No more Armstrong Williams, no more paid PR firms to pump the party line onto op-ed pages around the country.
Mom Spellings has taken the bull by the horns, as evidenced yesterday in her homespun wisdom and half-truths stitched onto the editorial pages of the Atlanta Journal/Constitution.
She begins thusly: "Testing has been a valuable part of the educational process since the days of Socrates."
Yes, with the dialogue, the dialectic, and arete, we now place another cultural gift from the Ancients, a symbol of Man's commitment to rise above the level of the mere animal and to aspire to the qualities for which the gods have allowed us access--higher test scores.
From the days of Socrates to the days of Bush, Spellings weaves her word magic, dropping this quote from the Man, himself, her boss: "As President Bush likes to say, what gets measured gets done."
Perhaps you know how sadly and profoundly true that statement is.
Maggie--you're doin' a heckuva job.
LOL -- but it's interesting how she's going after FairTest, is FairTest going to take this lying down?
ReplyDeleteHmm....
Socrates just rolled over in his grave.
I have been reading your blog and notice that you are great at nitpicking the other guy. Why not post your solution that will keep schools from graduating students who read at the 6th grade level and have no idea when the Civil War occurred. I would love to hear you ideas. I just hope they are more than just an increase in funding.
ReplyDeletethe question is not whether such programs and methods exist, they do, the point is that they are being pre-empted by a relentless program of testing...
ReplyDelete