Education Week: Standards Get Boost on the HillOh my, what's next. States are not meeting current standards set by the Republican Congress through the No Child Left Behind Act so the solution must be to create even tougher standards to make sure that we are completely fair in our attempt to reduce everyone to the same, to engage in totalization of the self in the name of rigor. I simply don't get it. NCLB is broke and needs fixing, that is for sure. But the answer is not to get even tougher. Perhaps, and this might just be a radical thought, we ought to think more in terms of what the real objective might be. If the objective is to separate and categorize members of our democratic republic, then by all means continue along the lines we have laid out--indeed get tougher for that will separate and categorize far faster than anything else we could do. But if the objective is to help school children become active, critical participants in our democracy, then we must begin to think boldly--GOOD TEACHING INDEED TAKES CARE OF BAD TESTING. What about concentrating our efforts into inviting students into the classroom as active, engaged participants in areas of study. Let children practice history, become scientists, find real and practical uses for mathematics, and read as adults read, for the sake of reading alone. Then, and only then, can we learn to celebrate the diversity of our classrooms, hope to improve schools and find that our students are far smarter than NCLB gives them credit for. Until then, just shout LEARN and don't spare the rod either.
