Herbert Responds to Arne on Education: What do u think?

[Mechelle De Craene]

Herbert Kohl: "Dear Secretary Duncan, I’m worried about the direction you’re taking education policy. In a recent interview with NEA Today, you said you read my book “36 Children” in high school and wrote an essay about it in college. “The book had a big impact on me,” you said, adding that it gave you “tremendous hope” to address the “challenges that teachers in tough communities face.”But I’m afraid your emphasis on testing is only going to increase those challenges, especially in tough communities." Read on

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[Geoff Day]

The strong desire to add a number to learning is a perennial unfortunately. I recognize that in order to help children we need to give feedback about how well they are doing but this pseudo-scientific approach does not really help in the bigger picture of learning. They become prisoners of marks. Brings back memories of The Prisoner on TV - I am NOT a number!

I believe that having children evaluate their own efforts not only can be done but should be done. Our task as teachers is to use our knowledge of learning to develop the questions that lead them to understand themselves, see their progress, recognize their strengths and acknowledge areas of weakness. I developed a method many years ago and I suspect others have too, but as long as the "authorities" accept the testing mode as-is we do it in "secret" and disguise it - such a waste of creative energy.