On Wednesday, September 8, 2004, at 08:34 PM, Michael Atherton wrote:
I should make clear what I mean by "hardly anyone knew," I meant the general public and parents. Are you claiming that previously, any randomly selected set of parents, anywhere in the country, would have been able to compare the scores of schools and the students in those schools by race? I don't think so.
There might be a lesson here. It is doubtful -- very doubtful -- that any parents or the general public were so stupid (or more to the point even allowed) to think the performance of schools as seen by the test scores of students was the way to select a school for their children. We live in an age of absurdity that would seem very strange to parents from 100 years ago.
A compact of trust was strongly suggested in the education experiences of parents of that day. Rich parents placed their children in exclusive schools. Poor parents placed their children in the closest public school. Indian parents saw their children removed to far away federal boarding schools.
The duties of citizenship were hammered into the public and boarding school populations. Segregation for African Americans was pronounced in the South and tolerated in the North. Pockets of brutal prejudice and hatred were practiced in mining towns, big cities, the far West, and anywhere near an Indian reservation.
In other words, the high choice parents and the general public have today make the misbegotten NCLB possible. But it is an illusion of choice and a house of cards that will soon fall of its own weight. Our current Federal and State administration knows so little about education it is appalling.
Best wishes,
Laura Southeast Minneapolis
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