David Sirota: The Finland Phenomenon

[marmar]

from In These Times:




The Finland Phenomenon
By David Sirota


When I heard the news last week that the Department of Education is aiming to subject 4-year-olds to high-stakes testing, all I could do is shake my head in disbelief and despondently mutter a slightly altered riff off The Big Lebowski’s Walter Sobchak.

Four-year-olds, dude.

"Where Finland rejects testing, nurtures teachers and encourages its best and brightest to become educators, we fetishize testing and portray teachers as evil parasites."

You don’t have to be as dyspeptic as Walter to know this is madness. According to Stanford University’s Linda Darling-Hammond, who headed President Obama’s education transition team, though we already “test students in the United States more than any other nation,” our students “perform well below those of other industrialized countries in math and science.” Yet the Obama administration, backed by corporate foundations, is nonetheless intensifying testing at all levels, as if doing the same thing and expecting different results is innovative “reform” rather than what it’s always been: insanity.

In light of this craziness, it’s no wonder we’re being out-educated by countries going in the opposite policy direction. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/11602/the_finland_phenomenon/

[xchrom]

1. if only the 'corporate foundations' were interested in 'education'.

they're not -- they're interested in producing 'workers'.

[SharonAnn]

2. And some corporations are after the Education money for their own pockets.

They keep looking for large pots of money and then develop plans to "acquire" them.

As Matt Taibbi said in Rolling Stone, "Goldman Sachs is a giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

[xchrom]

4. +1

[Nay]

7. And they're interested in selling their shit -- tests, computers, lesson

plans -- at three prices so their CEOs can rip us off for more billions.

[msongs]

3. Obama's kids aren't in public schools. means nothing to him nt

[Pooka Fey]

5. A good short article, worth the time to read. K&R

[bemildred]

6. Expecting testing to fix education is like expecting a tire pressure gauge to inflate your tires. nt

[saras]

9. No, it's more like expecting a rectal thermometer to fix your tires

The things we value about education can't be tested. How do you test responsible citizenship? How do you test foresight? How do you test interdisciplinary understanding.

Many countries have created extremely high literacy and education rates in relatively short order, even during war. It isn't a difficult problem. If America isn't solving it, it's because we don't want to. And the fact that we're going in the opposite direction to everyone who is successful is a pretty powerful indicator of "our" desires.

[bemildred]

10. I'm pretty sure we agree. nt

[felix_numinous]

8. Then we should call it conditioning

instead of education. Education is a dynamic process that involves imagination and exploration --and this new program of early and constant testing is just behavior modification. Let us call it what it is.

Teachers are being reduced to programmers, sticking to the protocol and not being allowed to alter the curriculum? That is not education, and one has to wonder what kind of students are supposed to be a result of such narrow minded programming?

Music video for this thread, The Wall, by Pink Floyd:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZbM_MIz4RM

[swilton]

11. Look at Television

not test scores to learn why we fall behind the rest of the world academically.

[Uncle Joe]

12. Finland and Korea seem to have their priorities in order.

“What has happened since is that teaching has become the most highly esteemed profession (in Finland),” says Wagner, who narrates the film. “There is no domestic testing … because they have created such a high level of professionalism, they can trust their teachers.”

We're too busy worshiping at the altar of the Golden Calf.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.