A Vent, Just A Vent, But A Factual Vent

photoc ourtesy of the nationalpost.com

​Yesterday in “My Planning Time Was Wasted by Having to Attend a PLC Meeting”, the kindergarten team was told that we needed to increase the rigor of our teaching by incorporating a daily word problem into our daily morning exercises.  WHAT?????  We were told to do this to help them learn to problem solve.  So maybe there is a teacher on our team that would accept this subtle indoctrination into the “The Wrong Way to Teach Problem Solving To Kindergarten Children” club, but I am not seeking membership into a brotherhood/ sisterhood of misguided academic practices.  Oh, I must add the we are teaching them to problem solve one problem each week in preparation for a district assessment.  Problem solving is not taught by teaching children how to solve a SPECIFIC problem, but by giving them the strategies and concepts needed to address problems in ALL DOMAINS. Not just math.  So yesterday was a day like every other, our team was reminded to make the work harder to teach students how to problem solve via critical thinking skills that aren’t taught because we are teaching skills and not concepts. 

Of course, I clearly communicated that fact at the end of the meeting, to which I received the this is what we are paid to do speech, to which I responded, something to the effect of it is still wrong. 
I have about 70 more days of these warped ideas in education.  When my kinder students complain that they want to go home because they don’t want to do work today, I am finding it harder and harder not to say, me either.  Me either.