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March 27, 2007“Truthy” SAT’s and “teaching to the test”Betsy Newmark writes about the essay portion of the SAT’s and how they may be gamed, as demonstrated by an MIT professor writing trash. Go read it. Good writing skills go hand-in-hand with good reading skills, and with critical thinking. These skills are not really taught any more. Rather, students are being taught “to the test,” and for that, neither thinking nor information need be clear. Like so much of post-modernist bunk, students can meet the trick if they simply learn “the form” of a thing without learning its function or substance. I know this is true because a teacher pal of mine shared this story with me. While grading a regents exam for Global History she came across one student essay that had her both amused and horrified. “Because essays are subjective, we’re not supposed to consider content in the grading,” she said, “and that’s really correct because you don’t want some teacher grading down an essay simply because she disagrees with, for instance, the religious or political outlook of the student…but this essay! The student began with a standard opening paragraph: ‘throughout global history, da-dah-da-dah-yadda-yadda,’ and she ended with a proper concluding paragraph, ‘in consideration blah, blah, throughout global history, blah, blah…’ but the middle paragraph began: ‘the *** are a filthy, disgusting people and I don’t understand why we had to learn about them…’ The student’s middle was basically a run-down of all the ethnic and religious groups on whom she felt her attention wasted while studying Global History, but with appropriate words here and there tossed in, “indigenous,” “culturally advanced” etc. “I had no choice,” my friend said, “the grading standards were clear. She got points for having the opening and concluding paragraph and for using “key words” that expressed understanding of certain ideas. Because I had to give her those points, she got a passing grade, and in the theory of political correctness that’s pretty much as it should be, because her ‘content’ should not be subject to my ‘judgment,’ as long as she’s demonstrating applied knowledge of form and concepts…but this really isn’t what 11 years of education is supposed to boil down to, is it?” Perhaps we should bring back that good-old (but terribly unsophisticated) teaching method demanding rote memorization of facts. Yes, facts may simply be burped back at the world, but at least facts are solid and once a kid learns them, he tends to retain them and that might help down the road, when - as an adult - a kid may actually have to - you know - think instead of feel,; he may need something solid on which to build the foundation of thought. Facts are helpful. This idea of conceptual education, which is teaching kids how to take tests well, doesn’t allow their active thoughts to land on anything taut enough for a re-bound. Instead their thoughts land on something soft and mushy…and then they stay there. Education was “deconstructed” thanks to the generation whose whole purpose of existence seems to have been about tearing down anything and everything that came before them (particularly anything of a remotely authoritative bent) and replacing what it has destroyed with amorphous, unstructured blobbiness. Well…this is the result. The Genie is out of the bottle, and the teachers unions are powerful as hell. I don’t see how this gets fixed. Protein Wisdom deplores what we’re creating while Siggy brings us some excellent thoughts by Mamacita. http://theanchoressonline.com/2007/03/27/truthy-sats-and-teaching-to-the-test/trackback/ 14 Responses to ““Truthy” SAT’s and “teaching to the test”” |
March 27th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I remember reading somewhere that another thing has happened in grading the tests. The longer the essay (no matter the content), the better the score.
Great. Empty wordiness.
March 27th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Unbelievable.
There is something very wrong when our schools allow students to parrot ideas and ideologies that emanate from some of the most dysfunctional regimes in the world.
Still, the PC aspect can’t be denied.
Exhortations to hate are acceptable only if the ‘right’ targets are vilified (America, Israel, Jews, Christians, conservatives, etc).
Express hate toward the ‘wrong’ groups (Gays, Muslims, leftists, pagans, etc) and you can be sure there will be serious consequences.
March 27th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
It’s stuff like this that leaves me saying “Thank God I went to a private, catholic girls’ school for high school!”
Our history teachers (among others) were strict and tough and God help you if you didn’t know the dates for the French Revolution, Battle of Hastings, or the first World War. Or the size of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and their dear Maria Theresa (she was short, but quite lovely).
Our English teachers taught form in writing, in that our essays had to be organized– but organized fluff wouldn’t do. There had to be, ya know, facts and logic and rational argument and all those annoying but valuable things. . .
^__^
And yes, teaching to the test is very prevalent elsewhere, and very, very dangerous.
March 27th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
A very similar thing happened in catechesis; content out, “experience” in.
Starting next year, we are incorporating rote memory requirements (kind of, but not exactly like the Baltimore catechism), into our religion curriculum (K-8 Catholic school).
March 27th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Well, if these PC graduates ever become US Attorneys, they can always be fired for incompetence.. No wait, that won’t work either.
March 27th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
First day of AP American History, my teacher (the best teacher I have EVER had) said to us “You don’t know anything about American History, so you can’t have an opinion. After I teach you American History, you can have an opinion. But we’ll just be going over the facts for now, thank you very much.”
I’ve never learned so much in my life.
March 27th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Tuesday Reading List…
Here’s your Tuesday morning recommended reading list from the Yak:
1. Murphy’s Lesser Known Laws at This, That and Frog Hair2.
2. The Anchoress‘ post on “teaching to the test” gets the nod for best substantive piece …
March 27th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
[...] 27th, 2007 Read the The Anchoress, “Truthy” SAT’s And “Teaching To The Test,” for a look into the fantasy world and alternate universes that our schools have [...]
March 27th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
[...] see the same tensions in education. The Anchoress today posts a disquieting second-hand account of the grading of a regents exam in some undisclosed [...]
March 27th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
And this, my friends, is the kind of crap that will get you accepted at the top universities in our country!
March 27th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
[...] the Anchoress (yes, yes I read her frequently) writes about the SAT’s essay [...]
March 29th, 2007 at 7:25 am
An inconvenient truth about education…
The Anchoress has a post up about the dangers of ‘teaching to the test’. Good writing skills go hand-in-hand with good reading skills, and with critical thinking. These skills are not really taught any more. Rather, students are being taught……
March 29th, 2007 at 7:27 am
[...] Anchoress relates a story from a teacher friend. Amazing how you can write an essay, filled with hate, but the teacher can only grade it [...]
March 29th, 2007 at 9:19 am
[...] you’re not going to expect this. I like both Betsy Newmark and the Anchoress, but, well, let’s tackle Newmark first: When College Board announced that they were adding a [...]