SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2010
Week 3 Free Topic - Both sides of the coin.
One of the most fascinating things about people is how they can ignore things when they don't fit their beliefs. I think everyone does this to a certain extent. I still do. With the dawn of the Internet, it is easy now to find information that completely reinforces our own world view.
From this myopia comes the Law of Unintended Consequences, or as I like to call it, The Other Side of the Coin. No choice in life is a certain thing but some people think it is because they choose not to see the other side of the coin. For example:
No Child Left Behind. When it was written I at first liked the idea. Let's put down some standards for students to measure up to. Encourage success, and punish failure. Sounds good.
Of course there are many problems with this. Just the name itself is loaded with problems. No Child Left Behind indicates that all children will do equally well and nobody will fail (aka be left behind). The problem is when you look at the other side of the coin. If you want all children to do equally well then you have to hold back the high achievers too. Enforcing this standardization on everyone is a left over from the factory model education system. Teachers are handcuffed to Teaching to the Test.
The only skill the students will really have after they graduate is a skill of taking standardized tests.
So here is my radical idea. Disband the Department of Education entirely. Let states try 50 different approaches to education and see what happens. Let kids excel and provide guidance to help them get there. Over time the best approaches will become clear and will then be passed around to other schools. What makes this country great is American Ingenuity, not government.
Most critically, make sure from an early age young kid's native gifts are recognized and nurtured before the factory school beats it out of them. So who's with me?
From this myopia comes the Law of Unintended Consequences, or as I like to call it, The Other Side of the Coin. No choice in life is a certain thing but some people think it is because they choose not to see the other side of the coin. For example:
No Child Left Behind. When it was written I at first liked the idea. Let's put down some standards for students to measure up to. Encourage success, and punish failure. Sounds good.
Of course there are many problems with this. Just the name itself is loaded with problems. No Child Left Behind indicates that all children will do equally well and nobody will fail (aka be left behind). The problem is when you look at the other side of the coin. If you want all children to do equally well then you have to hold back the high achievers too. Enforcing this standardization on everyone is a left over from the factory model education system. Teachers are handcuffed to Teaching to the Test.
The only skill the students will really have after they graduate is a skill of taking standardized tests.
So here is my radical idea. Disband the Department of Education entirely. Let states try 50 different approaches to education and see what happens. Let kids excel and provide guidance to help them get there. Over time the best approaches will become clear and will then be passed around to other schools. What makes this country great is American Ingenuity, not government.
Most critically, make sure from an early age young kid's native gifts are recognized and nurtured before the factory school beats it out of them. So who's with me?
@Andrew - I totally agree that it is easier than ever to find the information that satisfies and agrees with your view on any subject. You can convince yourself that almost anything is true. One of the more important skills that I try to teach my children is to be objective and skeptical when you are consuming information. This is an elemental rule when consuming medical research as well. It's always important to know who has a vested interest in the results.
The rule of unintended consequences runs through almost all facets of life where governing forces exist. You've given a great example with the school system. Did you know that the same thing happens in hospitals? In order to meet standards set by the government agencies, which are very well intentioned, we are seeing more and more focus on "passing the test" instead of taking care of the patient. Nurses are pulled into positions that take them away from the bedside so that the records can be examined and scrubbed, the guilty punished, and the innocent are really just the guilty that haven't been caught yet. So, I have to strongly agree that what made America great was not government control, but creativity, ingenuity and the "melting pot" mentality which took everything in, adopting the best features of any culture, and making it a part of the whole.