Krashen on Standards

A few weeks ago we got into a discussion about the standards debate and Jim quoted Krashen. I republish that text here because of its importance:

The National Standards Discussion: A Weapon of Mass Distraction
Stephen Krashen

We are again invited to give our opinions about the content of national standards
(http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-content-frameworks). We are not invited to discuss whether we need national standards and their spawn, national tests. For those who haven’t been paying attention, the Department of Education is planning to impose more testing than has ever been seen on this planet, far more than is helpful or necessary.

Those who accept the invitation to discuss the content of the standards will have the impression they have a seat at the table. In reality, invitations to discuss the standards are a means of control, diverting attention from the real issues.
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate” (N. Chomsky, The Common Good, p. 42, 2002)
The problem in American education is not a lack of standards. The problem is poverty. Our students from middle-class families who attend well-funded schools score at the top of the world on international tests. The US has the highest level of child poverty among all industrialized countries. If all our children were protected from the effects of poverty our overall international test scores would be spectacular.
Poverty means little health care, poor nutrition and little access to books and has a devastating effect on school achievement. The best teaching is ineffective when children are hungry, ill, and have nothing to read. The impact of poverty could be profoundly reduced if we invested more on food programs, health care, and libraries, instead of on useless standards and tests.
We have been told not to worry about these things but instead to debate whether 10th graders should be required to write 40% of their essays as arguments, 40% as informational, and 20% narrative.
Susan Ohanian notes that issuing standards is like presenting menus to starving people. Now we are invited to discuss what should be on the menu.

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn

Leave a Comment

  • Search

Get The Latest Updates

Subscribe to Our Mailing List

No spam, notifications only about new products, updates.

Related Posts

The Problem with CI

Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and

CI and the Research (cont.)

Admins don’t actually read the research. They don’t have time. If or when they do read it, they do not really grasp it. How could

Research Question

I got a question: “Hi Ben, I am preparing some documents that support CI teaching to show my administrators. I looked through the blog and

We Have the Research

A teacher contacted me awhile back. She had been attacked about using CI from a team leader. I told her to get some research from

$10

~PER MONTH

Subscribe to be a patron and get additional posts by Ben, along with live-streams, and monthly patron meetings!

Also each month, you will get a special coupon code to save 20% on any product once a month.

  • 20% coupon to anything in the store once a month
  • Access to monthly meetings with Ben
  • Access to exclusive Patreon posts by Ben
  • Access to livestreams by Ben