The layman versus the insightful professional debate often intrigues me. And when it comes to parents thinking that the insane amount of bubble testing we are mandating for our kids is actually a good thing for education, I can easily see why they fall victim to “buying the hype of data”.

As teachers, we are privy to the “insider knowledge” of how assessments actually interact with curriculum… which interact with teaching methodology, which interact with social environment, which interact with student skill sets prior to ever even coming to school, which ultimately culminate into some sort of an equation that translates into real learning (a concoction affected by a host of other factors as well, from parents to culture to resources and so on). Yet, does the layperson (i.e. do the parents) really see and understand the complexity of all this? Probably not so much… which is what makes us the insightful professionals and them, the parents, the laypersons in the first place.

Then again, when I get an oil change and the mechanic upsells me to “high viscosity lubrication fluids” am I a sucker for blindly saying yes or am I wise to listen to the professional who should know more about car engines than I?

And when my roof needs fixing, am I silly to delegate the issue of water sealants to the person I hire or am I to be expected to climb up on a ladder and learn all the elements one needs to know in order to prevent a ceiling leak from dripping down onto my head at night?

At what point should we expect parents to be involved and know that, “Hey, these bubble tests stink!”

And at what point should we expect parents to know, “Hey, we need assessment practices that are more all-encompassing and less prone to trying to reduce the aspects of student-hood into an over-simplification that renders children faceless and talentless if they do not fit nicely into a pre-determined – and almost arbitrary – box… as designed by think-tank PhD. types, no less?”

Where is the line between a diligent, well-informed parent and a naive, how-can-you-be-so-silly-to-but-into-the-standardized testing-propaganda, get drawn?

Should parents trust the child’s schooling to our schools? I say yes and no. Except determining where the yes is and where the no is can be quite a fuzzy thing.

Parents… be informed. To what extent? I say the more the better… but then again, the layperson will never know as much as the insightful professional… but that’s no excuse for simply throwing up your hands, remaining uninformed and buying into the sizzle and not the steak.

I work hard at trying to provide learning opportunities that can be fun. For sure it’s a “special sauce” in my teaching methodology because I deeply believe that people try harder – and that there is more “stickiness” to education – when students are actually enjoying the work they are being asked to do.

Fact is, figuring out how to marry meaningfulness to rigor through “fun” is how I spend a lot of my prep time for lessons. Making school “enjoyable” is not a dirty word. (Though you wouldn’t know it if you look at the textbooks, the bubble sheet tests, or even the content standards. Sheesh, could they be more boring? Particularly the bubble tests. It’s like they overtly seek to disengage students as if triumphing over the dread of the content being tested is a academic skill for today’s kids.)

In my estimation, discounting the element of “enjoyability”, “meaningfulness” and “pleasure” is an Achille’s heel in ours school.

And rigor does not have to be sacrificed at the altar of student enjoyment. (Trust me, project-based learning where kids actually have to “create” something requires far more depth of knowledge and diversified skill sets than choosing A, B, C, or D 75 times in a row.)

But often it seems like we forget the perspective of the kids when we craft our lesson plans.

As a student, I want to sit in the room of a chemistry teacher who “blows something up” in order to bring a lesson to life.

As a student, I want to sit in the room of a history teacher who figures out a way for me to smell the stench of a blood-stained battlefield.

As a student, I want to be intrigued, challenged and engaged. I like surprises. I like experiences. I like it when I like what is going on around me.

And I don’t like it when I don’t. Life is interesting. School can be invigorating. The world is an amazingly complex, interesting and awe-inspiring place.

Don’t let it die on the classroom vine.

Engross your students. Gross out your students. But know that if you want to better reach your students, I say, don’t violate the law of basic kid-ness: they like to enjoy what they are doing.

After all, you catch more flies with honey, right?