No Child Left, ummm, behind.

March 30, 2006

To follow up on the recent legislative orgy about the No Child Left Behind movement:

Michigan is considering Statewide standards that would require that every student pass Algebra II as a prerequisite for graduation. Everyone? This presupposes that everyone can pass Algebra II; and I think that’s clearly not the case. That’s akin to supposing that everyone is capable of being an NBA baller one day, if only they hit the gym hard enough and long enough.

Raising the bar like this, well, it’s ridiculous. ceteris parabus, it can only increases the rate of failure - it does so by making failures out of those who previously on the margin. Consider: You won’t make a faster runner by erecting hurdles in his path. You need to get him better coaching and training. And neither can you raise the average level of scholarship simply by dictating that “it will be so.”

I still stick by privatization or vouchers. Just like the French - who cling to their social contract amidst staggering unemployment, so do we cling to our state-subsidized teenage-daycare. I’ll concede, it’s great if you can really squeeze more instruction out of the teachers, if you can somehow get them to be more inspiring than otherwise, if you can encourage the students to embrace learning and scholarship but, it’s not like we’re doing a particularly remarkable job at educating people these days anyway.


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