McKenna’s argument is that NCLB could lead to -another- Columbine. And her evidence that higher test scores won’t prevent such events is that Columbine itself had high test scores.

There’s plenty of possible holes to be picked in this argument. But the criticisms made in the post are emphatically not among them.

McKenna, Margaret
President
President’s Office
phone 617-349-8510
e-mail mckenna@mail.lesley.edu

I am an elementary school teacher in Texas and I can tell you schools have no time whatsoever to teach things like manners and conflict resolution. Its ALL about the test and nothing else. The funny part is Texas schools are not all that great, but now they’re being used as the model to base all of our schools on. I can’t remember who wrote the article but its called “The Myth of the Miracle in Texas Schools” and it should be an eye opener for most people.

I’ve talked to lots of people who think the state of America’s schools are the fault of lazy teachers who think teachers have to be forced to do their jobs. The fact is, our schools are a reflection of our society and all the testing in the world will not change that fact.

I don’t know to what extent elementary schools even attempt this kind of thing anymore, or how effective they are when they do. But, assuming that there are schools still doing this, I can certainly see how the pressure of laws like NCLB could lead to less of it being taught than before. The time that Miss Yamamoto spent teaching me character and politeness made me a better person, but I doubt that it improved any of my test scores.

I did go to Lesley U.’s website before posting my comment in an unsuccessful attempt to find her email address so I could comment to her directly. I didn’t bother with her background.

I think something Orwell said in his essay “Notes On Nationalism” (which I recommend highly, btw) applies to McKenna: “One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.” I respect education, but having a lot of letters after one’s name is no guarantee he/she won’t come up with something stupid. Rather than having her degrees give credence to her idea, her asinine idea calls the value of those degrees into question.

A rich man wanted to donate a million dollars to a college. The trustees were very enthusiastic until the man made a condition: he wanted his horse to get an honorary Ph.D. as a Doctor of Transportation. The trustees discussed this among themselves and were very dismayed. However, one of them observed, “You know, this would only be the first time we’ve given a Ph.D. to a whole horse.”

By focusing attention on students who’ve been “left behind” academically, NCLB may reduce school violence by reducing the incredible frustration felt by students who can’t read in middle and high school. Frustrated, failing students are far more likely to engage in violent and self-destructive behavior than are successful students. This has nothing to do with Eric Harris, of course, but it’s highly relevant to the less homicidal violence that disrupts many schools.

She says nothing of the sort.

She says that the NCLB Act proves that we haven’t applied the lessons of Columbine.

“But some of the most important lessons of Columbine have been all but forgotten - left behind, so to speak, in no small measure because of another educational development of recent years: the No Child Left Behind Act.”

This may be wrong, tendentious, etc. But it isn’t an illogical argument or achronological, as Jacobs claims.

Why fight something you believe is idiocy by being as idiotic in your turn?

Ms. Jacobs gets an F in her comprehension test.

They aren’t comparing themselves to the general population, but to other college professors. So it is a telling statistic.

Obviously, they did not kill because they spent too much time prepping for tests and had too few electives. Famously, they were enrolled in a bowling class, though they didn’t show up the day of the massacre.