Fwd: Jonathan Kozol on State Standards

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

  balkanized cognition

Felicitous phrase!

Susan

Begin forwarded message:

  From: "Alfie Kohn" <kohn@alfiekohn.org>

  Date: Tue Jun 5, 2007 7:33:22 AM US/Pacific

  To: "AK" <kohn@alfiekohn.org>

  Subject: Jonathan Kozol on State Standards

  Reply-To: "Alfie Kohn" <kohn@alfiekohn.org>

  "Most of these materials . . . are written not by seriously respected
  scholars or by wise and venerated teachers but by fairly undistinguished
  semi-intellectuals who would seldom qualify for tenure at a first-rate
  university.  The clunkety prose, the reliance upon arbitrary overstatement,
  and the seemingly obsessive need to fit all pieces of the learning process
  into namable compartments are not the characteristics of capacious
  intellectuals.  Wise philosophers, good scientists or poets, gifted
  mathematicians, accomplished literary critics, or reputable specialists in
  children's psychological development would not likely be disposed to spend
  long hours of their time in numbering and naming isolated particles of
  balkanized cognition that usually have only forced connections with each
  other and, most often, no connection with the context of our children's
  lives. . . .

  "Abject capitulation to unconscionable dictates from incompetent or insecure
  superiors can be contagious.  We should not permit this habit to be passed on
  to our children."

  -- from Letters to a Young Teacher, due out in August

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