Re: Reinventing the Wheel that's crushing us?

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>]

Brian,

This may be a more generic problem than Wilkins' 
progressiveness.  Like the saying goes, everybody considers himself 
and expert on education because everybody went to school. Would 
Wilkins have dared to lecture surgeons on how to transplant an organ, 
or engineers on how to fortify a bridge?



At 04:51 PM 8/25/2005, you wrote:
> Sorry,  David, I'm not  Jerry, but I'll say that I heard Roger 
> Wilkins on the Al
> Franken show Tuesday.   He said NCLB is flawed, but not  flawed in concept.
> Franken expressed concern about high stakes testing (his daughter is 
> a teacher). Wilkins responded that it's not high stakes for the 
> kids, it's high stakes for
> the teachers.  (Huh?!)  Franken corrected him about it not being 
> high stakes for
> the kids.  Wilkins added that if you don't test kids you're not 
> doing any favors
> to them by just promoting them.
>
> Wilkins has done great work on civil rights and has long been known 
> for publicly
> advocating and fighting for many social justice issues and policies. 
> However, he
> seems to be under the mistaken assumption that sitting in a desk and 
> filling in
> bubbles on traditional standardized tests is the only test there is 
> and the only
> kind of test you should/could use for accountability.   So, I guess 
> in this area,
> he's not so progressive.
>
> Oh, as for the idea about 'reinventing the wheel'?   I prefer 
> Seymour Sarason's
> idea that the continual wave of reforms we've experienced are more like
> reinventing the flat tire.  Yeah, I like that one much better; more accurate,
> that's for sure.
>
> Brian LeCloux
>
>  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  From: "Gabbard, David A" <GABBARDD@MAIL.ECU.EDU>
>  Reply-To: arn-l@interversity.org
>  To: <arn-l@interversity.org>
>  Subject: [arn-l] Reinventing the Wheel that's crushing us?
>  Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 15:59:42 -0400
>  >
>
>  >http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0825napolitano-education1.html
>  >
>  >AZ Gov Janet Napolitano (too bad it's not Johnette Napolitano from Concrete
>  Blonde) is promoting Getting Smarter, Becoming Fairer. I haven't 
> looked at it
>  too closely, but it looks like the same old arguments and "ideas" being
>  presented in pseudo-progressive language. Goldman Sachs is pushing it, and
>  Roger Wilkins is supporting it. Though Wilkins is an establishment liberal,
>  of sorts, I'm more curious about his involvement than anyhthing else about
>  this. He's got a chair in the History Dept. at George Mason. Any thoughts on
>  him, Jerry?
>
>
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