informant38
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...But of these sophisms and elenchs of merchandise I skill not...
Milton, Areopagitica

Except he had found the
standing sea-rock that even this last
Temptation breaks on; quieter than death but lovelier; peace
that quiets the desire even of praising it.

Jeffers, Meditation On Saviors


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11.11.02

The political mania for inflicting high-stakes tests on students has reached such insanity that Harcourt, publisher of the widely used Stanford 9 test, sends out instructions on what a teacher should do when nervous children vomit on the tests (Soiled tests cannot be discarded but must be returned to Harcourt.)

No one seems to be stepping forward to demand that schools discontinue practices that make kids vomit.

Instead, a principal in San Diego insists that kindergartners must take pre-Stanford-9 tests, declaring �Unless students become familiar with the exam format, they cannot zero in on the academic skills. Try passing a bar exam without preparation."

Hello. This is kindergarten.

Standardistas call it more intense kindergarten instruction. We should call it child abuse. We must defy federal bullying and return kindergarten to its roots�a children�s garden. Kindergarten should be joyful. Every day. It should be a song. Every day.

So should first grade and third grade and seventh grade. And yes, even high school. Childhood should be returned to our children, not handed over to the get-'em- ready machine for the Global Economy, the machine that insists schools must sort kids into winners and losers and serve them up to the marketplace.
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Now, homework mania dominates family life. In Virginia, a third grader brought home 45 pages of multiple choice drill sheets. Test prep material. If she gets a parent�s signature testifying that she has spent 45 minutes a night on those sheets for the eight days preceding the day of the state test, she gets to attend an ice cream and cake party. Homework pressure causes children around the country to drop ballet and soccer.

Now, according to a feature in the New York Times, the new rage is $85 an hour tutoring for pre-k children�so they�ll have �an edge� of the other five-year-olds when they get to kindergarten.

Thus, we sacrifice our children to the demands of the state. When the state threatened to take over Birmingham, Alabama schools if they didn�t increase their Stanford-9 test scores, Birmingham officials took the easy way. They got rid of the low scorers. In Birmingham, 522 students were kicked out of school right before the administration of the state test. Some students were given termination papers on their 16th birthday. And when Steve Orel, an adult ed instructor, tried to blow the whistle on this atrocity, he was fired.

In Tennessee a first grade teacher received an official letter of reprimand�for comforting a sobbing child during the high-stakes state test. Teachers aren�t allowed to talk to children during test time in Tennessee.

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