Re: (no subject)

[William Cala <wcala@ROCHESTER.RR.COM>]

This appears to be in sync with what he said in Ed. Week a few weeks ago.  

BC
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Evans Clinchy 
  To: ARN-L@listsrva.CUA.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 5:18 PM
  Subject: (no subject)


  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