My Thoughts on the "Dangerously Irrelevant" Blog by Scott McLeod...

Scott McLeod is the author of the “Dangerously Irrelevant” Blog and currently serves as the Director of Innovation for Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency in Iowa. He also is the Founding Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators, and was a co-creator of the wildly popular video series, Did You Know? (Shift Happens). He states that his blog is, “intended to help resolve some of those incongruities for K-12 school leaders.” Mr. McLeod’s blog is certainly one of the most interesting blogs I have read so far this semester. His blog is full of clips and articles that are mostly written by educators or parents who are disappointed with the way the school system's in the respective area are being run. This blog certainly provided me with another perspective on standardized testing, and the diminishing of “originality” in the public school systems across the country.

In the first post, Mr. McLeod linked to an article written by Jack Schneider and Heather Curl who are questioning the “Policy Elites” and whether or not they feel the public school systems that they are reinforcing is good enough for their own children. Mr. Schneider and Ms. Curl feel that students should have less standardized testing and more time for “play and discovery”. They are concerned that the schools are cutting the arts from their curriculum to have more time to prepare students for testing. In my response, I reiterated the fact that my main focus as a future educator was to uphold and align my curriculum with the standards and policies set-forth by our Government and Public School Systems. However, I agreed that the arts is extremely valuable to every child because it allows their creativity and individuality to flourish, and therefore would be my responsibility to incorporate the arts into my lesson plans as much as possible.

In the second post, Mr. McLeod linked to an article written by Amy Prime who is a teacher from Iowa. In her article Mrs. Prime also writes that she is against all the standardized testing and would like to be able to get back to the basics of teaching. She also brings up the “Opt Out Movement” which I previously was not aware of. The movement basically gives the parents the option to “Opt Out” of standardized testing for their children. As a mother, she felt this was the best option for her own children so she opted out. In my response I indicated that I wished there was a “happy median” for this situation and that as a future educator it alarms me how more and more educators are trying to force changes to the national and state mandated standards.

Project Five C4T-3 Summary