We’ve all seen them? Those people at work who always take the bosses side…  Don’t they get on your nerves, especially when they try to defend something that is so obviously designed to screw you over?

So that is Sweeney today,    John Young takes him to task rather well, and there is little I can do to add on…  So I’ll shorten it for you so you can quickly get the gist…..

The short version:

“Every system has kinks. Not surprising this one does. Everyone has a point. That is to be expected. It is a fair point. But… it has to remain.  Everyone should recognize the fact.”

More info on the Kinks here.

Ok.  so here are some things that Sweeney ignored…

We had no programs that tested beginning, middle, and end (ad nauseum) when Sweeney went to school,  Or when Bill Gates went to high school.  When Jack Markell went to school.  When Mark Murphy went to school.

Does that mean they are stupid?

Seriously, how does one defend the necessity of imposing a system that is horrendous upon an entire generation of children, without addressing how those doing the imposing,…  survived or even thrived without it?

Seriously!

Furthermore, those nations supposedly which we are behind in education, are reportedly more advanced because they DON’T do testing.   All that time we waste over here, over there is spent on learning new things.

Seriously!

Why is it that all those who are pushing testing on today’s children, have their own children in private schools, which don’t do testing?   How are those schools held accountable?  With no tests?  Seriously how do you know those are good schools so that you choose to pay to put your own kids in them?

Is it because you have to pay for it?  Is it because other people recommend it?   Or,…. is it because excellent learning that comes from  good teaching,  is more than numbers on a spread sheet?  Seriously!  They don’t have tests.  How do you know?

“Could it be that the music teacher gets a kid so excited about school that they soar in all their other subjects? Could the history teacher who is not the strongest in content be the one who serves as a mentor to children with no other adult role models? Could it be that those pushing testing on others, can observe (just as other parents do) that his child is excited about school, is improving from the first day to the last? What about the kid who works hard and gets a C in Algebra just so he can keep playing football? How do you measure that? Was it the Algebra teacher’s inspiring lessons or the coach’s mandate to get good grades that “added value” to that kid’s education?

If Mr. Sweeney thought for one second, “gee, what would the opposite arguments be….”  he would escape from out of the minefield intact.  But no.  (He didn’t read my last post earlier, did he?)

Like that guy at work, (the one you want to see fall flat on his face because someone tied his shoe laces together),  Mr. Sweeney dutifully parrots his bosses’ words,  probably with cartoon hearts rising up over his head, as he looks forward to his next date with “Da Guvnor”…