The New York Times reported today that parents in Florida are bitching and moaning over standardized tests. Kids are taking Xanax to cope. They can\u2019t sleep. They can\u2019t eat.<\/p>\n
One parent told the Times that her son who is a high school junior is so test-weary, \u201cI have had to take him to his doctor.\u201d She added: \u201cHe can\u2019t sleep, but he\u2019s tired. He can\u2019t eat, but he\u2019s hungry.\u201d\u00a0The Times said\u00a0in Florida \u201cmany schools this year will dedicate on average 60 to 80 days out of the 180-day school year to standardized testing. In a few districts, tests were scheduled to be given every day to at least some students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wow. Welcome to the Republic of morons who created the politics of educational testing. When it was discovered 30 years ago that sometimes Johnny could not read, politicians rose from the ether. They passed laws requiring Johnny be tested. And so it came to pass. Mandatory tests were imposed. Standards were created. If students passed, then OK. If not, kick their asses from here to John Dewey. And the schools and teachers, too.<\/p>\n
Doris Kerns Goodwin points out (in \u201cThe Bully Pulpit\u201d) that publisher S.S. McClure said at the dawn of the 20th<\/sup> century that the \u201c \u2018vitality of democracy\u2019 depends on \u2018popular knowledge of complex issues.\u2019 \u201d If we have such popular knowledge, it is well hidden amid the avalanche of 30-second TV commercials and nonexistent or cursory debates that dominate every election. This democracy is in desperate need of some political Geritol<\/a>.<\/p>\n Imagine, if you possibly can, the format of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 being applied to today\u2019s politics: One candidate spoke for 60 minutes; the other spoke for 90 minutes. The first candidate was allowed a 30-minute rebuttal. There were seven such debates. THREE HOURS EACH! Thousands of Illinois voters showed up.<\/p>\n And just think of all the progress we\u2019ve made since then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The New York Times reported today that parents in Florida are bitching and moaning over standardized tests. Kids are taking Xanax to cope. They can\u2019t sleep. They can\u2019t eat. One parent told the Times that her son who is a high school junior is so test-weary, \u201cI have had to take him to his doctor.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1931"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1935,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions\/1935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auslander.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}