Sunday, August 17, 2008

Children and schools

"Our schools may very well be in crisis, but not for the reasons bandied about in the press. The crisis is not based on teacher pay, lack of accountability, or a lack of rigor. The problem is that we do not create productive contexts for learning in which the needs of each child are met as their talent, interest, curiosity, and passion are amplified. " Gary Stager


http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Features/school_wars Read the whole thing, if you can. I wonder how long the blacklash to standardized testing will take, but I don't doubt that it's coming. I'm not against a test, as one small measure, but I think I counted six for 8-10 year olds last year. And such anguish in children and parents, as the results were rolled out, tutoring began, and eyes were lowered. I wonder at all of the damage done.
Those children will some day be grown-ups, and they are going to remember...


I was guided to this article, School Wars, from Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/ which has pith and spirit.