BCT Editorial – 2/23/07

This page was last updated on February 24, 2007.

Test results; Editorial; Beaver County Times; February 23, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Facts are not knowledge, and test scores do not reflect understanding of what is being tested.

“In the latest effort from the-vomit-returns-to-the-dog school of education, a panel appointed by Gov. Ed Rendell has called for developing a battery of new state tests within five years called ‘graduation competency assessments’ in math, English, science and social studies.”

[RWC] I’d also include economics.

“The Associated Press reported it was one of 12 recommendations for improving graduates’ readiness for college and the work force.

“This testing mania has got to stop. Education is more than cramming facts and figures into young minds. It’s also about teaching children how to think for themselves. Children are having their brains tested out, often at the expense of class time that allows them to connect the dots between what they are being taught and understanding what it means.”

[RWC] Translation: When we focus on facts, there’s not enough time for liberal indoctrination of students. For example, if we focus on facts, there may not be enough time to explain how George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were really hate mongers because they owned slaves.

“If this keeps up, our schools will be no better than the education factories Charles Dickens attacked in ‘Hard Times.’ The state of education was so important to Dickens that he opened the 1854 novel with a chilling description of a school in the industrial city of Coketown.

“‘Now, what I want is, Facts,’ the blowhard Thomas Gradgrind pontificated. ‘Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.

“‘You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir! … In this life we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!’

“The second chapter features Gradgrind and an unnamed man, later identified as industrialist Josiah Bounderby, terrifying and humiliating little Sissy Jupe for her inability to define a horse to their Facts-driven satisfaction. In their eyes, Sissy’s great sin is that she has an imagination. (Unlike her male classroom counterpart, Bitzer, who is adept at spewing out the precious Facts that Gradgrind and Bounderby worship.)

“Obviously, our schools haven’t gotten to that point. However, music, art and physical education classes are being reduced or eliminated in the drive to cram facts into young minds. Teachers must drill students on test taking instead of instructing them on subject material. Constant testing takes away from instructional time, which leads to less emphasis on subjects that aren’t being tested.

“If this testing mania keeps up, our children will know the ins and outs of testing and understand nothing.”

[RWC] What is it with liberals fearing attempts to measure the effectiveness of public education? Without testing and grading, how does the Times expect us to assess student progress, even in “connect the dots” areas?

Did you note what’s missing from the editorial? Any factual support for the alleged “constant testing” and “testing mania.” For example, the editorial never told us how many tests the Times is complaining about. That alone should tell us much of what we need to know.