Quote of the Day: “If one chooses to call tests that require the mastery of abstractions culturally biased, because some cultures put more emphasis on abstractions than others, that raises fundamental questions about what the tests are for. In a world where the ability to master abstractions is fundamental to mathematics, science and other endeavors, the measurement of that ability is not an arbitrary bias. A culture-free test might be appropriate in a culture-free society—but there are no such societies.” Thomas Sowell
I haven’t written about Luisa D’Amato for a while. Not sure why. Maybe she hasn’t written anything that I’m interested in. I don’t know. I can’t remember a column of hers that read all the way through for some time. Oh well. Anyway, today’s column on Page A5 caught my attention. Anytime she writes about the dismal failure of our so-called educational system is always interesting to read. The fact that all of my teacher friends hate her clearly means she is usually on the right side of the issue. She discusses the Ontario NDP and Liberal “election pledges to end the standardized testing of students in mathematics and literacy by the province’s Education Quality and Accountability Office.” She quotes Dr. David Johnson, Professor of Economics at WLU who asks: “Why would you object to spending $30 million to audit a $30-billion system?” Well, you would object to it if you are a teacher because you don’t want to be held accountable, that’s why. So, when will D’Amato come around to the solution to all public education issues and recommend (or at least discuss) voucher systems and paid for private education that has proven time and time again to be far superior to our mediocre, union driven system?