Music video makes point about teaching to the test

Describing himself as “a great fan of America’s public education,” singer Tom Chapin says he really appreciates the tough job that faces every teacher. “I believe they need all the help they can get: Anything that excites a student, opens their eyes, and hearts and minds is a positive that makes a child invest in school,” he says on a website called Not On The Test, where a song he wrote with John Forster appears.

“Music, art, drama and sports—these are what kept me involved when I was in school. And these very things, that make a teacher’s (and student’s) job easier and more rewarding, are what’s been cut from curriculums across the country. Now we are teaching by rote again—where the test, and only the test, becomes the reason to teach and study.” Check out the song Not On The Test.