Don’t Collaborate through Sabotage

I just finished reading Timothy Slekar’s post It’s Not Cheating It’s Sabotage in the Huff.  And I must disagree with the notion that we can acceptably change answers in a random way to discredit the test.  Such an action only discredits ourselves.  Below is my response on facebook:

Dear Tim,

I love you for [fighting against the forces attempting to dismantle or co-opt funds for public education], but I have to disagree with the call to sabotage the test. Such an action inevitably feeds into the hands of the dismantlers by calling into question whether we belong where we are. I think that can only backfire and show us in a bad light to our communities.

My principal who just retired said what I think is a true thing to us. “Do good work like you always have and let your work speak for itself.” I call that a guiding principal 😀 That is what we must do. We must not allow the forces attempting to destroy public education to undermine what makes a public education vital and important. That is, we must not play into their hands by disrupting rich curriculum or resigning ourselves to becoming test prep factories.

Instead, we need to keep it rich. Let the test be one measure of excellence, but not the most important measure. Instead, shore up relationships within the community, communicate with them and establish strong links to parents and the board, keep a good working relationship between administration, faculty and staff (or build one), emphasize support and collaboration among teachers, share materials and good work. Refuse to collaborate with our own destruction. We can’t turn our backs on the test or on the hate pouring in upon us through such propaganda tools as Waiting for Superman (sounds like a Leni Riefenstahl film title, doesn’t it?). But, if we become (or remain) a solidly connected community, then we will win one community at a time. The forces of disruption come through chinks in our armour, through flaws they can exploit. Give them less to exploit.

My district has made it clear that we don’t want that kind of war coming to us. I hope we stay the course because we have a good district. We serve a diverse student body and we give our all. We will not let them take us down. We will do the good work we’ve always done. That and get into the street at the SOS March.