Jack Hassard, professor of science education, assesses creeping authoritarianism and the growing resistance to it among educators.
“The authoritarianism of standardization has spread harm and inflicted damage to America’s public schools during the last two decades. The profits from standardized tests and teaching materials associated with the Common Core have overwhelmed the nature of learning in public school classrooms that one wonders if this goliath, which has trampled on the very heart of education in a democratic society, can be brought down.
“The conservative world-view is at the root of standardization, not only in the United States, but in most countries around the world. This world-view has set in motion the reform of education based on a common set of standards, high-stakes tests, and accountability metrics that demoralize not only students and their families, but the educators who families regard as significant and positive others in the lives of their children.
“I think of standards-based education reform as a kind of “spray” analogous to how we used DDT as an agricultural insecticide. We sprayed it everywhere to stamp out disease carrying bugs. For example, from 1940 – 1972, more than 1.3 billion pounds of DDT were released into U.S. communities indiscriminately. This indiscriminate and relentless spray would eventually be shown to be harmful and a serious threat to the basics of ecosystems.”
Hassard describes the fight to block authoritarianism in education, which is closely aligned with the resistance to authoritarianism in the public arena.
He writes about a vanguard of resistors, some of whom are gentle and others not so gentle (he uses the word “gentile” but I think that is an error or auto-correct gone amok, as I am neither gentile nor gentle).
”So, what is this vanguard voicing opposition to? All are questioning the lack of wisdom, profound ignorance, and inexcusable ineptness of an educational reform movement that is rooted in a very narrow purpose of schooling: teaching to the test. According to Sahlberg, the movement can be summarized in four words: Global Education Reform Movement GERM).”
Are you part of GERM or part of the resistance. Chances are, if you are reading this post, you are part of the Resistance.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Posted the article itself at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-Nightmare-of-Authorita-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Authoritarianism_Education_Learning_Reform-180426-608.html#comment698304
Timely post. I missed my local board of education meeting because of a business trip and read from our local community newspaper when I returned:
“‘Assistant Superintendent xxxxxx began by discussing the half-day meetings with every teacher who taught a subject that was state tested, which assured that students were being taught state standards that would be on the tests.
“‘Certainly, the worst thing that we can do is assume that we’re covering standards, and kids are taking a test on things they’ve never been exposed to,’ said xxxxxx, who noted students are taking assessments in the same platform as the state tests.”
During the recent spring break I asked my son if any reading was assigned, remembering this as a regular part of my school experience. He replied no because they had to spend too much time on test prep during classes.
I’ll be at the next board meeting.
Name names, GregB, name names. Without outing those who implement the nefarious practices, those who are the “Good Germans” who implement the holocaust of the childrens’ minds, what good does it do to just complain?
Duane, names are unimportant in this context, this story is being repeated thousands of times throughout the nation. In this case, I thought it would be unfair to the person named to spread his/her name around before I spoke to him/her myself.
I posted this precisely because I intend to more, hopefully much more, than just complain. I will be meeting with other parents this weekend to educate them about my concerns and try to enlist them into this cause. My intention is to be vocal, deliberate, consistent, and do much more than complain. I have no personal or professional interest in this other than being a concerned citizen.
And as one who has both experienced and spent a lifetime trying to make sense of the “Good German” stereotype, I think your characterization is overly simplistic. It is borne of a Hogan’s Heroes view of a very complex issue. There were good ones, bad ones, and a whole lot of shades of lighter to darker gray in between. Much like the story of authoritarianism of assessments.
No, Greg, it’s not an overly simplistic Hogan’s Heroes view, whatever that means, view. The fact is that it takes many, many apparatchiks, Good Germans, Red Army members or whatever historical example one wants to use to show those prior implementations of ideologies that harm many innocent people, in the case that we are talking about here, currently in the USofA, the innocent children, destroying a proper public education for all of them. Those who actually do the implementation, they are the ones of whom I speak. If you cannot see the problem. . . . then I believe you are turning a willing blind eye and are part of the problem yourself.
It’s not a matter of “a whole lot of shades of lighter to darker gray in between.” Sometimes one has to take a stand and recognize the evil that is right in front of ones eyes and then fight against it. There is no relativity of good/evil here. The errors, falsehoods and harms of the standards and testing regime have been proven beyond a doubt. Stand against that evil regime of “authoritarian assessments”!
Google, Duane, Google!
What the hell does that mean FLERPER?
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22began+by+discussing+the+half-day+meetings+with+every+teacher+who+taught+a+subject+that+was+state+tested%2C+which+assured+that+students%22&oq=%22began+by+discussing+the+half-day+meetings+with+every+teacher+who+taught+a+subject+that+was+state+tested%2C+which+assured+that+students%22&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i59l5.887j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Thanks, FLERP!!
Brian Williams then is a Good German Asst Supe Adminimal, eh!
FLERP!: 😡🤬 Curses! Foiled again!
Sorry — I figured, it’s on the Internet, what’s the harm . . .
Duane, a few points: A Hogan’s Heroes view of the world is one that sees the world in black and white absolutes and is based on stereotypical prejudices without historical or empirical bases.
Now, let’s stick with your simplistic use of “Good German” with a historical example. There is an account of an old German who years after the fact recollected an incident when he was a soldier in Austria during WWII who was ordered to execute a captured member of the resistance. He said he wouldn’t which was a refusal that should have led to a punishment ranging from being sent to a concentration camp to being executed himself. Instead his superior ordered two other soldiers to do so, but he decided they should save their bullets and beat the prisoner to death, which they proceeded to do in excruciatingly slow detail by beating him with the butts of their rifles until he finally died. The soldier who defied the order thought, after that experience, that he should have shot the prisoner in order to save him from such a brutal death. When he was engaged in battle, he purposefully shot over the heads of the Russians on the the other side. He was so haunted by his experiences that after the war he told his stories to young students. Was he a good or bad German?
What would you or I have done in the same situation? It might be easy for you to decide since, as Roger Waters wrote, you have the bravery of being out of range. I, on the other hand, can’t make that judgment. But he was certainly not in any way, a bad German. As Victor Klemperer recounts over and over again in his diaries during the Third Reich as a Jew who was married to a Gentile, little courtesies like acknowledging him on the street, having a butcher sneak him extra meat, or having the librarian let him take a book when Jews were not allowed to go to libraries could be punishable by being sent to concentration camps or execution. Were those good or bad Germans? How brave does one have to be when a simple human gesture can lead to death and severe punishment for family and friends?
As for teachers and administrators who have to survive under the current climate, are they all collaborators? We have an articulate and committed teacher who participates in this blog anonymously because he/she fears for their job if his/her views were known. Is that a good or bad teacher? Is he/she a collaborator? Or should he/she and other teachers who are doing what they can to resist be a part of Stalinesque purges which led the character Ninotchka to observe about the Russian show trials, “there will be fewer but better Russians”?
I agree with you in a perfect world that “There is no relativity of good/evil here.” But we have the luxury of being able to voice our opinions because we have nothing to lose. We speak for teachers who, for whatever reason, usually linked to their livelihoods, cannot be as vocal as we are. That’s why I’ve chosen to speak for them at my local level. I may not be as effective as I should be, but I’m trying. Does that make me a good or bad American? I respect you immensely. But I think you have ideological blinders on with the comments you made here.
No, I do not have ideological blinders on. I am well aware of those types of situations that you describe. You seem to misunderstand what I mean by Good German. By that term, I mean those who willingly implemented, those who willingly did their daily jobs, that allowed the various tragedies to occur. Were there exceptions? No doubt. But the many who allowed, just as the many teachers and administrators who allow and implement the damned malpractices, and not a single one with whom I’ve spoken has ever defended those malpractices other than to say that they are mandated and that “we have to do them” which is the excuse I hear you giving as the reason for said implementations.
Yes, indeed, we do attempt to speak for the teachers, and, yes, now I don’t have much to lose, but the fact is I spoke up and fought against these malpractices from the first time I heard the term “data driven decision making” at a district professional development day in the late 90s when I did have a lot to lose.
And you know what?
Yes, I did lose a lot, personally, professionally, financially for fighting against the malpractices. I got hounded out of one district. I’ve felt the sting of the looks that were given to me when I questioned, I’ve endured the shunning, people literally walking away from me at meetings, people deliberately not wanting to be seen with me or sitting next to me-at least in public. But they’d come to me in private and tell me I was right-chicken shits all of those who did that. I’ve had principals bring students in to try to dig dirt up on me-needless to say the students would come right back and tell me about it.
And you wonder why I am so strident, what you call having “ideological blinders”??? Horse manure.
I’m just trying to shake the self imposed blinders off of those who choose to so blindly follow the damaging to children orders and mandates of those non-thinking self-serving SOB adminimals who really only care about their own paychecks while supposedly having the prestige of being a supposed administrator.
Give me an effin break!!!
Yeah, I get pissed off at all the “be nice” schadenfreude involved. When injustices are being done to the most innocent of society, the children, if one isn’t pissed off, especially those charged with caring for and teaching children, then those folks ought to get the hell out of the profession and let’s get some new folk in that understand that one shouldn’t be using children to satisfy sick adult mind games.
And no, it’s not a matter of differences of opinion on these matters. It has been proven and never refuted nor rebutted that the standards and testing regime is completely invalid and harmful to all students, has completely bastardized the teaching and learning process for all students and has deprived all students a chance for an education that fulfills the fundamental purpose of public education.
And I should accept that???
Hell no!!!
To quote whomever in whatever movie: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any longer!”
P.S.
The teachers go out on strike for better pay, but they won’t go out on strike against the damned malpractice of standardized testing. WTF???
I guess what’s so sad about this “debate” is that we fundamentally agree on what’s wrong and what needs to be fixed. Completely.
FYI, the movie was Network.
Wasn’t sure, thanks. I’m terrible at movies and tv trivia.
I would include the black lives matter protests to the list of marches protesting authoritarianism. We know we have a problem when we have the highest rate of incarceration in the world and frequent killings of unarmed black men by the police.
“The conservative world-view is at the root of standardization”
All I can say is, the “conservative” world view sure has a had lot of “liberal” support.
And there is nothing at all “conservative” about the education policies of the past two decades (pushed by Republicans and Democrats alike), policies that have “disruption” at their very core. Disruption is not conservative in any way shape or form.
Nothing “lberal” about theses policies either — other than the fact that they include a liberal dose of disruption and pseudoscience (standardized testing and VAM)
Other than that, the statement is probably accurate. 🙂
It is a mistake to confuse and conflate centralized computer-based tests ripe for data mining with national curriculum. If this is done intentionally, then this is simply propaganda.
Also, it is wrong to associate standards with conservatives only. Every group wants their own standards, slogans, 5-year plans and uniforms, be it conservatives, democrats, communists, christians or muslims. Even hippies wanted one, you would be laughed at if appeared in a suit and tie at a happening. It is innate to group-think to have a set of distinguishing attributes, and education standards is one of these attributes.
“This world-view has set in motion the reform of education based on a NOT SO common set of ILLEGITIMATE standards, INVALID high-stakes tests, and FALSE accountability PSEUDO metrics that demoralize not only students and their families. . . ”
Until we quit using the false and bastardized misusage of the language of the edudeformers and privateers, “this goliath, which has trampled on the very heart of education in a democratic society, [won’t] be brought down.” We will continue to lose ground to those authoritarians who seek private gain and profit off the backs of the most innocent of society, the children who are students.
Can we shoot ourselves in the foot any more often than we now do???
Is there a reason for authoritarianism? Historians are consumed with looking for organic reasons for the acceptance of one or another guiding paradigm of society. Most recognize that the rise of fascism absent the Great Depression was impossible. No depression, no Hitler. Know depression, know authoritarianism across the globe.
It strikes me that modern authoritarianism is more related to a concentration of wealth in the hands of a very few people. Corruption is turning government into little more than a tool for a variety of unsavory criminals in many parts of the globe. Fighting corruption at the highest level of government threatens Brazil, South Africa, and Russia to name just a few. A friend of mine suggested that corruption was the central theme of the history of the 21st century.
I’ve always felt that people attracted to authoritarianism seek simple answers to the ever growing complexity of the world. It’s easier to withdraw and let others act and it reinforces prejudices and preconceived notions. As for corruption, it’s OK for them as long as they don’t or can’t see how it affects them. At least that’s what I think.
GregB: I agree with you about the corruption. I believe that’s why we’ve had corrupt government for so long, & came to where we are now (ALEC: 47 years old, & most people I talk to STILL don’t know what it stands for). &–such as what just happened w/a long-time County Assessor who was considered a political fixture, as in assessor-for-life, & played the nepotism game to the hilt. He was just elected out by someone who fought hard & spoke truth to power (& won anyway!).
There’s an old adage for what you said about people & corruption. I just can’t think of it at this moment, but one of you readers probably can tell us.
In the meantime, for many, “ignorance is bliss.”
Until it’s not.