With Back-to-School season upon us, I ask myself, what is it that we should really want for all our nation’s students this year?

Less bullying?
Heightened meaningfulness in the classroom?
Better cafeteria food?

I think one core answer is growth. We want our student to elevate their aptitudes.

Kids will come into our nation’s rooms this year with certain skill sets. The goal to which we should all aspire is that they leave our classrooms at the end of the year with improved and heightened abilities.

Their growth ought to mean something. If there’s no growth, it’s troubling. If there’s supreme growth it brings smiles.

However, this is exactly why our current system of assessment is so ridiculously dysfunctional. We don’t reward growth. We aim for arbitrarily chosen targets.

For example, I have kids that have come to my room with 4th grade reading skills… and have left the year at an 8th grade level. And yet, when it comes to the 10th grade tests, they paint my kid’s performance that year as entirely inadequate and underachieving. 8th grade skills in 10th grade student mean we are a failing school and I am a failing teacher, regardless of how much improvement was demonstrated.

It’s hurtful to the kid, it’s demoralizing to the teacher and it’s detrimental to the school. (They act as if I had my feet up on the desk reading the newspaper all year. Sheesh!)

However, if we used growth model assessments, suddenly we’d see a lot more happy face emoticons being implanted in the emails the state department of education sends to our school district.

Instead, because of the means by which assessment is measured, we are ostracized.

Does a 14 month old who does not yet know how to walk get ripped by their parents because the “average” 14 month old can walk?

Does the 5 year old who does not yet know how to write their name get shamed publicly because the “average” 5 year can achieve this task?

Of course not. We reward growth towards these target objectives. And, most importantly, we continue to teach – through praise!!

We continue to inspire and encourage. It’s just common sense.

Yet, does anyone in this country right now think our current form of assessment is characterized by words like encouragement, praise or inspiration.

And are not those some of the most effective tools of terrific teachers?

Screw up the bubble tests and you will be humiliated, scolded, reprimanded and threatened. Pass the bubble tests with flying colors and you’ll get a few checkmarks… maybe an “attaboy” here and there.

Is it not time we started to measure growth?

Obama wants to address the school-kids of this nation and, whodda thunk it, there’s controversy surrounding the idea of such an address to our nation’s youngsters.

Now, obviously, (or maybe not, so I’ll say it here) I am of the opinion that a well-spoken President addressing our nation’s kids in a “you can do it” tone now that it’s back-to-school season is good for the kids, good for the schools, and good for the good ol’ U. S. of A.

So I wonder, is it just me, or does this brouhaha strike anybody else as artificially contrived, politically motivated nonsense?

I mean, and this is a quote I pulled off the AP wire:

Texas Governor Rick Perry says he understands the concerns of parents who don’t want their children listening to President Obama’s school-time speech next Tuesday on the importance of education, aimed directly at the nation’s school children.

Well, I am glad he understands the concerns… cause I don’t. Could his political affiliation actually be the cause of the concern?

I mean Obama is OUR president, of the entire country, and if he wants to fire up the students, I say, “It’s about time a President did this.” Nice idea. Come to think about it, we couldda used something like this many, many years ago. But the right wingers (and I mean the far right-wingers) are…

“…saying Obama is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda and is overstepping the boundaries of federal involvement in schools.”

Huh? I mean is “work hard, set goals, aim high and strive to become learned” some kind of liberal agenda now? (I am only speculating that this will be the thrust of his speech.) I mean if it is, I am way more liberal than I thought I was. And trust me, I am a tax and spend, California, left-coast animal lover, who believes in things like universal pre-school, universal health care, and recycling.

To counter, Obama’s people say the reason for it is this:

“It’s simply a plea to students to really take their learning seriously. Find out what they’re good at. Set goals. And take the school year seriously.”

Ooh… sounds nefarious. I bet there are secret code words embedded in the Closed Captioned text too that will send messages to aliens about our nuclear codes.

Yet, folks like Oklahoma Republican State Sen. Steve Russell say this…

“It gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality. This is something you’d expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.”

Like I said, “Huh?”

Why do I have a feeling that if this was an idea from the prior presidency, some of those folks who are now chirping would have been singing an entirely different tune?

Then again, it never would have happened with our last president because Dubya Bush was (at best) a C- student, so having him tell the kids not to “misunderstimate the value of a gooder education” really wouldn’t have helped anyone too much.

Come on, does politics have to taint everything nowadays? I mean can’t the President say one nice thing without it being politically motivated? Will Obama’s Merry X-mas wish be dissected by the pundits for the way he tries to abscond with the well-wishes of the season for Democratic gains in the House come the 2010 elections?

Truly, am I the only one sick of this nonsense? Really, at what point do we not all recognize that this kind of stuff is hurting, not helping, our nation?

You know, Freud once famously said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” Well, “sometimes a speech to kids is just that… a speech to kids.”

I just saw the best 30 minutes of television I have seen in years. A true 100% thumbs up. This show will open your eyes in so many ways to kids, poetry, literacy, multiculturalism, education and, dare I say it, hope for our future.

It’s HBO’s new season of Def Poetry Jam, the tv show by Russell Simmons. And this season, they are covering the work of youth poets. Specifically, they are are tracking the regional finals all across the country as a variety of teams make their claim to be the National Youth Poetry champs of Brave New Voices.

It’s off-the-charts in a way like you almost never, ever see on tee-vee. The first 5 minutes of the season begins with the New York team, a group of ferocious teenage poets who year in and year out bring heat like almost no other city in the nation. (I’ve been lucky enough to see them do their stuff in person a few times. The electricity is freakin’ crazy! If you are in New York, their outfit is run by one of the most cutting edge, sharpest poet/educators in the country right now, Micahel Cirelli, the executive director of Urban Word NYC. Look him up and bring this stuff to your kids — it’s unreal how many lives they are reaching right now under the radar. Well, not anymore.)

A sold out Aplollo theater in Harlem. A sold out San Francisco Opera House. A prime time show on HBO. For those of you who have lost faith in the next generation pull up a chair — these kids are doing stuff that’ll make your hair stand on edge.

I’ll say it again… YOU GOTTA WATCH THIS!!! When they said the revolution will not be televised, they had no idea that Russell Simmons was gonna catch glimpses of it and pipe it out for all of America to see on HBO.

Check it out! It’s available On Demand, it’ll be re-running all week and it’s also right here, right now, one click away.

Get comfy and be blown away.