Stalinizing American Education

[proud2BlibKansan]

The similarities between contemporary American educational reform and Soviet educational reform of the 1930s are as striking as they are discomfiting.


Of the following three statements, which refer to the Soviet Union in the 1930s and which refer to America today?

1. “Teachers are asked to achieve significant academic growth for all students at the same time that they instruct students with ever-more diverse needs….The stakes are huge—and the time to cling to the status quo has passed.”

2. “We had to have a campaign for 100 percent successful teaching…all students must learn.”

3. “Poor work by the school and poor achievement by the entire class and by individual pupils are the direct result of poor work by the teacher.”

Although all three of the above sentiments could be attributable to current officeholders in Washington, D.C., only the first is American—from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (Duncan 2010, January). The second and third are policy statements which emanated from old Soviet policy papers on educational reform (Ewing, 2001, p. 487).

more . . . http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=16545

[soapboxtalk]

1. Foolish

No child left behind means a whole generation left behind.

How is everyone missing it...the more control our feds have over our schools, the worse our schools become.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. We need the feds to prevent discrimination and other civil rights violations

We also need federal dollars in our schools.

The current problem is they are micro managing. It's not about how much control they have, it's about HOW they control and WHAT they control.

[plumbob]

2. No time for socialization or reflection in the teaching mix is killing us.

Things like "bell-to-bell" instruction and test, test, test create a frantic and sterile environment that anyone sane would wish to escape.