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March 31, 2012

Measurement and Evaluation in Education

The mass public, however you call it [Nietzsche’s herd, Lawrence’s mass-minds or others cattle and sheeple, unfortunately under whose label we almost all fall], wants easy answers, simplicity and no complications.  This is why we have the present wave of educational testing and measurement systems in place.  They are easy, simple, and actually quite complicated, intricate and deceiving, but the first components, the base numbers [which can be squeezed, pre-packed, and sold to the public with incredible speed and ease] sell themselves.  We believe in the numbers and the surveys [ha, the US is survey and survey evidence crazy, more so tan any other nation, but our fascination is rubbing off]. 

Even when we compare our education system or supposed learning to other nations, these numbers are INSANE and STUPID!  No two nations give the same tests, no two nations have the same standards, and no two nations have the same needs and goals in education [at least not yet].  No matter how you slice them, these numbers simply do not mesh.  It is like comparing the Rocky Mountains to the Himalayas, the Alps to the Appalachians…  They don’t match up.  All are mountains, but entirely different in almost all respects.  However, we use these numbers, these stats, these comparisons to say our education system [teachers, students, curriculum…] just don’t measure up.  Yes, and we are not Japan, Germany, Russia, China…  If we want to be them, in all respects, then by all means. 

It bears me repeating again that we LOVE these stats and numbers when we compare education systems but refuse to use the very same stats and numbers [in styles, origins and more] when comparing things like health care and crime.  We say we don’t need some other country’s ideas invading our health care system or crime or gun legislation, yet we are seemingly 100% comfortable comparing ourselves and using them to promote education change and ideas.  I believe this is utter stupidity and narrow-minded idiocy. 

[If you cannot see the problem here, reading anything here will challenge you, so look elsewhere…]

In the classrooms we use very standardized left-brain focused tests where there is no room for variation, no room for comment/analysis of error, and no acceptance of the possibility of error [I think more people should read Henry Perkinson - and albeit I do not agree with everything he says, he makes tremendous points - which might explain why his books are out of print like so many others who figured stuff out but stood against authoritarian folly].  We do not engender critical thinking, discourse, and depth of evaluation.  We do create test-takers and obedient drones who will do what we tell them when we tell them to do it [no better than ants for the hill, bees for the hive, termites for the termitary]. 

People, the herd, the mass-minds, do not see this.  They are not being led to even see this as a possibility, and the moment someone in education points it out, the person is attacked as afraid of the tests and such because they might identify them as a “bad teacher”.  This is marvelous because even our definitions of “good teacher” and “bad teacher” have changed as a result of the test craze [now a good teacher has students who pass the tests, caring and nurturing be damned, and the bad teacher is the one who might not get the high test scores but nurtures and cares (perhaps builds critical thinkers and risk-takers)]. 

We have decisions to make.  Are we going to be a nation of followers [ants, bees, termites, working, working, working until the day we die], or are we going to be a nation or thinkers and doers who make free and unbiased choices about careers [not all of which involve college by the way] and engender caring and concern for our fellow citizens [beyond throwing some cash at a charity]? 

Tags: education reform education Henry Perkinson nietzsche standardized tests standards assessment the future

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March 30, 2012
"For all the beauty of the Sermon on the Mount, modern man cannot refrain from listening to the words of Zarathustra."

— Pierre Telihard de Chardin [Really?  Do I need to say anything more?  Simple and true.  All we need do is look around us and realize for all our religious yammering, we do not speak of love, we do not speak of the 2000 years of Christian gospel, but instead pick and chose, misrepresent, and then alter in the guise of the here and now covering the past, the simplicity and truth of these ancient teachings and ways of living and treating each other.]

Tags: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin love Religion Gospel failure failure of america Sermon on the Mount Zarathustra nietzsche

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March 17, 2012
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Another symptom

I see why Harold Innis did not see the changes in communication and media in a positive light, and I see why he was somewhat intolerant of people who could not see the obvious future issues because they lived so much in the present and the fantasy world of the future, the cartoon and Sci-Fi futures, living for the moment and losing any understanding of the positive and negative issues related to what happens when we throw a pebble of technology into the human molecular soup.

I also see why Marshall McLuhan was so aggressive and intolerant [you see it in the video clips, you hear it in the tone of his essays, and see it when he deals with this and that research, report, or inane and vacuous comment out there by someone the sheeple respect or follow like drones] of people who could not see beyond the technology in front of their faces.  There’s a reason the phrase technological idiot came out, and it does not have anything to do with not being able to use it.  It has everything to do with people who become so engrossed in it, lost amidst the media and technology, that they cannot even see it for anything else other than godsend.  These people worship their technology and defend it more than they often defend their religious faith. 

So, in some of my recent posts and responses I have become intolerant, and for that I am only marginally sorry.  Having done the research I have done, having read what I have read, seen what I have seen, experienced what I have experienced and having the nasty little numbered IQ I hate throwing out there [I am not a fan  of those sort of numbers, but in some cases, when it is capable of seeing outside the box and see glimpses into the distant future through the vision into the past, the probing of the present, and the deeper probing of things seen superficial by some and completely unseen by many] I cannot stomach when people cannot see beyond their technical idiocy and infatuations. 

In my perception, given the writing I see going on in academia, given the perceptions discussed in the news, and given the various course syllabi I have viewed from major and high-ranked colleges and universities around the nation and even in other countries, I see a complete and utter vacancy of research, discussion, and even mention of these issues.  This is fascinating, and as much as I try to be positive, and I usually do, the utter lack of vision, lack of even discussion of the potentially negative outcomes, well, that drives me into episodes of the somewhat negative… 

Well, for what it’s worth.  There it is.  My intolerance exists, but I am trying to temper it.  However, this blog is to inform, open the conversation, and OPEN MINDS to the possibilities.  If someone has something that will OPEN my mind to deeper perceptions, after having looked into the past, the present, and probing into potential futures, the longer term, and possibilities both positive and negative, well, by all means, share.  If you’ve got a short-term blog response similar to a comment on a news site, I might take that to task or I might be Nietzschean and not respond at all.  Hard to say.

This present day fallacy of “everyone needs to go to college” is madness and idiocy, besides being classist and racist.  It reeks of what John Gardner, Alfred Whitehead and many others tried to identify and steer us away from, elitism and academic inflation, isolating people’s passions and telling them the only good passions are for college [not trades, not the so-many non-university careers that bring just as much if not more happiness combined with less debt from college loans and living expenses].  We no longer accept the idea, and trust me, we don’t, that not going to college is acceptable, and then when we force everyone into this ridiculous mass tunnel and they fall out, back away, or drop out, we wonder why and scream the system must be broken if they “fail” in college.  Plumbers, electricians, woodworkers, carpenters, welders, and many others really don’t need college - they need apprenticeships.  Many careers people aim for from a university and college education would be better served by apprenticeships [and they would be cheaper, not have as much debt built in, and would provide aggressive hands-on training and guided professional mentorship].  This however is not the thinking of our day, so the drop out rates in college indicate “failure” of the public school k-12 system [and not, of course the pathetic thought processes and mechanisms in place regarding college and its value - it has value, don’t get me wrong, but it is horrible to steer people there who would achieve their greatest potential elsewhere and be so much happier and healthier physically and mentally - because they would not see themselves as “failures” and would fill vital long-term roles in society] and if you cannot pass standardized narrow-focused tests, cannot achieve in college, well, you are a “failure”. 

Honestly?  Do a little research into the great composers, artists, musicians, early and ancient philosophers, mathematicians, thinkers from BEFORE universities, and see what they were able to perceive, create, and do without technology, without narrowed thinking, and without degrees on the wall and other people’s thoughts and victuals.  Uggghhhh! 

Tags: Harold Innis Marshall McLuhan intolerance sheeple media studies future Nietzsche technology