How much did I learn inserted in social middle class education?

I always studied at a private school. I tried the public university, but did not reach the score necessary to be at one. So, my academic life was within private education only. I teach at a private school too and so, I am still being surrounded by only “private” experience.

The school I went to was a catholic one, ruled by nuns. I have to say that it brings me good memories, much more than bad ones I have already shared here. However, little I can say I learned there, in terms of content. My learning was basically done through memorization and preparation for tests. When I thought “outside the box” I was brought back to the reality school had and wanted us to embrace. Since that time, my school leaders were worried about the rank for private schools. They wanted us, students, to do great at tests so there would be good “advertisement” for the school, and then, more students.

I believe that this teaching-learning process based on tests shaped me in the way I am now. When I realized I was “forgetting” things right after the test, I had my eyes opened for how inefficient that method was like. I used this reflection to be the teacher I wanted for my own learning.

Unfortunately, schools still consider scores and results in tests much more important than the result found in the students’ lives in the future. I work at an IB school, for the PYP, and even here, I can see that the higher the level is (consider MYP and Diploma), the greater the worry for results gets to be. The work we have at PYP seems to be worthless when they get older, and then students start to struggle. They need scores, points, results!

Jane Perryman has assumptions that I wish were worldwide spread. She does not say, but I am sure that besides all the other interest the inspection system has, there is a lot of money involved, and then schools cannot get rid of the “worry for results”. Parents are still looking at the ranks and results schools show when they have to choose a school for their child. I ask myself if this is really the most important aspect when they have to make such a huge choice. As a teacher, we know that a single test taken for a couple of hours cannot reflect the student’s’ academic life or how the school is like.

I am sure that when my mother chose the school I would go to she did not check the ranks at all. She chose a school that would be aligned to her values, the ones she wanted her kids to have. She also chose one that would be near my house and would not make us stressed out during our commute. Wise choice, in my point of view.

Although I did not go to a public university, I was the 4th one to pass in this private one I attended. This reinforces even more what Sandra Leaton Gray says in her article. I’ve always been part of the middle social class. My friends all attended great universities and have a more comfortable life than the ones I used to play with at the street who attended public schools. I wonder if this is something that happens all around the world… Are teachers really more fond of teaching middle class students than any other? Is this something that has always been this way? Should I feel guilty for being part of the middle class or for continuing teaching and having an academic life within this context?

There is a lot to discuss and reflect. I know the inspection systems have the job of assuring the same and right education to every student. Nethertheless, we have to consider if this is still the main purpose of their existence and if their goals are clear for the ones that rule educational institutes.