Former Gov. Booth Gardner has an op-ed in today's Seattle Times where he calls for abolishing objective educational standards: "WASL: the home stretch". The central claim in his argument is that the school system is inherently biased in favor of white people.
Our public-education system is based on a single dominant European culture. As a result, many students of color feel they are studying in a foreign land.Gardner's argument might be less ridiculous if it weren't for the fact that the best performing ethnic groups in local public schools are not European, but Asian, specifically Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Even if one accepts that enough public school teachers and administrators are sufficiently prejudiced against some groups to harm their educational outcomes, the logical solution would be to insist that student evaluations be more, rather than less, objective. Who could seriously suggest giving purportedly biased teachers more, not less, power to discriminate against their students, which they would have with the sort of highly subjective evaluations that Gardner is proposing ?
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 18, 2005 04:06 PM | Email ThisNow that the WASL is displaying that public education is failing our children and it's time to scrap solid measurements of skills and move to subjective measurements based on race.
Posted by: GPaT on December 18, 2005 04:26 PMYep. It's called American culture. When people move here, it is their responsibility to adapt to this nation's culture, as it would be my responsibility to adapt if I moved to Japan or Taiwan.
And if Gardner's thinking of black kids, one has to wonder how his mind (or whatever) works. Any black family descended from slaves has been in this country longer than at least one side of my family has. If black kids feel like American culture is foreign to them, it's because white liberals like Gardner have encouraged them to feel like foreigners instead of like Americans.
Posted by: ScottM on December 18, 2005 05:16 PM
As for black people who descended from slaves, when was the last time students learned much of anything about black history in public school? most people couldn't name more than a handful of black leaders. How is WASL going to fix such exclusions of our American heritage from history books? And how should we expect kids, who know that their history is ignored, to feel about their education?
WASL tests may not be very good tests for one or more reasons, but at least they consistently measure a standard achievement. Departures from consistent standards though possibly well-meaning are inviting more disaster because they shift the emphasis of education from scholarship to social justice. Social and economic problems can never be solved through any type of educational system unless it consistently prepares all children for one high academic standard. Attempts at equalization hurt nearly all students in one way or another. Most especially the disadvantaged.
Different standards (tests) for different ability levels (especially for those that do poorly) gloss over relevant deficiencies in favor of symbolic equality, and deceive children into a cruel dilemma. By the time their quandary is discovered, often it is too late. Discovering and overcoming deficiencies through testing is crucial to a child’s ability to function after the “testing” is over and done with, and failures telegraph themselves well beyond school days into later life. Proof of lacking critical human capacities can be easily observed in the choices made in our last election.
Booth needs to be thankful for the fact that he was raised in an advantaged family. Further, he should grow up to accept the fact that life is hard, and some children will not do as well on tests as others because different people have different native abilities. If that is not enough to assuage his liberal guilt, I suggest he help education by shutting up and donating huge amounts of his great fortune to local schools.
The purpose of education is to prepare children to be adults i.e., to function in a society that will not stop and wait or make allowances for those who are not prepared. It is also to prepare Americans to compete in a world that doesn't play the asinine degenerative liberal games we are playing with education.
People of all races and cultures can excel in a high standard environment. Booth and others like him must learn to quit condescending to others by evaluating people on the basis of race, culture, and class distinctions and instead move toward educating children instead of dividing them up into social projects. If you want to remedy education, improve the curriculum by raising standards and demanding excellence from school teachers and students. The best way to start is to abandon public education and the grip of the teachers unions. Private schools, charter schools, home schooling and other community schooling alternatives will allow communities to sidestep this vicious cycle of social engineering and ideological propaganda.
All children can obtain a good education if those in charge behave like adults.
It can be done by grown-ups. . . but just as Booth has shown . . . not by liberals.
This is the same excuse we are allowing to take place over the WASL. There is a direct correlation between a parent's interest in education and the academic achievement of a student. Those who think it is important will make sure their child is in a chair throughout the school day, and does homework at night.
Those who don't will whine and complain that the test is flawed. Gardner is guilty of elitism.
Posted by: Janet S on December 18, 2005 06:26 PMig, this point, I agree with you. WASL is a band-aid which the teachers union will have to defeat because they will claim it is inherently racsist to expect all students to perform at an expected level. Bullcrap! Parents have to challenge their children if they have any expectation of their child's future. There is a building called a Public Library where it is possible to obtain an education without a politically driven agenda.
Posted by: Shmoe on December 18, 2005 06:36 PMWestern education has traditionally meant there were certain facts an educated person was expected to know, and certain skills they were expected to master. These are the prerequisite things necessary to critical thinking. Today, modern education is attempting to separate facts and knowledge from skill, and find a shortcut to critical thinking. Educators at OSPI think they can do this, and the WASL is a test that fits their ideology. The rhetoric that the problem with education is that it is too western-european-centered is a part of their theory too; since critical thinking can be taught independent of knowledge, there is no reason to teach the body of knowledge that has traditionally been a part of western education. To prefer one set of facts or history to another seems silly to them.
One problem with this is that you can't think critically if you don't know anything! Knowledge is power because without it your beautiful logic is twaddle.
Re: kids learning black history in school: when was the last time kids systematically and comprehensively learned *anything* about history in school? The schools aren't trying to teach it in the first place. That said, black history now gets better coverage than regular american history. My sons (12 and 10) have been learning about MLK since kindergarten, and they can tell you quite a bit about him. They really identify with him. On the other hand, I asked them last February who George Washington was, and my 10 yr old didn't know. My 12 yr old knew a little, but *vastly* less than he knew about MLK. How can we remain a free country when we neglect to teach our kids about the people and ideas that laid the foundations for our nation?
Posted by: California Dreamer on December 18, 2005 07:28 PMI never met one.
This game isn't worth the candle.
Give the whiners the meaningless diplomas they demand, and give the people who can pass the WASL some other documents or some identifying mark on their diplomas.
Then, let the market decide whether passing the WASL is a meaningful accomplishment.
Posted by: Micajah on December 18, 2005 08:22 PMThe real issue with education is that liberal teaching (think Howard Zinn) of history has been moving along the path that says that history shouldn't be all about dead white males, and thus in schools alternatives get presented. Unfortunately, those alternatives are taught out of context--they are an alternative to what, exactly, if the dead white males aren't ever discussed? The approach has been taken to such an extreme that it's time a Howard Zinn-wannabe shows up and argues that education needs to focus on dead white males to balance out the inherent cultural bias in the educational system.
Posted by: Marc on December 18, 2005 09:00 PMMath is math. No colors, no accents, just universal facts. Same with science. Apply yourself. Work. There are no secrets. No shortcuts. If you fail tests, look in the mirror, students--(and you too, Parents!)
stop this insane cultural butt-kissing crap--1+1=2 here AND on a WA small-town street, AND in an Asian palace AND on the remote peak of Everest. 2 types--doers and blamers;
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on December 18, 2005 10:03 PMYou ask very appropriatly, "How can we remain a free country when we neglect to teach our kids
about the people and ideas that laid the foundations for our nation?"
We cannot, and we will not, and it's a damned shame.
Thanks.
Posted by: Amused by liberals on December 18, 2005 10:38 PMI agree with you that public school education needs to be much more rigorous here. I came to the US from another country and was able to skip 3 grade levels. In the same grade in Russia we were doing algebra and geometry while the kids here were still learning how to add and subtract. No doubt that teachers and parents need to be held accountable, but so do the rest of us in this country. I am proud to live here and I will gladly pay taxes and work towards a better education for American schools.
I do, however, think that there is no such thing as "regular american history" and I don't think that aknowledging this waters down education or inhibits critical thinking. What you refer to as "regular" is only regular because for the most part it has been written by "white men." (This is not an attack on anyone here and i am not saying that we should never learn anything written by white men.) It's just a historical fact. and what we consider "regular history" is history that is biased and limited and education will not be hurt by teaching other points of view as well. (why MLK is one of the very few black historical figures that kids learn about over and over in school is a whole other conversation).
Saying there is no "Regular American History," because it was written by white men is inane, and calling this observation an "historical fact" is plain stupid.
The white men who settled the North American Continent were the most moral humans on earth at the time and ultimately proved it by establishing the most moral government in the history of the world.
Our evolving American society is characterized by the most continuous contentious polemical discourse that exists in the world which also means that all points of view have been well represented including but most especially minorities. No society in the world has successfully addressed and resolved the disparate social problems we have. While we are admittedly not done, very few others in history ever started.
Further and more importantly, those who wrote our history had less to gain by inaccuracies than any others of the type. Their motives were diverse and mixed and the aggregate was express and undeniable because there was no singular partisanship. Our History, unlike most others was not written by conquerers but by average citizens whose intent was not publication.
Ig, you may be able to cipher O.K., but you are totally ignorant about American History. Read up or shut up.
You have no idea of what you are talking about.
Does multi-culturalism mean that we need to accept all aspects of a culture as "correct"? Is that the case, even when some cultures undervalue education?
A better solution would be to work with these immigrants to convince them that education is important.
Posted by: BananaLand on December 19, 2005 01:36 AMIn typical Republican fashion,however, you want to make a winner/loser scenario out of it. Really--------- do you think that the President could pass the WASL? I don't.
Posted by: Winston Smith on December 19, 2005 07:45 AMThe test was to set a minimum standard. If you don't want people meeting the minimum standard, don't invent other tests so they can conform. Get rid of it and call it a 'bad' social experiment.
Posted by: swatter on December 19, 2005 08:00 AMWinston- Interesting analysis, but do you really think that if, say, I take a test and everyone who sees my results understands that realistically, they can't expect me to write coherently, or read beyond a 4th grade level, that I'll be anything other than a "loser"? The point of expecting kids to meet minimum expectations is not to create winners and losers, but to recognize that, like it or not, "realistic idea" or not, if you can't meet those minimum expectations, you are a loser. And we want to encourage every student, in any way we can, to get above that minimum threshold, out of the loser category, and into the winner side. That's not mean- it's kind. And the point of publicly-funded education is not just to sort everyone, just so we all know what everyone is capable of, it's to create an informed citizenry that can keep this country running. That requires some minimum competency.
I feel really strongly about clear and strong academic standards, and objective testing to see how well those standards are being met. But I really hate the WASL. It costs something like $60 a student to grade, while tests like the ITBS test cost under $3. The WASL shouldn't be dumbed down, it should be replaced.
you're a conversational bully. your comments have revealed you as a perfect example of why just teaching people how to read and write is not enough of an education. Americans have excelled throughout history because of our ability to think outside of the box. The world is complex and your binary thinking is simplistic.
also, i joined in this conversation because i am intersted in speaking with people who have a different point of view from mine. i am not interested in exchanging insults. you calling me stupid or telling me to shut up only shows that you would rather carry on a conversation with yourself. if you can't be civil, please save the keystrokes because i don't like your teenage social skills and i will no longer read your comments. you might be a nicer person face-to-face but the anonymity of this forum brings out arrogant and childish parts of you.
Posted by: ig on December 19, 2005 10:33 AMmy point was that we shouldn't confuse inclusive history with bad education. learning the same story about MLK in every grade is not my idea of good education either. Public schools need good teachers who have time to create complex lessons. These teachers need insentive, manageable classrooms and a decent pay to teach well in public schools. As you say, WASL seems to be a waste of resources at this point.
Posted by: ig on December 19, 2005 10:52 AMThe WASL should stand as is and the requirement should be 100 percent passing rate. I would dare say the WASL should be harder. If you can't even figure out arithmetic how do you expect to compete with China or Indian which have better engineers than MIT.
Posted by: Marc on December 19, 2005 12:15 PMMy significant other is a professor at UW. I can't speak for every department but he and the other professors have to work hard. They are trying to graduate undergrads and graduate students, preparing them for higher level jobs. After each and every single UW class the students are given (not asked, given) a performance review for the class and the professor. That review gets used as part of non-COLA raises as well as promotions. That means every student can grade every professor, anonymously. It can be brutal but it does make most professors want to do better if only for their own self interest. Besides student reviews, there are peer reviews. The professors in the department have to find their own money to pay for graduate students to be able to travel to conferences to present their work. They have to find the money to pay for their own research. Do you all think universities have passels of money for research? No, grants have to be written and money found.
So get that "ivory tower elite" crap out of the mix. It's just not true.
And by the way, they have a vested interest in the WASL. They need these students coming in prepared to do the work and they are not. Remedial classes are being added all the time because these kids can't do basic college math and write a coherent sentence. UW has too many applicants for seats and some of those seats are being held by kids taking more than 4 years to get through.
Posted by: westello on December 19, 2005 05:17 PMGolly.
Thanks for providing me with the benefit of your touching and expressive observations.
I must admit that given your demonstrated grasp of reality, I would certainly be better off to carry on a conversation with myself,
but then again I’d miss your little gems of profound wisdom.
Because I have never been punished before by anyone who insists that they will ”no longer read my comments,” I'm not quite sure how to react.
I guess this means that I will be forced to forgo the benefit of your vast intellectual resources, and rapier-like wit.
O.K.Bye.
And Winston, if really think that Bush couldn't pass the WASL, do you think all the Dems that got tricked by this moron could?
Posted by: fred on December 20, 2005 08:49 AMi completely agree with what you say. we should not segregate history. we should teach American history covering the stories of ALL people who been a part of it.
when people like Amused write,
"The white men who settled the North American Continent were the most moral humans on earth at the time...those who wrote our history had less to gain by inaccuracies than any others of the type...Our History, unlike most others was not written by conquerers..[sic]"
i wonder how someone who seems to write well and therefore, i assume have an education, be completely...(in denial? clueless?) about American history (think slavery, lynching, Native American genocide, Japanese internment camps in our own backyard, etc.). Naturally if we only teach "regular history" as written by white men only, we will end up with articulate people who can talk but can't think.
again, as i said before, i am not saying that all history written by white men is bad history, i am just saying that it's one-sided and teaching more complex history will not hurt education, but make people more compassionate and intelligent.
As Einstein wrote, "whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
The problem here is that your prejudices inform a very limited perspective.
Your own words in an earlier post, ”The world is complex and your binary thinking is simplistic.” apply most aptly to you.
Once again, you intentionally leave out the only important facts associated with your own observations. Varying aspects of slavery, lynching, genocide, and internment camps have occurred all around the world throughout America's history and all of these events still occur in one form or another in many places around the world today.
More importantly, history written by white men has fairly (and unfairly) chronicled all of these types of events in America and around the world, congresses of white men made laws to prohibit such activities and establish fundamental rights, armies of white men fought and died in staggering numbers to stop such heinous human abuses, and many thousands of white men are fighting on foreign battlefields today against many of these very same abuses. Your comments are one-sided and bigoted.
You say, ”we should not segregate history. [sic] we should teach American history covering the stories of ALL people who [have] been a part of it.”
Then you turn right around and say, ”if we only teach "regular history" as written by white men only, we will end up with articulate people who can talk but can't think.” This statement reveals your own ignorance, simplistic duplicity, and lack of critical thinking skills.
Spend a little time in a library. You were correct earlier when you said that there is no such thing as "regular history" to begin with, unless you meant a “generalized historical survey.” The profusion of varied American historical writings today is astounding, all of it is written with a bias, and the majority of it is written by white men. You will find that the best of it is written by white men as well. Bias is not always a bad thing, especially if it favors the purpose it seeks, and that end is understood. Comprehension of enough history to make informed choices about the future is the most laudable end.
The key here is to survey enough sources to allow one to identify inherent preconceptions, by comparing them to other analogous views. Read two books on the Civil War (or other subject) instead of one, or five, or twenty. You are obviously attempting to argue against racism and bigotry, and while that is a fine purpose, you haven’t identified what it is. It is the content of the product that counts, not the race of the producer. Arguing against white men, rather than racist/bigoted men makes you racist and bigoted.
The point of all of this is to provide school children with a generalized survey of history that is biased toward an accurate depiction of events and consequences in American history instead of one whose purpose is to coach them into minority views. Those who design the curricula in many schools today are making choices that warp the perspectives of school children and damage our culture. Modern so-called diversity training is designed to divide people through their differences rather than uniting them by their more prevalent and useful similarities. Such devices instill prejudices that are great ways to dumb people down to liberalism and the soft bigotry of low expectations.
Ideally, schools don’t need Black History classes, or White History classes, but American History classes that will provide a practical survey of the subject. There are plenty of General American History texts written by white men that will meet the highest possible expectations of this ideal.
Your simplicity is tedious and unpersuasive. Of course you would be offended by my comments because you take yourself way too seriously, but that won’t be a problem because as you said earlier, you will ”no longer read my comments.”
I don’t comment for your sake anyway, so who cares?
i see that you've replied to me, but just to reiterate, i am NOT reading your comments because i am not interested in being insulted. you can rant all you want but i will not be responding to your abusive comments. i understand that you have an insatiable need to save face by insulting and twisting the words of anyone who disagrees with you, so feel free to do so, but don't bother addressing me. if for some miraculous reason you want to have a civil discussion, you can email me personally first and appologize. otherwise, i don't want anything to do with your temper tantrums.
Posted by: ig on December 21, 2005 03:17 PMIf you don't want to read Amused's (or anyone else's) posts.......GO AWAY!
When you refer to another poster here, you're gonna get a reply, whether you like it or not!
Duh!
Posted by: alphabet soup on December 21, 2005 04:07 PMNice job of NOT reading my comments, NOT being interested in being insulted, and NOT responding to my abusive comments.
I hereby SEE your humorous fashion of NOT-doing, and I RAISE you by NOT addressing you in return to say that future instances of your NOT reading my comments, NOT being interested in being insulted by me, and NOT responding to my abusive comments will be met equally perforce with my NOT addressing you in like manner. Heck, this could be fun.
Though I must say, you propound quite a tempting entreaty, in the same spirit of NOT–ness on my part, I think I will pass on your kind offer by NOT emailing you personally.
Thanks again for NOT reading my comments dip$hit, but I know that you aren’t insulted because I am NOT addressing you in any realistic way—at least as far as you know since you are NOT reading my comments.
Wow this is cooool . . . just like through the looking glass.
Thanks ig
~Amazing~ . . . absolutely ~amazing~
Posted by: Amazed by liberals on December 21, 2005 04:22 PMYou're like a frickin’ Chiwawa, you just can't shut up. You should change your pseudonym to Amusing, because I am laughing every time I scroll down to see your name at the end of a rant addressed to me.
I am STILL not reading your comments because your simpleton formula is already evident -- first latch on to something I say and twist it around to fit your argument, then call me stupid a few times, then use a few big words that you don't fully grasp and voila! You have spoken.
The difference between you and me is that I don't turn blue trying to prove to everyone that I am a genius. I participate in discussion in order to build on ideas and learn from others. I don't see discussion as a competition.
You, on the other hand, are blinded by your desire to "win," hence your continuous mean spirit. Disagreeing with you is like waving a red flag in front of a bull whose balls have been synched with a rope. Just keep in mind that the more you speak, the more you reveal your own ignorance.
Alphabet soup, are you a person or just Amused's Mini-me?
Well..this is getting boring, I’m out of here.
Wow, you’re out of here eh?
Sure you don't want to NOT read my comments, NOT be interested in being insulted, and NOT respond to my abusive comments some more?
Your humorous fashion of NOT-doing is boring but humorous so please don't stop NOT responding to my abusive comments, O.K?
Maybe I'm desperate, and can't help myself; golly whiz, I might need to satisfy some insatiable need to save face from “insulting and twisting your words,” and the dignified demeanor of your display. However, since you are currently hoisted upon the dilemma of NOT reading my comments and NOT responding, I am commensurably disabled ipso-facto from NOT resolving your difficulties.
I believe you are NOT really as stupid as you seem, it is just that you are NOT as smart as you believe you are. Then again beliefs are NOT facts. But who cares, you are NOT involved-because you will NOT read my comments.
Gee whiz what a quandary.
Posted by: Amused by dimwits on December 21, 2005 08:55 PMAmmused, do you want to get in on the "How many more times will he insist that he ain't responding" pool?!
~Amazing~ . . . absolutely ~amazing~
ig is as friggin' stupid as Lucy, dug, or JDB.
Boring debate but . . . What fun?
Posted by: Amused by liberals on December 22, 2005 12:20 AM