(no subject)

[Evans Clinchy <EClinchy@AOL.COM>]

TAP: Web Feature: One Education Does Not Fit All. by Robert B. Reich. July 
11, 2000.


                        advertisement:





All:

Here's new version of Reich's position on education?                     
              
            One Education Does Not Fit All 
            7.11.00
            by Robert B. Reich


            The New York Times 
            Thomas Lepuschitz, one of 46 Austrians recruited by New York City 
to 
            help ease the shortage of math and science teachers, told a New 
York 
            Times reporter recently that he thought it strange that the state 
            required even the slowest students to take math and science in 
order 
            to graduate. 
            It's different in Austria. "Our school system divides people who 
can 
            do certain things and people who can't," he explained. "The 
people 
            who can't are not lost; it's just a slower track." 
            Mr. Lepuschitz has touched a raw nerve. Standardized tests -- 
            increasingly linked to grade promotion, graduation, even 
teachers' 
            salaries and the tenure of principals -- are the single biggest 
            thing to have hit American education since Sputnik. Responding to 
            the understandable demands for more "accountability," almost 
every 
            school in the land is morphing into a test-taking factory. Both 
Al 
            Gore and George W. Bush have touted proposals linking federal 
            dollars to scores on standardized tests. 
            There are obvious benefits. Uniform tests present clear goals and 
            give students, parents and schools ways to measure progress 
toward 
            meeting them. But standardized tests are monstrously unfair to 
many 
            kids. We're creating a one-size-fits-all system that needlessly 
            brands many young people as failures, when they might thrive if 
            offered a different education whose progress was measured 
            differently. 
            Paradoxically, we're embracing standardized tests just when the 
new 
            economy is eliminating standardized jobs. There's one certainty 
            about what today's high school students will be doing a decade 
from 
            now: They won't all be doing the same things, and they won't be 
            drawing on the same body of knowledge. 
            Jobs in the old mass-production economy came in a few standard 
            varieties (research, production, sales, clerical, managerial, 
            professional), but this system has fragmented. Computers, the 
            Internet and digital commerce have exploded the old job 
categories 
            into a vast array of new niches, creating a kaleidoscope of ways 
to 
            make a living. 
            Musicians, artists, writers and performing artists are 
discovering 
            multimedia outlets for their talents. Tens of thousands of people 
            are starting their own Web-based businesses and auction houses. 
            People who had been clerks and secretaries are turning into 
            spreadsheet operators, desktop publishers and Web-based inventory 
            control managers. Salespeople are becoming specialty technicians, 
            finding or creating products to meet particular customer needs. 
            We're also seeing an increasing demand for people who provide 
            personal attention and comfort. There's an upsurge in advisers, 
            counselors, coaches and trainers. Physical and occupational 
            therapists are needed. Home health-care workers, elder-care 
            assistants and child- care workers are all in short supply. And 
we 
            have a chronic need for teachers at all levels. Success in these 
            jobs doesn't depend on mastery of one uniform body of knowledge 
as 
            measured by standardized tests. Instead, many of them require an 
            ability to learn on the job -- to discover what needs to be known 
            and to find and use it quickly. 
            Some depend on creativity -- on out-of-the-box thinking, 
originality 
            and flair. Others depend on the ability to listen and understand 
            what other people are feeling and needing. Most require "soft 
            skills" like punctuality and courtesy, although some geeks 
succeed 
            wildly without even these rudiments. 
            Yes, people need to be able to read, write and speak clearly. And 
            they have to know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. But 
            given the widening array of possibilities, there's no reason that 
            every child must master the sciences, algebra, geometry, biology 
or 
            any of the rest of the standard high school curriculum that has 
            barely changed in half a century. Nor is it necessary that every 
            child graduate from high school ready to qualify for a four-year 
            liberal arts college. 
            This doesn't mean that "slower students" should be relegated to 
            trade schools, as they are in much of Europe. In the new economy, 
            specialized vocational skills soon become obsolete. Besides, the 
            whole notion of faster or slower learning is irrelevant when 
there 
            are so many new options for how and what to learn. 
            In our headlong rush toward "accountability," we seem to be 
veering 
            toward two extremes -- either expecting every child to pass the 
same 
            test or assuming that certain children are uneducable, relegating 
            them to a vocational track. 
            Our challenge is to find different measures of the various skills 
            relevant to the jobs of the new economy. It's our job not to 
            discourage our children, but to help them find their way. 
            Robert B. Reich
            Copyright © 2000 by The American Prospect, Inc. Preferred 
Citation: 
            Robert B. Reich, "One Education Does Not Fit All ," The American 
            Prospect Online, July 11, 2000. This article may not be resold, 
            reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without 
            prior written permission from the author. Direct questions about 
            permissions to permissions@prospect.org. 
          

       

      Free Issue 
      Offer!
        
       
       

      Print Features | Web Features | Authors | Archives | Forums | Books | 
      Columns | About Us | Issue Pages | Subscribe | Newsletter | Home