Inspired and Frustrated

Expanding my awareness of the different theories on childhood education has been bitter sweet for me. On one hand, I am inspired by learning about alternative teaching methods that I wish I had been exposed to as a child, and on the other hand I feel disheartened by the reality of the limitations in public. schools. After participating in our mock parent/teacher conferences, I understand the difficulty in defending certain styles of teaching that are more abstract than lectures and worksheets. However, I wish the proponents of standardized education would spend more time in a diverse array of classrooms, so they had a better understanding of how wasteful that perspective can be.
My opinions on this subject come from my experiences working in a Life Learning classroom with children with exceptionalities. I will never forget the frustrated expressions on the faces of the teacher, occupational therapist, and speech therapist as they spent days performing the required standardized tests with children who were unable to understand the tasks. Not only was is a waste of time for the adults and funds for the district, but was equally as frustrating for the children. I remember the teachers laughing about how one child got a pretty good score because he liked the way the letter "B" looked and picked it for every answer. It seems so unfair to measure children by these standards when so many of their amazing strengths cannot be appreciated through filling in bubbles. I wish there was a wider acceptance of some of these other learning methods that allow more exploration and encouragement for the children's self esteems.