Over the past week, I've noticed the phrase "education quagmire" popping up everywhere. Apparently, the term in its current usage was born on November 9th at the National Review blog, The Corner:
SCHOOLHOUSE QUAGMIRE [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
An educator in Michigan e-mails:
I love this line I heard today from a Vet who spoke at our school assembly.
He talked about the "...educational quagmire and political correctness..." of the institutions that no longer teach about military valor and honor.
Educational quagmire...wonder how the liberals would feel if conservatives started using that tagline?
Glenn Reynolds is apparently delighted with the term and has used it no less than six times since November 9th (here, here, here, here, here, and here). Joanne Jacobs has picked up on the term as well (although she merely notes its spread, and does not use it herself).
Let me be the first (perhaps) to respectfully disagree with Ms. Lopez and her correspondent, as well as Professor Reynolds, about the use of this phrase for describing the current problematic state of K-12 public schools. The reason this term was suggested to someone at NRO is because, I'm sure, the anti-war left-wing crowd has delighted in referring to the War in Iraq as a "quagmire," almost since the beginning. Dick Gephardt, for example, specifically used the term way back in July. The implication is that President Bush began an unwinnable war for all the wrong reasons, and now our servicemen and women are suffering (and dying) in vain. Many pro-war and/or conservative commenters have written with scorn and ridicule about the rush of left-wingers (and Europeans) to use this phrase; some big names in media were forced to admit their quagmire predictions were wrong way back in May.
I'm not here to debate whether Iraq is a quagmire, but I do believe the term quagmire has become synonomous with "An unwinnable and unworthy Republican/George Bush war," so the use of the term "education quagmire" doesn't suggest what the folks at NRO think it does. If anything, I would not be at all surprised to see the anti-testing, anti-accountability, anti-Bush crowd define the No Child Left Behind Act as the "education quagmire," and I'm sure they'd feel justified in doing so. Let me explain.
The current state of education is somewhat muddied and controversial because all of the NCLB requirements are relatively new; they are confusing, difficult to understand (sometimes), and difficult to fulfill (often). Special education programs in particular are feeling very frustrated, Head Start teachers believe that the new tests for their little charges are not useful, and many schools complain that the new testing and school grading methods are not appropriate, or do not accurately reflect the quality of the schools.
Regardless of the validity of the complaints listed above, they all came about because President Bush is waging what I think is a worthy and winnable "war" against a concept of "education" that doesn't include facts, or basic skills, or core knowledge. For us who support NCLB to suggest that we are in an "education quagmire" is to suggest that the "war" currently being fought against those who so ruined public education in the first place is unwinnable, and unworthy, and not worth the sacrifices it has required.
On the other hand, the term "zero tolerance quagmire" is accurate and does hit the anti-education educrats where they live. The current state of zero tolerance policies, and the horror stories that accompany them, do represent a quagmire resulting from the "war" that educrats are waging upon politically-incorrect behavior, the constitutional rights of their students, and common sense and good judgment in general.
Thus, the term "zero-tolerance quagmire" is more appropriate, and that's the term I'll be using (no offense to the Instaman and NRO). It's nitpicky, I know, but that's the way I am.
Update: Don't miss Jay Mathews' review of the "myths," and the realities, of the NCLB Act.
Posted by kswygert at November 13, 2003 01:34 PM