Toxic Culture of Education

"Any education reform that doesn't address high-stakes testing and the non cognitive factors of true success like character and integrity is a complete waste of time and it's killing our kids. Right now the public narrative in education is all about curriculum, all about schools, all about teachers. We need to start paying attention to our students and who they are."
"Right now in this toxic culture all students are forced to study abstract classes in order to be college-ready and we throw around buzz words like "rigor" and "STEM" and the public loves it! We eat it up, we think it's fantastic but we're missing the point that "rigour" has replaced the word "relevant."
"In public education we've got an amazing opportunity to mold a better tomorrow, yet what we are currently doing is so incredibly toxic."
"..So we have to fight this toxic culture of education we have to change the public narrative away from the curriculum away from the school's even away from the teachers and we have to focus on our students. We have to teach them how to think and how to learn and how to innovate, not how to take tests these are human beings! Why not stop judging the fish on how they climb trees?" 

The US have created a "Toxic Culture of Education" that is damaging students, impacting economy, and threatening their future. Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, they have embraced a culture of high stakes testing and are perpetuating a false sense of failure in their schools. They have ignored research and data on effective policy making practices in order to serve the interest of private industries that have monetized their students. The impact is being felt in communities, on college campuses, and in our economy. The solution lies in a common sense approach to student development, curriculum choice, career exploration, and relevant data analysis. This talk will present a vision of an education system that allows us to embrace our full potential if we only had the courage to ask "Why Not"?
Joshua Katz is a high school math teacher in Orange County, FL.
Great presentation. Excellent points.