…in the family album.
Monthly Archives: August 2006
Edspresso: Debate Over Standardized Testing
Edspresso has had an ongoing debate about standardized testing all week. Dana Rapp is not a fan of testing; Richard Phelps is. I’ve been following their discussion with great interest.
Says Dana Rapp:
"Before I moved to Vermont in 2002, I lived in Ohio where standardized
tests and national frameworks created environments where recess was
eliminated, teachers’ salaries were linked to test scores, children
became ill during testing, teachers’ job satisfaction waned, and,
ironically, less appeared to be learned."
And:
"Testing is a booming market where companies like McGraw-Hill and
Harcourt-Brace are reaping record profits with the sale of the
textbooks, tests, practice tests, and improvement kits.
Schooled-to-order children force-fed on scripted curriculum also
benefit big business. As testing proceeds to earlier grades, even
kindergarten, CEO’s and industrial “leaders” can rest even more assured
that future employees will not have the skills, knowledge,
dispositions, and collective consciousness to recognize and act to
change disparities of wealth, loss of jobs, lack of health care, and
corporate corruption in the organizations in which they work."
He avers that standardized testing has "dehumanized" schools and has led to an increase in "sales of anxiety, depression, and attention drugs for children."
I am none too keen on standardized tests myself. I think the need to teach to the test can suck the joy out of learning and shift a student’s experience from connecting to cramming. Not always, not across the board, but in many, many cases. And being good at taking tests doesn’t necessarily mean you are good at thinking. Or remembering, once the test is over.
Rapp’s point about testing becoming a lucrative business is one that had never occurred to me. Interesting to contemplate.
Phelps responds with a reminder that "the U.S. Constitution grants (by deference) responsibility for education to our country’s original founding entities, the states."
"State executives and legislators have the right, and the
responsibility, to determine education policy. By implementing
high-stakes testing programs, state officials are being responsive to
their constituents, who strongly favor such programs."
Really? I’m asking seriously. I’ve never seen data on that question, it occurs to me. Are most average joes really in favor of standardized testing? Is the increase in reliance on testing REALLY a response to what the constituency desires?
You, for example. Reading this blog. Are you an advocate of standardized testing? Not all of you are homeschoolers, and I’m curious to know what you think. (I can hazard a guess as to the opinion of most home educating parents, but even there I don’t presume to KNOW.)
"The fact is," says Phelps, "standardized testing programs are an expression of
democracy. If the public was strongly opposed to them, politicians
would be, too, regardless what corporate executives might want."
Hmm. I don’t know about that. I guess it depends on what "strongly opposed" means. I don’t think this is an issue that the public spends a lot of time worrying about, and unless the public starts marching in the streets ("No more tests!"), I don’t think politicians are going to pay too much attention to what the "public" thinks.
You can read the rest of the debate as it unfolds at Edspresso.
Project FeederWatch Needs You!
Just saw this in the latest Project FeederWatch newsletter:
Citizen Scientists Needed for Acorn Study
Did you know that Blue Jays help oak trees spread by moving acorns?
You can help researchers investigate variation in the size of bur oak acorns and learn more about the distribution of this tree species. Like many North American tree species, bur oaks have moved northward following the end of the last ice age. The goal of the study is to determine the degree to which acorn size has been influenced by the primary dispersal agent of bur oaks—blue jays, which prefer small acorns, or whether size is primarily determined by environmental factors such as day length and the length of the growing season.
What will citizen scientists provide?
Volunteers will collect a sample of 25-35 mature bur oak acorns: 5 – 7 from each of 5 different bur oak trees located reasonably close to where you live. All you need in order to participate is access to 5 bur oak trees! Trees growing on their own in parks or forests are preferred, but trees in landscaped areas are acceptable as long as they are not watered regularly.
How can I participate?
The project coordinator will provide participants with all necessary materials, including information on how to identify bur oaks and a postage-paid envelope for sending collected acorns. The study is being conducted by Walt Koenig, Research Zoologist, University of California, Berkeley, and Jean Knops, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Who can participate?
U.S. residents living within the bur oak’s range are invited to participate. Bur oaks primarily grow in the following states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska (eastern), Kansas (eastern), Oklahoma, Texas (part), Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas (northern), Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan (southern), Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, New York (parts), Maine (parts), and Pennsylvania (parts). If you live in these areas and are interested in participating, please contact Dr. Koenig at koenigwd@berkeley.edu.
Six in the City Mom, This One’s For You
Because I know you’re a stickler for good handwashing, just like me. Check out the Squid Soap at Jinkies. Good hygiene and tentacles! What could be better?
Homeschooling Curriculum: Open Thread
I know, I know, it’s August and you’ve all already done your shopping. My plans to spend the summer reviewing curriculum were somewhat derailed by Scott’s job offer and subsequent departure, what can I say. But! I haven’t given up yet.
Except! It’s naptime for my little ones and I’m supposed to have an hour to write this post. But now I hear Wonderboy awake and sad upstairs. So I have to go. But I’ll be back. In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves. What I was going to do here was hit you with a whole bunch of reviews and links and then invite YOU to chime in with your own opinions. Instead I’ll invite your opinions first. What are your plans for the upcoming year? Let’s hear ’em! I’ll be back later.
POSTSCRIPT (but I can’t stay): So I went up to his room, where he was crying on the bed.
Me: What’s the trouble, buddy?
Him: Nee hee-hoo. (That’s "Need tissue," for you consonant-using types.)
Well, no wonder. I’d cry too if I were lying there in dire need of a heehoo and not a heehoo within reach. Poor little guy.
How I Wish I Hadn’t Just Eaten that Bag of Skittles
It’s not like I didn’t already know about the scary, scary food-additive situation. The hormones and antibiotics, the pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables, all that mysterious gibberish printed in the ingredients of just about ANYTHING.
But crushed bugs in my candy? And we’re DYEING the chicken now, for pity’s sake?
What’s left to eat?
Besides chocolate, of course: nature’s perfect food.
Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?
"Well, how do you like them?" said Marilla.
Anne was standing in the gable room, looking solemnly
at three new dresses spread out on the bed. One was of snuffy colored
gingham which Marilla had been tempted to buy from a peddler the
preceding summer because it looked so serviceable; one was of
black-and-white checkered sateen which she had picked up at a bargain
counter in the winter; and one was a stiff print of an ugly blue shade
which she had purchased that week at a Carmody store.
She had made them up herself, and they were all made
alike—plain skirts fulled tightly to plain waists, with sleeves as
plain as waist and skirt and tight as sleeves could be.
"I’ll imagine that I like them," said Anne soberly.
"I don’t want you to imagine it," said Marilla,
offended. "Oh, I can see you don’t like the dresses! What is the matter
with them? Aren’t they neat and clean and new?"
"Yes."
"Then why don’t you like them?"
"They’re—they’re not—pretty," said Anne reluctantly.
"Pretty!" Marilla sniffed. "I didn’t trouble my head
about getting pretty dresses for you. I don’t believe in pampering
vanity, Anne, I’ll tell you that right off. Those dresses are good,
sensible, serviceable dresses, without any frills or furbelows about
them, and they’re all you’ll get this summer. The brown gingham and the
blue print will do you for school when you begin to go. The sateen is
for church and Sunday school. I’ll expect you to keep them neat and
clean and not to tear them. I should think you’d be grateful to get
most anything after those skimpy wincey things you’ve been wearing."
"Oh, I AM grateful," protested Anne. "But I’d be ever
so much gratefuller if—if you’d made just one of them with puffed
sleeves. Puffed sleeves are so fashionable now. It would give me such a
thrill, Marilla, just to wear a dress with puffed sleeves."
—from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
As you can see right over there in the left sidebar, I’ve added a nifty button linking to the BlogCarnival archives for the Carnival of Children’s Literature. You can clicky clicky to find all the previous editions and submission info for the next one (which will be hosted on August 18th by Castle of the Immaculate). And we have some terrific blogs lined up to host the next few months’ carnivals: Wands & Worlds in September; Scholar’s Blog in October; and A Readable Feast in November.
However, while undeniably serviceable, the button isn’t much of a looker, is it? I don’t suppose any of the graphically gifted among you would like to design a Carnival of Children’s Literature button, would you? Maybe, please? Perhaps something with, just to throw out a wild idea, books? We (and by this I mean the royal we, you know) would be ever so grateful. Puffed sleeves: optional.
Speaking of Contests
Tracey of Picture This is hosting a photo contest! The deadline for entries is August 24th and details are at the link. I’m sure I can come up with something for the "Togetherness" category—and hey Rebecca, there’s a category for toes!
What’s in YOUR Backpack?
So we took this little road trip. The girls packed their
own backpacks with a week’s worth of clothing and (prepare to gasp in
horror—at least, that was their reaction when I told them) only two books each.
TWO books. Not twenty-two, which is about how many Jane figured she’d
need for a six-day trip. I reminded her that 1) she was going to be too
busy talktalktalktalk- talking with her bosom buddies to (gasp) do any
reading while we were there and 2) if by some unimaginable chance there
came a lull in the talktalktalking (and swimming and eating and singing
of songs from the Snoopy soundtrack),
she was going to be staying at possibly the only house on the east
coast with MORE BOOKS THAN OURS.
(Actually, that’s not true, and is in fact somewhat of a slander against Alice. Between us, Scott and I have amassed more books than is sane and reasonable for any one person. Alice is both sane and reasonable. She has a lot of books, but not a basement full. But then, a lot of what we have are comp copies of our own books, and it is fairly reasonable to keep those around. Then, too, we have wound up with a lot of freebies. And both of us have kept pretty much every book we ever owned since, um, birth. And then all the stuff I’ve collected for homeschooling. It adds up. However, a massive subtraction will have to occur very soon, because with gas prices what they are there is no way I’m putting all these (beloved, sob!) volumes on a moving truck. And horrors! I hear they don’t have basements in Southern California! Nowhere! It is the Land of Perfect Weather But No Basements! I believe it’s a state law, and that border check Scott had to pass through as he entered California was not, in fact, to screen for illegal aliens but rather to make sure he wasn’t trying to smuggle any basements through in his trunk. They have specially trained German shepherds who can sniff out a basement a mile away. Grrrr…I smell cellar! What do you think this is, New England?)
So. Two books each. When I saw the girls’ choices, I had to laugh.
Sometimes it’s like we’re a parody of ourselves. I do believe I have
blogged about every one of those books at one time or another. For
example, Beanie picked one of her beloved Tintin books—a fine choice for a long ride, I must say. She can’t quite read them yet—Go Dog Go is more her speed—but she loves to pore over the pictures and puzzle out the story. Her other choice was one of Scott’s Disney adaptations, I think.
Jane’s two books were A Wind in the Door
And Rose chose The Children’s Homer
Who needs books when you can watch the traffic on I-81?
We Have a Winner!
Three of them, actually. Diane, Stephanie, and Cici all correctly guessed the answer to yesterday’s trivia question: Charlotte Tucker (Quiner Holbrook), maternal grandmother of Laura Ingalls Wilder. (Which is to say: Ma’s ma.) Charlotte was born in 1809 along with Edgar Allen Poe and a whole bunch of other notable personages, such as Alfred Lord Tennyson and Abraham Lincoln (as Ryane pointed out). Also Louis Braille, British statesman William Gladstone, Charles Darwin, and Felix Mendelssohn. Quite a year for history, I’d say.
My girls discovered the 1809 connection when we read Abraham Lincoln’s World
We were excited to realize that Abe Lincoln was born just a few months before our good friend Charlotte Tucker. For me, Lincoln is so firmly connected to the Civil War that I had never given a moment’s thought to what was going on in the world when he was growing up. The War of 1812! Madison and Monroe! Jefferson was still alive, for decades! Do you ever think of Lincoln and Jefferson as having overlapped?
Anyway, Charlotte is the person I mentioned yesterday who is so very important to me. After writing books about her, she feels in some ways like another one of my own little girls. Same with her mother, Martha. Perhaps even more so with Martha because I’ve written about her both as a child and as a mother.
I know I said I’d give a signed book to the first person to get the right answer, but the three Charlotte answers came in so close together that what the heck, you all win. Email me your address and the name or names you’d like me to put in the book (you? your kids?), and I’ll send you each a copy. Also let me know if there’s a particular Charlotte or Martha book you’d like to receive.
Thanks to all who proffered a guess!
Tags: homeschooling, homeschool,
unschooling, Charlotte Tucker, Little House, history, Lincoln