Anything a Child Can Do, a Teacher Shouldn't

By Joan F. Goodman

The requirement that schools meet state standards, or else, is in conflict with the notion of student autonomy. How this plays out in classrooms is all too familiar to teachers.

A child may want to do research on turtles, but mastery of turtles is not a state objective. While pursuing his keen interest in turtles might increase the child’s reading and math skills, given the stakes, a teacher could be forgiven for insisting that this child adhere to the required curriculum.

Another child may be willing to study as prescribed, but wants to do so with her friends. The teacher knows that if she grants permission there will be chatter, some possibly irrelevant to the task. Although, over time, the group activity might be more productive than solitary work, time is what the teacher does not have with the tests looming in the near horizon. So she assumes full control over the curriculum, and over every aspect...