Nov. 23-25, Thanksgiving Break

Tofurky

Vegitarianism. Eating habits can affect us in multiple ways. Food is certainly part and parcel of socialization and ritual. I rarely discuss my vegetarianism outright, but food is such an embedded part of our day that inevitably it will come up. For example, the school may provide a staff dinner on parent conference evenings. In that case, I need to let people know that I need that consideration. Often students will offer to share a meal or some food and it will come up. Almost without fail, I get confused and puzzled looks and lots of questions.

So how long have you been? Eighteen years. What DO you eat? Everything without a mother (or a face). Why would you do such a stupid thing? Thank you; you sound like my mother.

At any rate, with Thanksgiving approaching and all that holiday means in terms of food and family, I get questions from almost each class. Most consist of: So WHAT DO YOU EAT FOR THANKSGIVING? I mention Tofurky, a turkey substitute made from tofu. Not that I usually have this for Thanksgiving mind you, but it sounds like a good answer.

This year, the best response was at the end of a discussion with several students about Tofurky and how heretical that was to the holiday. [Teenagers for all their rebellion, really don't deal well with new ideas.] After consideration Ting blurted out: But, how do they get the bones in it?

You know, I really don't know.

Intelligent Design

The version of intelligent design referred to here isn't about evolution, but it is all about pseudoscience. In effect, the same kind of pseudoscience debated in Kansas and elsewhere. This version of intelligent design makes the argument (assumption?) that because tests measure skills and attributes that are extremely complicated, those tests must be created by a highly intelligent designer and therefore scientific. [See the Flying Spaghetti Monster, left, the satirical version of intelligent design pseudoscience.]

Let's take the Colorado Math CSAP exam as an example. If you read the questions and take a step back from the exam, you will notice that the questions do not measure pure math skills, but also reading level, and following directions. Why following directions? Because a student can answer absolutely correctly, but outside the box given, and it is counted as incorrect. This is but one illustrative example.

The core difficulty in education is that measurement of anything is still highly problematic. Statistical correlations are just that, correlations. They do not measure cause and effect, although the politicians talk cause and effect constantly. (Hum, maybe they need better math understanding?) The math test does measure something. And fairly consistently at that, if we look at the aggregate data. But aggregate validity doesn't translate into validity for any one student.

Furthermore, the intelligent design pseudoscience that educational tests are scientific is supported by a testing industry that leeches off of tax education dollars to the tune of untold billions annually. There certainly is a veneer of science. The statistics are most certainly valid. And the scientific jargon and data that can be thrown at the public could float the Ark. But just because we can measure temperature accurately doesn't help inform us if it is raining. And just because we can statistically validate a test accurately, doesn't really tell us about learning. Test scores often obscure as much, if not more, than they reveal.

Do we need reform? You bet. But the reforms we need aren't even on the horizon. Until we (and the public) lose the fascination with precise numbers that tell us little to nothing at all, we will not move forward.

[Some sample resources: 1, 2, 3, 4]