High stakes or at stake?

As the demands of high stakes testing increase, the challenges of creating compelling educational experiences increase proportionally. And yet, I have witnessed some very creative MEAP test preparation (MEAP is State of Michigan assessments). I have seen teachers plaster their walls and even their ceilings with colorful posters and diagrams with test relevant information. I have seen teachers use drama to teach writing to prompts and manipulatives to teach math. Even though standardized testing has put thinking at stake, it is still possible to teach students to think. The children we are teaching will face some huge issues, global warming and energy not the least of them, but with populations increasing, the basic needs of human life, food and water, may become critical issues. Education can't be only about knowing how to respond to something a certain way, or solving a problem based on an expected outcome, but must also be about reasoning our way through problems, by thinking, and discovering, and by asking questions, by wondering how something works or why something is the way it is. We have a responsibility, as educators, in spite of current trends, to teach kids how to think. Creating compelling experiences that draw the students into the curriculum, rather than getting them through it, is our only real hope.