So the Buffalo News
has another editorial OP-ED about Buffalo and NY schools and testing.
And that ever pesky testing opt-out movement which is keeping
students away from tests that have never (in the history of
education) been proven to show what a student is capable of.
If these tests are
so great, that means that the education of those that have never
taken them is sub par, at best. Even if they went to college prep
schools and elite colleges, etc. Blah blah blah.
Which explains the
mess that this country is in and the incompetence of our leaders in
the various fields. Particularly the media which Thomas Jefferson so
duly noted was essential to the preservation of democracy in this
country.
Which is why
Presidents Reagan, GHW Bush, WJ Clinton, (sic) GW Bush, and Obama are
able to sell us failed economic policies as garbage. (And pretty
much every president before them. And the two current candidates. God, please help us.) And how GW Bush was able to lie us
into a war in Iraq with total media complicity – because they were
never subject to rigorous testing in school they had no idea how to
check and see if Bush was telling us the truth. Heaven knows that
other countries around the world had figured out that Bush was lying
but our media? Nope.
Clearly they were
not tested enough.
And because they
failed so miserably, that is why fewer people are going to the
mainstream corporate media for news and information. Weather, yes.
Local information about something, maybe. With some salt added.
But big newspapers and corporate media? Give me SNL, Steven
Colbert, John Stewart, George Carlin, and any comedian (or
comedienne) and I'll get a more accurate take on what is going on in
the world and why it is happening.
Or the Independent
media – Democracy Now, the Real News Network, Free Speech Radio
News, and a whole bevy of other resources (Z Magazine, Monthly
Review, Counterpunch, In These Times, The Progressive, Dissent, The
Nation, and of course, Socialist Action newspaper. I save the best
for last. There are others that can be listed I'm sure. These are
off the top of my head. Got one? Tell me. I'd love to look at it.)They were correct on the wars, Bush's tax plans, and other plans that wrecked this country. And all the other presidents as well. And they are providing the best and most critical analyses of the current election.
Third party anyone?
So we have the usual
list of complaints about testing and parents that are keeping their
children away from a pedagogically questionable practice that is
conducted at inappropriate times throughout the school year. (It
should all be done in June. At the end of instruction. You don't
give a final exam in the middle of a unit. Duh.)
And the people doing
the criticizing are not the ones that have to work with the students
or deal with them when they ask “Why do we have to know this? Or
“Is this going to be on the test?”
My favorite; “I
hate school. It's stupid and useless.”
Yes. Those are the
attitudes we need for students to have towards education. When they
give up on learning, they are not just giving up on themselves.
They are giving up on the community where they live and the country
that they live in.
So, if what we were
doing before all this testing was a failure – that explains a ton.
But turning students
off from education is also not working.
Our students, and
our country deserve better.
Socialists demand:
-An end to punitive
testing in schools
-The refunding of
all money wasted on tests that show and prove nothing (After 1
year,interest is added. Prime plus 1% per year.)
-An end to charter
schools – their whole purpose is to promote testing more and to put
our taxes into Wall Street and the pockets of the 1%
-The adoption of
Portfolio Assessments which show student strengths through a wide
variety of tasks, not just one test
We demand
educational justice for our students.
Our future and
democracy depend upon it.
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