Wisdom for the Ages

"Our schools will not improve if we continue to focus only on reading and mathematics while ignoring the other studies that are essential elements of a good education... Our schools will not improve if we value only what tests measure... Not everything that matters can be quantified."

--Diane Ravitch


A good response to all those scared shitless administrators who hold meeting after meeting to try and control every facet of what goes on in the classroom - from what is taught to how it is taught to when it is taught.

Education has grown more and more regimented every year since NCLB.

It's not working.

Hey - maybe we should regiment it even more!

Add national standards.

Add a national assessment.

And get the fear-mongers in the press to shriek if we don't do these things, we're going to fall behind the Japanese, uh, Chinese, er, Koreans - ah, somebody on the other side of the world!

We often hear the mantra from ed deformers, parroting a slogan they read on a KIPP pamphlet: We know what works.

Usually they are talking about more regimentation, more standardized tests, additional hours and days in school, more homework after school, constant benchmarks that must be met by school, teacher and student.

But the reality is, the more these things get added, the worse the level of education.

I say, we DO know what works - teach to the whole child, not to the test scores. Teach a love of learning, a love of reading and writing, a love of science and experimentation, a love of history and knowledge about the past, a desire to learn more about the self, and emotional awareness and health and children WILL grow up better educated, better adapted to the vicissitudes of the 21st century, better able to handle whatever life brings.

But that kind of education is NOT quantifiable nor is it comfortable for dehumanized autocrats and bullies like Michael Bloomberg, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates, et al.

And you can't hand out billions in no-bid testing contracts with that kind of education.

So we get more of the failed No Child Left Behind education policies under another name.

Race to the Top.

Common Core.

Destined to Fail.

But Destined to Make McGraw-Hill, Pearson, News Corp. Kaplan, et al. very, very rich.