Re: [arn-l] Testing Myths

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

The main goal of the corporate takeover of public ed in the developed 
countries is to tighten social control, especially the disciplining 
of the huge working class(which most people in the US misidentify as 
the "middle class").  Profit-making from tests and textbooks, and 
school privatization, is NOT the essential part of this program, it's 
just the inevitable parasitism of crony capitalism that accompanies 
everything in this society.  In order to implement the huge increases 
in corporate profits for the post-Soviet New World Order, they have 
to re-educate the populations infused with the 20th century 
"socialist ideology" of such things as the US New Deal and the 
"welfare states" of Western Europe.  Voila the never-ending war on 
"terror" and the high stakes testing regimes.  Testing drives the 
spread of behaviorist teaching (even though it doesn't work to raise 
scores), because it's the behaviorist teaching that's the main goal, 
because that produces a dumbed down, compliant population.

One must see the system as a whole to understand the strategy of 
those at the top, and to see that some "contradictions" are not 
contradictory at all to them, and that other contradictions are just 
incidental and unimportant to them.  For example, the fact that 
Reading First children are not learning to read for comprehension is 
NOT an "unintended consequence," it is the goal to intellectually 
disempower them and make them more malleable as adults.

But that's why we're on this list, to fight this evil plan, 
right?  It's a wasted effort to try to make rational arguments about 
good education to the Business Roundtable and the politicians they 
control, because they CREATED this system (NCLB, etc) to do exactly 
what it's doing.  Organize among the victims!

Pete Farruggio





At 06:03 AM 8/25/2007, you wrote:
> On a number of occasions, lists of testing myths have been posted. I 
> wish those myths would be re-posted. Here is my own home-grown list 
> after over 40 years teaching and still at it: (1) Myth  One--Testing 
> leads to reform of education; (2) Myth Two--Testing shows how much 
> we care about the poor, drop-outs, the unmotivated, and 
> under-achievers; (3) Myth Three--Testing helps teachers know what 
> they have to do  in order to become better teachers; (4) Myth 
> Four---Testing is an important tool by which to communicate to 
> parents and the local community just how well their school is doing; 
> (5) Myth Five---Testing is a-political; (6) Myth Six---Testing 
> relies on objectivity; (7)Myth Seven---Testing advocates care more 
> about students than testing opponents; (8) Myth Eight---Testing must 
> not be polluted by information about per-pupil expenditures and 
> socio-economic conditions including poverty, racism, crime, and 
> house-hold conditions; (9) Myth Nine---Testing assures us that we know our
>   students better than we would without the testing; (10) Myth 
> Ten----Testing is a means to an end.
>
> Of  the ten troubling and tragic myths I have listed here (I could 
> list many more), the one which unlocks the door to the remaining 
> nine is the tenth myth, "Testing is a means to an end." From my 
> perspective, testing has become an end in itself.  It is a signature 
> item of identification among many politicians, educators, and 
> taxation opponents as well as members of the public who have been 
> manipulated. It is a major economic boon to quite a few corporations 
> who know diddly-squat about education.  It is also the nesting 
> ground for many  so-called  educators who should have chosen another career.
>
>
>
>
> Peter Majoy
> pwmjoy@earthlink.net
> Why Wait? Move to 
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