The National Teacher of the Year tells Missouri school administrators the way student achievement is measured needs a major overhaul—and so does the American system of education.

Oregon seventh-grade science teacher Michael Geisen says schools are still mired in the teaching philosophy of a century ago and ask the wrong question in evaluating student achievement. He tells about 600 school administrators this nation faces incredible competition from educated people elsewhere in the world but focuses too much on reading, writing, and arithmetic while slighting humor, risk, creativity, relationships, relevance, and rigor.

He says the teachers’ job is not to fill students heads with knowledge, but to inspire them to develop their analytical skills, practical skills, and creativity. And he says educators must redefine "intelligence," dropping systems that assign numbers to student absorption of information, and going to a system that asks NOT "how intelligent are you," but instead asks "How are you intelligent."

You can hear much of his speech to the group by clicking on the link below.

 

upload Geisen’s speech (56:18 mp3)