Jeff Bryant reflects on the events and ideas that transformed American society in the past century.
A current exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City describes the 20th century as “the century of the child.”
Now with technocratic ideas dominant in national policy, championed by both Obama and Romney and semi-articulated by Arne Duncan, Jeff wonders if this is “the century of the coldhearted.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane,
I’m a public school teacher in NJ. Relevant in this context is a wonderful little book by Neil Postman entitled “The Disappearance of Childhood”. He ties the invention of childhood in the west over the past few centuries to universal literacy. In the book he argues that the concept of childhood peaked sometime in the first half of the 20th century, but since then has been worn down by a decline in literacy and our infatuation with other forms of entertainment media. Profiting from schooling, racing to the top, focusing on absurd objective criteria like standardized test scores might be further evidence of a declining belief in the idea of childhood, where children are something more like competitive employees than learners.
In his 1976 book “Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk” (now there is a title for our times!) Mr. Postman referred specifically to the trend toward objectivity in evaluating children:
‘In many communities around the country, the quality of education is being measured by the scores children achieve on standardized tests. Education thus falls under the jurisdiction of the language of statistics, and it is a fact that many schools are now designing their programs almost solely for the purpose of increasing their students’ mean test scores. Here, it is slightly unfair for me to repeat the joke about the statistician who drowned while trying to wade across a river with an average depth of two feet. The fault is not with statisticians, whose special language is a remarkably useful instrument for uncovering abstract facts. The fault is with those educators who have fallen under its spell and have allowed their purposes to be subverted by the seductions of precise measurement.’
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I thought this was interesting. StudentsFirst Romney First created by New Yorkers for
Great Public Schools: a new direction for public education:
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Another organization that has jumped on the standardized test scores bandwagon is the National Association of Realtors. They have a commercial out that describes the benefits of home ownership as part of their marketing campaign. The last point they make in this particular commercial is that “home ownership raises students’ test scores.” I cringe every time I hear this because I understand that there’s a deeper, cause-and-effect relationship being implied here.
I searched for this commercial on-line but was unable to find it.
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Here is CT they use the test scores when selling houses to convince the buyer to move that town and/or neighborhood.
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I’ve seen that commercial! How is owning a home going to improve test scores? I suppose we will see somebody write a grant to study this. Will they determine a four bedroom home is better than a three? Will they determine that a brick one will have better test results for your child than one made of rough timber and logs, or one made of stone? Will it make a difference that the home owned is a double-wide or
not?
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Thanks for the MT Diane. Love your blog!
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