Betsy's Page catches a telling comment in Thomas Friedman's NYTimes article about Williams College, which asks graduating seniors to name the high school teachers that had the greatest impact on their lives. Betsy noted this quote:
When she got the call from Williams saying she had won, [nominated Highland Park High School teacher] Ms. Loris recalled, "I just kept saying, 'Wow.' " A teacher for 23 years, now nearing retirement, she added, "I just found it very affirming in a Zenlike way," an acknowledgement "that my days have value, my life has had some worth. Public school teachers don't get that very often," especially with No Child Left Behind restrictions, which now require teachers to teach to the tests, and push out the window "all those things that really spark kids imaginations" - like art and music.
Betsy is outraged:
What a gratuitous slap for Ms. Loris and then for Thomas Friedman to include. Come on, teachers at Highland Park High School aren't losing their classes in art and music for NCLB preparation classes. If you check out HPHS's test scores, they're doing just fine for the great majority of their students. However, the groups that aren't passing Illinois's required 11th grade standardized test are the economically disadvantaged, disabled, and Hispanic students. Would Ms. Loris object to money spent to help those students achieve more in reading, writing, and math? The fact that this school has a teacher in international relations is some indication that NCLB has not forced this school to make draconian cutbacks. Plus, I object to the idea that art and music are the only things that "really spark kids imaginiations." I think that reading books can also spark those imaginations and, if kids have low reading skills, not only will they miss out on that spark to their imaginations, but they'll be held back in school and in work for the rest of their lives.
I can't improve on that, except to say than anyone laboring under the twin delusions that (a) all that matters about education is that it fires one's "imagination", and (b) subjects like reading and math can't possibly excite that imagination, shouldn't be in the field of education.
Posted by kswygert at June 13, 2005 02:49 PM