By Marion Brady
This column was a guest appearance on Valerie Strauss' Answer Sheet
at the Washington Post
, August 12, 2010.
Marion Brady is a veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer
and author. Don't miss his website
.
Driving the country roads of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, I have
sometimes been lucky enough to be blocked by sheep being moved from
one pasture to another.
I say 'lucky' because it allows me to watch an impressive performance
by a dog -- usually a Border Collie.
What a show! A single, mid-sized dog herding two or three hundred
sheep, keeping them moving in the right direction, rounding up strays,
knowing how to intimidate but not cause panic, funneling them all
through a gate, and obviously enjoying the challenge.
Why a Border Collie? Why not an Akita or Xoloitzcuintli or another of
about 400 breeds listed on the Internet?
Because, among the people for whom herding sheep is serious business,
there is general agreement that Border Collies are better at doing
what needs to be done than any other dog. They have 'the knack.'
That knack is so important that those who care most about Border
Collies even oppose their being entered in dog shows. That, they say,
would lead to the Border Collie being bred to look good, and looking
good isn't the point. Brains, innate ability, performance -- that's
the point.
Other breeds are no less impressive in other ways. If you're lost in a
snowstorm in the Alps, you don't need a Border Collie. You need a big,
strong dog with a really good nose, lots of fur, wide feet that don't
sink too deeply into snow, and an unerring sense of direction for
returning with help. You need a Saint Bernard.
If varmints are sneaking into your hen house, killing your chickens,
and escaping down holes in a nearby field, you don't need a Border
Collie or a Saint Bernard, you need a Fox Terrier.
It isn't that many different breeds can't be taught to herd, lead
high-altitude rescue efforts, or kill foxes. They can. It's just that
teaching all dogs to do things which one particular breed can do
better than any other doesn't make much sense.
We accept the reasonableness of that argument for dogs. We reject it
for kids.
The non-educators now running the education show say American kids are
lagging ever-farther behind in science and math, and that the
consequences of that for America's economic well-being could be
catastrophic.
So, what is this rich, advantaged country of ours doing to try to beat
out the competition?
Mainly, we put in place the No Child Left Behind program, now replaced
by Race to the Top and the Common Core State Standards Initiative. If
that fact makes you optimistic about the future of education in
America, think again about dogs.
There are all kinds of things they can do besides herd, rescue, and
engage foxes. They can sniff luggage for bombs. Chase felons. Stand
guard duty. Retrieve downed game birds. Guide the blind. Detect
certain diseases. Locate earthquake survivors. Entertain audiences.
Play nice with little kids. Go for help if Little Nell falls down a
well.
So, with No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top as models, let's set
performance standards for these and all other canine capabilities and
train all dogs to meet them. All 400 breeds. All skills. Leave No Dog
Behind!
Two-hundred-pound Mastiffs may have a little trouble with the
chase-the-fox-down-the-hole standard, and Chihuahuas will probably
have difficulty with the tackle-the-felon-and-pin-him-to-the-ground
standard. But, hey, no excuses! Standards are standards! Leave No Dog
Behind.
Think there's something wrong with a
same-standards-and-tests-for-everybody approach to educating? Think a
math whiz shouldn't be held back just because he can't write a good
five-paragraph essay? Think a gifted writer shouldn't be refused a
diploma because she can't solve a quadratic equation? Think a
promising trumpet player shouldn't be kept out of the school orchestra
or pushed out on the street because he can't remember the date of the
Boxer Rebellion?
If you think there's something fundamentally, dangerously wrong with
an educational reform effort that's actually designed to standardize,
designed to ignore human variation, designed to penalize individual
differences, designed to produce a generation of clones, photocopy
this column.
If you think it's stupid to require every kid to read the same books,
think the same thoughts, parrot the same answers, make several
photocopies. And in the margin at the top of each, write, in longhand,
something like, "Please explain why the standards and accountability
fad isn’t a criminal waste of brains," or, "Why are you trashing
America's hope for the future?" or just, "Does this make sense?"
Send the copies to your senators and representatives before they sell
their vote to the publishing and testing corporations intent on
getting an ever-bigger slice of that half-trillion dollars a year
America spends on educating.
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