Mountain View High School may be one of the better public high schools in the nation. But they are not immune to the dictates of the Every Child Left Behind Act either. These dictates say that Mountain View High School must score better every year on the standardized tests mandated by ECLBA -- or else. Even though they already score in the top 5% of the nation.
So starting next year, Mountain View High School's award-winning Facing History class, which brings together Holocaust and other genocide survivors with students, is history. Instead, the time will be spent taking practice tests in order to get test scores up. Because, as we all know, taking practice tests is more important than learning history...
-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
One of the more vivid memories I have of school involved meeting a holocast survivor as part of my 6th grade history class. Seeing those numbers tattooed on her arm provided a very real view into the past.
ReplyDeleteHistory isn't just about learning places, names, and dates; it is about understanding why, and I'm afraid that point is missed much too often. :-(
Dave
There is no way to test you seeing numbers tattooed on her arm, thus it is not education. Only things we can test are education. That is why teaching children how to think critically and evaluate what they see and hear is not education. We can't test it on a fill-in-the-bubble test, thus it isn't education, it's, uhm, just a waste of time.
ReplyDelete-- Badtux the Republican Education Penguin
History is a lot of monkey shit dust left in the ruts of time as we travel though time and space. Hugs.
ReplyDeleteReally, what the hell is going on?! We must want a nation with uneducated young people: They'll do nicely for the endless "preemptive" wars we have scheduled.
ReplyDeletePeople who can think critically may -- gasp! -- question authority! We certainly can't have that now, can we?
Mixter