Re: Ann Cameron's "The Nutirtion Crusade"

[Elisa Waingort <elisawi@FCAQ.K12.EC>]

Hi Gloria--
Thanks for sharing this.  The absurdity of what's happening with the testing
craze is enought to make you want to tear your hair out!
Elisa


>NOTE: Ann Cameron is the writer who had an excerpt from one her stories
>appear on the ISAT, with its characters, who are African-American,
>represented as white in illustrations accompanying the story.  (Changes
were
>made without her permission, of course.)  Please honor her request not to
>publish the parable (below) without her permission.
>
>Gloria
>gpipkin@i-1.net
>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>I thought you might be interested in this parable of the burgeoning of
>standardized tests in schools.  You're welcome to pass it on to anyone, but
>I don't want it printed in any publication without my permission.
>
>all the best, Ann.
>>
>>                                    The Nutrition Crusade
>>                                         by Ann Cameron
>>
>>      Once upon a time there was a busy, hard-working country that paid
>>scant attention to its children.  In their rare moments  of leisure, most
>adults
>>  obsessed about their health, but they hardly had time to think of anyone
>>  else's.
>>
>>      One day the country's president, a busy man but kind at heart,
>noticed
>>  the country's children.  They were weak, listless, and undersized for
>>their age.  The president believed that the children were suffering from
>>  malnutrition.
>>
>>      He called the nation's best counselors on health to a meeting.  It
>>wasn't long before they reached the obvious diagnosis:  the adults were so
>busy
>>  they were neglecting the children's nutrition.  What the children needed
>> was  more and better food.  It was time, past time, for a nutrition
>>crusade.
>>
>>      The country had a large cadre of nurses, and the president, backed
by
>>  his advisers, called on nurses everywhere to feed the children daily.
>> Under  the watchful eyes of the nurses, the children would eat together
in
>>large groups, and they would receive a highly enriched diet.
>>
>>      Most of the nurses loved children, and those who didn't were sure
>they
>>  could learn to love them.  They agreed to their new role at once--but
the
>>  president and his advisers, wisely, felt some objective measure was
>needed
>>  to make sure that the children's condition really did improve.
>>
>>      They argued about what that measure should be.  They thought of
>>  measuring the children's level of activity, or measuring their height.
>>One sentimentalist even suggested counting the children's smiles per day
>and
>>  number of times a week that they laughed.   But finally all those
>measures
>>  struck the president and his advisers as either dangerously subjective
or
>>  far too complicated and time-consuming.  They decided on one simple
>>  measurement that would work for all children:  every six months, the
>>nurses were to weigh them.  This would provide an objective evaluation of
>both
>>the children's nutrition and the nurses' abilities. To clarify the goal,
>the
>>  president's advisers set a standard for minimum acceptable weight-gain,
>> and  since the children were in such bad condition they set it high.
>>
>>      They told all the country's adults about the new standards, and the
>>  adults applauded, relieved that the nurses were going to handle the
>>problem and be in charge of the crusade.
>>
>>      To make sure the nurses took their new role seriously, the president
>> and  his advisers told them their jobs were at stake.  Any nurse who
>failed
>>to up-size the children to the minimum weight-gain within a year would be
>>  fired.  The nurses objected, but nurses are nurses and presidents are
>>  presidents--so in the end, all the nurses could do was acquiesce and go
>to
>>  work.
>>
>>      The president asked the congress to allot money generously for food
>>and feeding stations.  The congress consulted their own experts, then
voted
>>for half the funds the president had requested.  The money was passed to
>the
>>  nurses, who set up the feeding stations, then went out and bought
lettuce
>>  and turnips, eggs and milk, and many other things.  They cooked as well
>as
>>  they could and gathered the children for meals.
>>
>>      Unfortunately, the children weren't terribly cooperative. Many of
>them
>>  had never met a vegetable before and were not enthralled by the first
>>  encounter.  Many had become so used to malnutrition that they were no
>> longer  hungry.  To them, food was to play with.
>>
>>      "It will be very bad for you, and bad for us," the nurses
threatened,
>>  "if you don't eat more!"  But the children were unmoved.
>>
>>      Alarmed the nurses warned the president, congress and public that it
>>  takes time to change children's dietary habits.  In response, the
>>president thundered once more his lifelong motto:  "Stay the course!  Only
>a coward
>>  backs away from a job!"
>>
>>      Congress and public applauded.
>>
>>      Suddenly added to the nurses' problems was the discovery that the
>>  country didn't ' have nearly enough scales to weigh all the children.
As
>>  ordered by congress, the nurses set out to buy scales with half the
money
>>  allotted for food.
>>
>>      Scale-makers had never been much appreciated in the country, but now
>>  they found they were revered.  They couldn't manufacture fast enough to
>> meet  the demand.  Many opportunists with no scale-making experience
>rushed
>>new models into production, and all the scale makers went from feeding
>station
>>  to feeding station showing their wares.
>>
>>      Some of the scales were hastily fabricated and shoddy, but all,
>>  naturally, were touted for one reason or another as the best ever made.
>>  There were scales that cost more because they would weigh the children
>>  faster, scales that cost extra because of their delicacy and precision,
>>  scales that cost double because they were made by leading scientists,
>> scales that cost three times as much because there made by secret
>processes
>>none could question or imitate.  Most expensive of all were the scales
sold
>>  quietly by the cleverest producers, who had seen the scrawny children
and
>>  understood the nurses predicament.  Secretly, they offered scales
>> guaranteed  to weigh children ten or more pounds higher than their actual
>>weight.
>>
>>     Meantime, the feeding program continued.  Nurses who had thought they
>> loved children began to use long-forgotten tactics with the youngsters in
>> their charge.  Children were told that obedience is the first law of
life.
>> They were told they couldn't leave the table till they'd eaten everything
>>on their plates.  Nurses pulled their hair and twisted their arms if they
>> didn't eat, and so some did learn that obedience is indeed the first law
>of
>> life.
>>
>>     Yet, as the deadline for the first weigh-in came closer, many nurses
>> became desperate.  True, there were children who learned to like turnips
>>and drink their milk.  These ran around after lunch and they looked
>healthier.
>> But there wasn't much money available to buy food, and the children
hadn't
>> gained enough weight to meet the minimum standard.  The nurses worried
>>about what to do and consulted with each other in private.  Reluctantly,
>they did
>> what had to be done:  they went to the market and bought fifty-pound tubs
>>of lard.
>>
>>     Two nurses together would stand over children and force them to eat
>> lard with a spoon.  If children resisted, struggled, one nurse would pin
>> down flailing arms while another would use a funnel and pour melted lard
>> into a young throat, massaging the front of the neck so the lard would
>stay
>> down.
>>
>>     A few children developed a taste for lard, and they fattened the
>> quickest.  Even to the nurses, these children looked grotesque--wider
than
>> they were tall, with bulging cheeks.  But, fearing for their own jobs,
the
>> nurses praised the lard eaters in front of all the children and called
>them
>> "Conquerors of Malnutrition" and future leaders of the land.  After
lunch,
>> the lard eaters lumbered proudly among the feeding stations with four
gold
>> stars on their foreheads.
>>
>>     But they paid dearly for their prizes.  The instant they left the
>> feeding stations, they were attacked by angry, thinner children who
>pinched
>> and kicked them and ripped off their bright gold stars.  Unfortunately
for
>> the lard eaters, they'd become too heavy to run, too awkward to escape.
>>
>>     Some children ate a little lard every day, or pretended to eat it so
>as
>> not to be funnel-fed.  Others vomited and left the feeding stations for
>> good, even when nurses told them that all the future held was lard or
>> starvation.
>>
>>     The day of the first weigh-in came.  All over the land, thousands of
>> gleaming scales were in their proper places.  The nurses were anxious but
>> hopeful.  The thinnest children had disappeared from the feeding stations
>>to who cared where, and were no longer the  nurses' responsibility.  All
>>the remaining children had fattened.  They stood patiently in line to be
>> weighed, while the nurses came to them one by one, seeing to it that they
>> drank a half gallon of water just before they got on the scales.
>>
>>     In the end, ninety percent of children measured had met the first
>> minimum weight-gain standard.  All the nurses got bonuses, all the adults
>> got a holiday, and there was a nationwide celebration.
>>
>>     The president spoke on television about the nearly miraculous
progress
>> that had been made by a dedicated band of nurses.  Leading scale-makers
>> stood beside him and applauded.  Interviewed after the ceremony, the
scale
>> makers quietly took greatest credit for the success of the crusade.
>>
>>     Without objective measurement, they argued, there would likely have
>>been no improvement at all in children's nutrition.  The pointed out how
>much
>> good had been done, almost overnight, with a little food and a lot of
>> scales.  With a little less food, double the scales, and more frequent
>> weigh-ins, they argued, the success rate in the children's nutrition
>>crusade would reach 100%--and no one, not even the nurses, could deny the
>logic of
>> that.
>>
>>Copyright 2000 by Ann Cameron
>>
>>
>>
>check out  http://www.childrensbestbooks.com
>
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