I’ve been reading the “Bridging Differences” blog for a few months now and love it. These are two really smart, well-informed, thoughtful, and passionate educators engaged in one of the best examples of extended civil debate I’ve found online … and the hyperbole is justified.

A few days ago, Deborah Meier posted “Let’s Play with ‘Overarching’ Agreements,” in which she listed some points of potential agreement between Diane Ravitch and herself. Diane found most of the list agreeable (and so did I, if that matters for anything), but she did have a few specific objections which she discusses in her response post “Our Overarching Disagreements.”¹ Both are worthy of the few minutes it takes to read them in full (as are most posts on that blog).

In brief, Ravitch has these main points:

• Schools are institutions of social conservation, not revolution
• Popular culture has no real place in schools
• Citizenship and “character-formation” are important goals for schools²
• A specific science syllabus should be developed (instead of the more general approach to teaching science that Meier proposes)
• External assessments are an important part of an effective public school system (though Ravitch agrees the current method is unhelpful)

Two of my reactions/thoughts are listed below³

Education and Popular Culture

Ravitch doesn’t see a place for pop culture in school. In her words:

Parents do not send their children to school to learn the vulgar language, misogynistic and homophobic attitudes, racism, violence, and crude behavior that are common on “the street,” but to learn language, values, and behavior that is better than what they encounter outside school. Kids have plenty of time to indulge in the highs and lows of popular culture without wasting precious time in school.

I wonder what Steven Johnson (Everything Bad is Good for You) would say here.⁴

On the one hand, his argument is that pop culture is becoming increasingly more complex and therefore not only worthy of our time but actually beneficial: it’s making us collectively smarter.⁵

On the other hand, if pop culture is doing its work just fine without any “official” sanction (i.e., people participate in pop culture because they want to, not because someone tells them to) then perhaps Ravitch is correct: in school, focus on those necessary things that students will not likely acquire on their own outside of school.

External Assessments

Ravitch also wants external assessment of schools, though she does want it put “into perspective” and used “more wisely.” I agree with her, but I still worry about who determines what that external assessment will look like.

To my mind, an external science test should be created by three cooperative groups: teachers who are well-versed in the syllabus; practicing scientists who have a real-world understanding of what and how science students should “know”; and an independent group of people experienced in effective methods for assessment (i.e., people who don’t think “multiple choice” is the best method to assess everything). The same goes for other disciplines, replacing “practicing scientists” with the appropriate corollary.

Either way, I heartily agree with her closing statement:

The question that must somehow be solved is how to provide public accountability while ditching the stupid and non-educative regime of sanctions and incentives that is now being fastened around the necks of American educators.

1. My annotated version [back]
2. I wondered: “whose character?” [back]
3. With a thanks to Diigo’s “Send to Blog” tool for doing much of the work. [back]
4. I’m working on a full post related to this text, which was a very interesting read … coming soon! [back]
5. Related to Ravitch’s concern with the “base” aspects of popular culture, the morality of pop culture is not the important or interesting aspect for Johnson. [back]

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