I realize I have not written in a VERY long time. I've probably lost any hope of having an audience. I've been so incredibly busy this summer. However, now that I've settled in, I think it's time to get rid of the rust and try some writing again.
I like to try to get my news from differing points of view - I listen to NPR, and primarilly read the New York Times and the Boston Globe. I also try to listen to a decent amount of talk radio.
Every morning, I wake up to a talk station called 95.1 WXTK. On weekdays, Ed Lambert and Donny Mckeag, two very loud conservative pundits, talk about whatever is on their minds. The show is broadcast out of a station on Cape Cod - I believe it is based in West Yarmouth.
These guys usually infuriate me with their commentary on the news, mainly because of their cynicism, sarcasm, and oversimplification of issues. However, I always like to keep my ears open. It encourages me to be a critical thinker. Good brain excercise.
So today, Ed's primary gripe involved this interesting tidbit of news...
According to the college board, the SAT scores of students in Massachusetts have DROPPED for the first time in fifteen years.
Now, Ed has a terrible habit of omiting facts that undermine his argument. So here's what he did.
In trying to figure out the reason for this decline, some guidance counselors have suggested that the decline has been caused by fatigue. The test now has a writing portion, which increases the length of the test to 3 hours, 45 minutes.
Ed was beside himself on this one. He read this suggestion with bitter, hard-edged sarcasm, gradually climbing his soap box. Then he really let the kids of Massachusetts have it.
"SHAME ON YOU!!!" He said. "I am SICK and TIRED of the way our children are being CODDLED in this society...do the guys that work in factories 8.5 hours a day get to go home early because they're FATIGUED??? What is WRONG with you people???"
To tell you the truth, I wasn't surprised by this at all. Ed is always approaching the news from the "I'm mad as hell and i'm not going to take it anymore" angle. Which is fine, it's talk radio. He has to entertain people. But in entertaining us, so many facts were lost in the shuffle.
First off, let me begin by saying that Ed never had to take this test at its current length.
Secondly, let's take a second and think seriously about this. Are there any tests in college that last almost 4 hours? Almost none. The only tests I ever took that lasted longer than 3 hours were two 4 hour LAW exams that I took. In regular law schools, an exam lasts 3 hours.
College students are generally more mature than high school students. They have a wider attention span, they're more used to long classes, tests, and papers. And yet, in my own experiences, I seldom was forced to take a test that lasted more than three hours. So is it possible that we are pushing the envelope with high school students with this 3 hour, 45 minute test? I think it's a worthwhile question.
And here's the thing. In listening to Ed Lambert talk about this, you'd think that this fatigue argument was the final verdict. But it's not!!!
That supposedly liberal rag, the Boston Globe, wrote a great story about this. Here is an excerpt that will tell you the full story:
The numbers for the class of 2006, released yesterday, mirrored a national decline in scores. They were the first statewide results reported since the addition of a writing section, the biggest change to the Scholastic Assessment Tests in more than a decade. The new section, in which students write an essay and answer multiple-choice questions about grammar, added 45 minutes to the exam.
Yesterday, college counselors and state Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said the dips in students' scores should prompt the New York-based College Board, which administers the exam, to examine whether students are tiring during the test.
College Board officials attributed the drops in reading and math to fewer students choosing to retake the SAT since the writing portion was added, but stressed that they did not think the exam's length led to the biggest dip in the national average in 31 years.
See? No final answer! It's a debate. But Ed didn't want you to believe that. Why? Because then he couldn't whip us up into an emotional frenzy about it. Furthermore, it's a part of a NATIONAL decline. If this is happening everywhere, shouldn't we try and figure out why?
But the real laugher was Ed's proposed sollution to this dillemma. He said "Tell your kids to get their butts in gear. Work harder. Get help."
Why should we be so quick to blame the students? Why not wait and see if this is a trend that continues next year? Why not do some factual analysis and see what comes up? Why not study the problem?
The issue is not lazy students. We don't know what the issue is. We need to discuss it, and figure it out.
It seems that too often in this world, opinions are considered more helpful than intellectual curiosity. Instead of trying to travel through the layers of a problem, it's easier to give it a brief overview, opine about it loudly, and then throw it away with the daily paper, into the recycling bin, as I'm sure Ed did after his show today. He'll have new issues to gripe about tomorrow.
Maybe we ought to try slowing down, and start thinking these problems through.
After all, isn't that what we're taught to do in school? Think things through?
What a novel concept!
