Thread by @plthomasEdD

There is now a political and public hand wringing about the need to make sure students "catch up" after the Covid-19 disruption in spring schooling -

a thread why this is deeply misguided

1/x

Helping students "catch up" is fundamentally misguided in the same way as "remediation"

"Remediation" is a flawed concept because *all teaching* is helping students acquire learning they do not yet have; therefore, *all teaching is remediation"

unless ...

2/x

You ascribe to one of the misguided efficiency concepts of traditional schooling in the US - grade level - and standards-based structures such as "proficiency"

See this for more explanation radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/bew…

3/x

Viewing human learning as static (so-called standards "content" that is fixed and structured across grade levels) and sequential/linear helps facilitate formal education; it *is* efficient, but it is also deeply misguided and doesn't really facilitate genuine learning

4/x

The harsh truth about learning is that is haphazard, chaotic, and idiosyncratic ... this is why so often teaching and learning are redundant and recursive, coming back again and again to the same lessons, the same texts, etc.

5/x

Teaching and learning need structure, of course, but the disruption of spring 2020 to formal schooling does *not* mean any students are "behind" and need to "catch up"

Efforts to address that will further *mis-serve* students, especially those already mis-served by schools

6/x

The education system, like the wider society in the US, has *always* been inequitable; the Covid-19 disruption will certainly exacerbate those inequities

7/x

Let's *not* use the Covid-19 crisis and its impact on education to frantically double (triple?) down on our failed deficit ideology and distorting accountability/standards paradigm for schooling

8/x

Let's instead acknowledge the failures to the system itself (not the children, teacher) and start over with equity structures that honor the needs of *all* and *each* student

9/x

In short, "grade level" is a manufactured structure that has almost nothing to do with human behavior or learning but facilitates textbook production, standards development, and high-stakes testing - all of which are some of the very worst aspected of schooling

10/x

STOP thinking that any student is behind, that any student is "not on grade level"

INSTEAD be vigilant about making sure every student has an *equitable opportunity to learn* at the rate they need

11/11

PS

See also the horrible and inappropriate responses to school shootings, fortifying schools instead of addressing gun culture as an analogy

12/11

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