Teach to teach vs. teach to learn?

While wondering online and doing some Latin American Politics homework I came across this video. Yet again, the calm futuristic music plays in the background as educators urge for a change in the system of education. A change to a 21st century model of education. At one point, the 21st century plan of collaboration and technology proficiency is quoted word for word. For a moment I want to yell, "Yes! Policy change!" Then I stop. Why do I stop?

Maybe I am a cynic, but I feel reluctant to believe in a 21st century model of education. Not even completely that. This blog is called "Reworking the Education System" to see other methods of education and how to improve upon the United States model. Yes, the ideas are presented well in the video, and I feel like they are ideas all teachers would agree with. I guess my reluctance comes when I think about classroom vs. test scores. The 21st century model, in my eyes, only applies to a classroom model. They don't mention that pesky thing No Child Left Behind requires. State Testing.

We can't escape those things, at least not in the EVALUATION method that schools require. In theory, the new model, the "21st century" model, will make students strive for a higher education. But what if in that strive, kids are studying more about the Civil War than on percentages? I get so frustrated when I hear that the teachers are failing students. Yes, there are some bad teachers out there, but there are good ones as well. I was in a classroom last year where my teachers had to sacrifice social studies to teach reading and math. We had to try and go out of our way to find a way to inform students about their history in the country. I should mention my students were mostly immigrants as well, so they wanted to also know about their own history as well, which the school couldn't provide. However, minority history is another topic for another day.

What I am trying to get at is that state model testing requires teachers to essentially teach the material that will be on the test. Some may say, "Shouldn't the teacher already be teaching that?" They are, but if you don't get al the material in to a short time frame, then the student will miss points. Yes, you may have to go a bit fast in the material, but it isn't about grasping the full concepts. Teach to teach. That isn't what the previous model of education was based on, but that is what it became. The original one was teach to learn. Maybe the 21st century model will get us back to that, but it still has to battle with that age old bully, Uncle Sam.