Tests, rankings warp education
Australian schools put too much emphasis on what students are and not enough on who they are, according to the former principal of a private Perth junior school.
US-born Clark Wight says the focus on NAPLAN results and Australian tertiary admission rankings is counterproductive and destructive for adolescents.
Mr Wight and WA author Maggie Dent spoke at a parenting forum at Hale School last week, where Mr Wight taught for five years before taking a job as junior headmaster at Christ Church Grammar School, then returning to the US.
Now living in Perth with his wife and three children, the 46-year-old wants parents to stop looking at the MySchool website because he believes it creates a culture of fear and encourages schools to teach for tests.
"We do not go to school to get an ATAR - it's not about a test score," Mr Wight said.
"We go to school because learning history means we can delve into the past to learn about our future.
"We learn science so we can explore nature, explore ourselves, explore anything that's going to happen to us.
"We learn English because we want to communicate."
Mr Wight was surprised when he first noticed Australian students wearing jackets covered in badges, symbols and stripes.
"It's like some of these kids have done three tours of Iraq," he said. "When we put badges and colours on their jackets, we're saying, 'You're not your unique, you're part of these groups'.
"I want them to show up as their true selves.
"There's no badge for being someone who looks out for your friends but that's a core human value."
Mr Wight said the current testing regime was narrowing the approach to education during the formative years, when an adolescent's passions and potential were waiting to be unlocked.
"There's so much more to a child, a student and a person than how they're going to do on a test," he said.
"We need to look at character, the level of service they bring to the community, who they are inside.
"We look at them as a number and I want us to focus more on them as a person, the values that drive them."
Mrs Dent said too much time was wasted "kneeling at the altar of high grades".
"We want stuff in those early adolescent years that puts a light in their eyes," she said.
