Like most institutions, elementary schools evolve, whether because of advancements in technology, new methodologies, or fluctuating school budgets nationwide. An elementary school teacher recently went viral on TikTok for calling out nine things that have been removed from the classroom.
Of course, schools are different across the country, but @mommy_n_zachy makes a strong case that classrooms should be places for hands-on learning. She adds there should also be a big emphasis on creativity in addition to making sure kids graduate with a strong understanding of the three Rs.
9 things that shouldn’t have been taken out of the classroom, according to @mommy_n_zachy
1. Spelling tests
“Remember when we would take spelling tests on, like, Fridays?” the teacher asks. “We’d study for those spelling tests, and you would be so excited because you knew you was just gonna get 100 at the end of that Friday. When you get your spelling test back with that big sticker on the top.”
2. Spelling bees
“Remember when we had school-wide spelling bees? We compete against the other classes, and then eventually we go against the best spellers in the schools. Am I missing something? Because whatever happened to that?” the teacher asked.
A big reason spelling bees aren’t as common in schools today is that spelling itself became less important in curricula across the country. In a world with spellcheck and autocorrect, memorizing words just isn’t as important.
3. Pocket dictionaries
“I remember when I was going to school; that was a very long time ago. You would have to come to school with a pocket dictionary,” the teacher continued. “That was on our school supply list. I would keep it in my desk and bring it home every night, because if I ever came upon a word that I didn’t know from my spelling list.”
4. Penmanship
“I can’t tell sometimes what the heck these kids are writing on the paper. Their penmanship is atrocious. There’s no time in the day to practice that,” the teacher said.
In a world where people do most of their writing on keyboards, penmanship has taken a backseat in America’s schools. Schools now pay closer attention to how students compose their writing than how it looks on the page.
5. Show and tell
“These are little children… and these were some of the things that you’ll be so excited to do,” the teacher continued. “Bring in something that you created, your parents bought for you, and you will showcase it to your friends.”
6. Talent shows
“These kids are so talented. They can sing, they can dance, they can act. And because we’re always pushing towards testing, there’s really no time for us to just get to know our students on a deeper level,” the teacher said.
7. Creative writing classes
“So much of our day is working on skills and testing that we have, like, literally choked out the creativity out of our students, and it shows because they are not able to think critically…the creativity is gone,” she said.
This appears to be connected to the shift toward an emphasis on standardized testing, so kids are taught to write in a way that will help them on the exam.
8. Hands-on experiments
The teacher remembers doing science experiments as a child where she dyed flowers or used a potato for electricity experiments. “I’ve been working in the city for about 10 years, and I have not seen that happening,” she said. “And I don’t know what happened to it. Bring it back.”
9. Cooking projects
“Kids need to know how to cook nutritious meals. Nutritious. They’re coming in with Takis, soda, juice, candy. Like, the nutrition has gone down the drain,” she continued.
While these problems don’t affect all schools, @mommy_n_zachy makes a great point: when these elements are missing, children’s academic experience suffers in other areas. “There’s a lot of things that we have taken out of the classroom and we’re wondering why kids are unable to keep up,” she concludes her post. “And this is the reason why. So we need to bring it back to basics.”
