COPENHAGEN, New York (WWNY) – From Shakespeare, to grammar, science and math. Traditional school topics are important. But teachers across the state argue school’s should be doing more to help kids grow.
The state’s teachers union is out with the “Future Forward Report.” The goal is to bring a new normal to public schools and to address the weaknesses the pandemic exposed.
“We’ve known for a while that public education needs to evolve,” said Lori Atkinson.
Lori Atkinson is an English teacher at Copenhagen Central School. She is the only North Country teacher on the task force pushing for change.
One of her goals is to marginalize standardized testing.
“I have students all the time and I tell them this, they have high anxiety and when you tie standardized testing to graduation, you just amped the anxiety,” said Atkinson.
Outside of the classroom, she says the time spent away from school revealed that kids need more social-emotional support, especially at the elementary level.
“We have kids that don’t know how to behave in the cafeteria. It’s not because they’re naughty kids, it’s because they weren’t socialized,” said Atkinson.
Atkinson says schools need to have more counselors and to make sure they’re accessible for students. She says the pandemic also exposed the need to feed students.
“As the pandemic went on, more and more people were getting laid-off or losing their jobs. And food and security became the number one issue,” said Atkinson.
She says the state gave schools a waiver this year to feed all students for free. But she wants that to be part of the new normal.
Atkinson says the task force began advocating for change over the summer by speaking with state lawmakers, and it’s going to take a lot more to see everything come to fruition. But she’s hoping a new normal will mean a brighter future for students.
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