Seriously Lifetouch?!

I just got my school pictures back in my mailbox at school. Lifetouch does ours, they probably do yours too. Along with the two free 4x6s that each teacher gets every year (they do our school IDs), was the following:

 

I nearly had an aneurism. The ‘Welcome’ sign is cute idea. I might even use it. But putting my face (and all my colleagues’ faces) on a ‘Testing’ sign actually pissed me off. Testing is a political function unrelated to the judgement of actual educators. There is a considerable body of evidence that current testing regimes a) fail completely to achieve what they claim to have been intended to achieve, and b) produce net negative learning as well as actual and measurable harm to children.

To put my face on that sign is offensive. As a part of my job I do administer testing, but that is distinct from my professional judgements concerning testing, and this sign definitely would imply a position I do not hold, were I to use it, which I NEVER will.

Lifetouch is not an education company in any way. They make money by taking pictures of school children. And I know that some well meaning functionary of corporate bureaucracy made this decision (I checked- this was not requested by the school). But it evidences a total lack of awareness of real issues in education to do this. The ‘Welcome’ sign was a cute idea- you should have stopped there Lifetouch. Now we know how ignorant you are.