions talking about how tired he is of taking KAPLAN practice tests, and tired of hearing his teachers tell him that they have to get 3s and 4s. It’s sad but that’s what I am getting paid for. I have to prepare him for the exams. It really makes you wonder…what they are teaching the children.