The New York Times has an interesting column here about the
dangers of nostalgia. A psychologist
studying the phenomena found that people who could view their childhood
realistically--rather than with rose-colored glasses—were more successful as
parents themselves.
This is a very interesting insight by Professor Coontz. As a high school teacher for 37 years, I can
see now that nostalgia is behind many of the “new” education reforms.
I think the nostalgic belief driving these reforms is that
in the old days students studied hard, while wearing uniforms and sitting in
desks neatly lined up in rows. Teachers
were hardworking and strict, with none of this nonsense about union
protections.
The reality was that whole populations of children were left
behind in the 1950’s. Special Needs
children could be—and usually were—excluded.
African-American children were in abysmal schools often without
textbooks. The only reason that scores
were reasonably high was that children still turned to books for their
entertainment, rather than television or video games.
I’m afraid with the assessment and curriculum guides being
mandated under the Common Core, we will leave another whole generation of
children behind. We need to look behind
the nostalgic veil covering schools sixty years ago.
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