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Children
Can Learn Tricks
The RAND group, a major nonpartisan think-tank on policy and issues, studied the success in Texas, and found that basically what the kids there are learning is how to take the annual test! It's not that they're learning more, and it's not that they know any more now than they knew before, but they're getting the hang of taking the test! How do they do that? The teachers know the sorts of things that will be on the test, so they simply emphasize and drill the kids on those few things. With several hours of drilling on those few items, guess what...the kids' test scores improve! It's a lot easier to do well on a test if you have a narrow focus like that. Of course you're not really growing or getting very much smarter; it's not a broad range of things that are learned; there's no depth and very little understanding beyond those few basic facts; but it sure looks good on paper!
Some of the best entertainment in the world is based on the very same principles found in Gov. Bush's educational policies! We've been to every kind of circus, and the hours we spent there have been great, even at the smallest show. One circus we attended was especially small, Iiterally a dog-and-pony show, with really small rings in which they performed. But those dogs and that pony could put on one heck of a show! And even though the circus master said "the more you applaud the more they'd put into it," we really knew they were simply going through their paces. There was one dog who seemed like he didn't want to do it, try as they might to make him, like he had a mind of his own that day, but it turned out that was just his act!
And that's fine for entertainment, for putting on a good show. We remember with a great deal of fondness this one time, when we were at the state fair and this guy had all these animals. There were lots of cages with a glass front and they were lined up, stacked on top of one another. There was the chicken who played the piano (mentioned above), another chicken who could play basketball, a goose who pulled a bell on a little fire engine, a duck who stood at a microphone and "sang," and a gerbil who gave a fairly good lecture on quantum physics. Then each of these creatures hurried to the little feed tray that suddenly had a few bits of grain in it, all except the gerbil, who retired to his laboratory for further research.
On the other hand, you have Al Gore's plan, which isn't really nearly as entertaining. All he wants is to treat teachers like the professionals they are, provide them with the best training and resources and let them teach. He wants smaller class sizes so students will have more individualized attention. And he wants to broaden the horizon of each child, help foster curiosity, and see where it leads when all of us are learning and learning for life. His thoughts on education are sound and credible. And very boring!
So, Texas' educational miracle brings us this one valuable insight: Children are at least as smart as animals. They can be taught wonderful tricks. They can jump on command, if that's what you want. They can run round and round in a circle. And if you're real lucky you maybe, just maybe, can teach one of them to take the garbage out without complaining! |
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"We
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LITTLE TEMPTRESS!
Thanks
for all the e-mails. Some of you are way offbase.
E-Mail:
tom@hauntedbookstore.com |
Throughout
the campaign, Gov. George W. Bush has been touting his state's
progress in education, sometimes called the "Texas Miracle."
Test scores have been up like never before! How could such a thing
be possible? And could the rest of the country benefit from it? Gov.
Bush knows how it's possible, and it's his intention to share his
success with the rest of us!
It's
kind of like teaching tricks to an animal. You don't especially care
if Fido is able to read
the paper once he's fetched it; just his opening the door and
wrapping his jaws around the daily news without too many teeth marks
and too much slobber is really all you're after! And you don't really
expect much out of your pet chicken. But if you look down and notice
it looks like it has intellectual potential, you might schedule a few
sessions of behavioral modification and teach it to peck a toy piano
when you ring a bell!
And
we've been to the Great Circus as well, the one where every feat is
a little more wonderful than the next (and you can't quite believe
that's possible)! The circus folk are doing their fantastic things,
the tightrope walkers, the trapeze swingers, the clowns. And the
animals also are doing theirs: horses running round and round in a
circle; elephants running round and round in a circle; tigers running
round and round in a circle; maybe that's about it. No, the elephants
also kneel, put their front paws on the back of the elephant in front
of them. The tigers leap off their little perches, growl at the guy
with the whip, then run round and round in a circle. And also the
horses, as they run round and round in a circle have beautiful ladies
on them, in fact, the same beautiful ladies who were just on the
trapeze but now in more revealing clothes: Beauty and the Beast.
These
animals seem to know a lot! But of course we know they don't really
know anything! They're just going through the motions that they know
will get them a reward: a chunk of red meat, a little hank of jerky,
a lollipup, just something to put in their mouth that tastes good and
is good for you! 'Ummm, that good...me do trick more.'
Now,
according to George W. Bush, we can bring this kind of education,
these same rigorous standards to all of America! If we want, he
suggests, we have it in our power to teach children to find their one
little niche within the larger world. When we need someone to ring a
bell, we'll raise up a little child to be a bell ringer! Put the bell
there and let him ring it, then have his pay come out of a nearby
ATM. If we need a good piano player, we'll teach one little song to a
child. Then when it's show time, she can play her tune and head again
for the ATM. And the same for all the rest: teaching tricks, teaching
tasks, specializing. What we'll miss in terms of any of us ever
resembling Renaissance people ever again, we'll gain in increased
functionality and practicality. You have your little set of facts,
and I have my little set of facts. Put us all together and you have a
country of well-informed citizens!
But
Gov. Bush's success is success that's already been proven! You know
it works: if you set your goals low enough, eventually you'll attain
them! If you want children to learn a few little facts by rote, it
turns out it can be done! And having learned them, they're actually
able to retain the information long enough to spit it back for you on
a test! This is an incredible concept to have, something none of us
could have ever guessed before. Just look how smart Gov. Bush is
himself, so of course he knows what works!
