Re: [Fwd: Re: Does It Work?]

[Rick Parkany <rparkany@BORG.COM>]

Yes, Dr. Dan!   I, like Lazarus at the day of atonement, swoon at the precipice of the chasm
between ethical positions and moral action.

I live in Hope, as did Paulo Freire, Hope that great events like 9/11, the Wellstone
tragedy, the Iraqi debate (or debacle), the War on Terrorism (it's Patriot Act, The
phoenix-like return of Admiral Poindexter back into the inner sanctums of Pentagon
*intelligence*, the Office of *Heimat* Security [Seig!], and much else that is horrid and
evil [read oppresive] among us) will raise at least the *consciousness* and *conscience*
(he called it by one name in his own tongue: *conscientizcao*) of those with whom we work
and against whom we struggle in our day-to-day.

This Hope within me often falls, as some of you must note, into despair and cynicism. I
struggle against this, often in vain, to my own dismay.

It is, afterall, why I reflectively journal in these spaces: to AVOID cynicism and to be
bouyed up by compatriots in the struggle against oppression--even as we find it in our own
mist in the form of the institutions within which we work--indeed! left over in our own
hearts as we hang from the precipace between ethical positions and moral action, all the
while, jockeying for our own survival.

I grasp at every twig, crag, and cranny in my own place on this ledge, this side of
morality, suspended at the maws of this abyss as I am, wishing sometimes I could just let
go and fall as a Buddhist or Nihilist and just get on w/my own life in the best way I can,
quietly nurturing my own mantra and looking but into my own heart.

It IS this call for action that you pronounce, now, Dan, that gave me one more foothold
this morning and kept my breast to the earth in front of my as my eyes gaze into the
chasm, longing for the peace that a great fall might afford...  ;-=} rap.

"drdanj@earthlink.net" wrote:
>
> Rick
>
> Your message raises many questions and provides some great insights.
>
> >(b) what do you think concerning the ASA (amStatisticalAssoc), APA
> (AmPsychAssoc), AERA,
> NCTE, ATE & AEA ethical statements concerning high-stakes (or any other)
> testing
> concerning the confounding of tests and analyses used for purposes other
> than those
> intended by design
>
> Seeing all of these together like this raises a question: Would it be
> possible to get these groups all organized into a coalition that would
> collectively go after high-stakes testing and its use in "NCLB" policy?
> Rather than just issuing position statements, would they be willing to
> do something? If a well placed member of each of these organizations
> could be reached, and all brought together in one room, maybe some
> additional force could be brought to the issue.
>
> Peace
>
> Dan
>
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--
"Dein Wachstum sei feste und lache vor Lust!
Deines Herzens Trefflichkeit
Hat dir selbst das Feld bereit',
Auf dem du bluehen musst." JS Bach: Bauern Kantata
Richard A. Parkany: SUNY@Albany
Prometheus Educational Services
http://www.borg.com/~rparkany/
Upper Hudson & Mohawk Valleys; New York State, USA

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