I'll give you that the video gives a wonderful treatise on the many, mostly negative, effects of standardized testing. And yes, teachers should get out in front of these discussions. They wasted that opportunity in Indiana. For the past 10-20 years, anyone with a semi-functioning brain could see the various debates shaping up in education - merit pay, standardized testing, etc. Instead of jumping out in front of the issues, and thereby framing the issues how they wanted, the teachers/education establishment sat back and whined. Nature abhors a vacuum, and into the vacuum stepped politicians. These same people who can't seem to comprehend basic math, nor drive from one end of Indy to the other without a DUI. They framed the debate, on focus group tested sound bytes, demagoguery, and "solutions" that simply create more problems while failing to solve anything. But they framed the debate, and they won because they took control of the issues.
And you can hate all you want about this being a parent problem, but that doesn't change the fact that it is. Schools cannot force kids to do their homework, behave in class, have scholastic ambition, and really apply themselves when their parents won't even do that. Did you know that homework is optional? That's something I learned when my son started school. So many parents took so little interest in their kids' education that a very high percentage were just blowing off homework every night. And so it goes. It is the job of parents to raise their children with a respect for those things, and too many parents today barely raise their children by any definition. It really does all start at home. I realize I may be singing a hopeless tune here, but the root of so many of our problems lies in the home.
And please don't take my statement about being a parent, not a friend, and try and make it sound like I went to the Josef Goebbles School of Parentry. Being the parent doesn't necessarily mean being mean. It means, as you said, driving the relationship yourself, not allowing the child to drive it. And not being afraid to teach your child that they aren't always right, and that just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.
All in all, if this woman is a bad teacher, she should be removed from the classroom. Period. And yes, it could be a very instructional piece to legislators, policymakers, and the general public that even the students can see that so many educational "reforms" are wasted time and effort. But the problem is so complex, and so pervasive, that I'm not sure it can be solved anymore under the current system.
