The Hasty Generalization

Normally, I would leave the Cincinnati Enquirer beat to Brian over at Cincinnati Blog, but, while searching for the latest word on White Death, I stumbled upon this little gem:

"Teens who could rule the world"

The article, about teens who work to better their communities, locally and statewide, begins with this G.O.P approved nugget:

"There's been a lot of talk recently about how standardized testing and rigid curriculum are sucking the initiative right out of teenagers' souls.

We never quite bought it, but still it's nice to have evidence to the contrary."

Interestingly, this is one of the those anonymous editorials, so it looks like Armstrong Williams has found a new job, but I digress...

Notice how the editorial starts out, with a slap at the opponents of No Child Left Behind and the vocal critics (including this Magic-User) of Proficiency Testing as disasterous to students who would seek higher education by proving, without a shadow of a doubt, that exceptions exist. Thus...all is well in the Republic.

I am glad that exceptions exist, but that does not prove the rule. I teach young people who have been seriously disadvantaged by standardized testing. Basic language skills are hampered or non existant, and so, when they reach college, where no such tests exist, and thus, they have to try to learn what they should have been taught long ago, and given the hardwire of human linguistic potential, it's a struggle.

It's always funny in a sad way when the people who complain about the lack of "cultural literacy" in today's young people are often the same people who thought this was a good idea.

At it's core, the standardized testing/NCLB is anti-teacher, because far be it from professionals to point out that education is not a cheap prospect, nor is learning reducible to a percentage. People who abide by this quantitative epistemology usually would rather spend the money on bombs.

And isn't this really the crux of the matter: An ignorant populace is an easily controlled one, and because standardized testing privileges guessing over reason, ostensibly more "math" and "science" over language, the manipulation is much easier, because the logic in the former is not connected to the latter, and, suddenly, critical thinking vanishes.

But hey, Anonstrong Williams...What do you care? You probably voted down your districts levy anyway.