‘Rounding the Globe’-9: At Long Last, Have You No Shame?
I wanted to rest today, but the Globe gives me no rest. It keeps turning. I am called to my post.
When New England’s Greatest Daily feels strongly about something, be it Mom, Apple Pie or High Standards, it initiates a campaign that involves mobilizing all the pages at its command. “Three Bells! General Alarm! Man the Battle Stations!”
The latest crisis on Morrissey Blvd., precipitated this time by the Obama Administration, involves plans to impose national education standards in place of the current state standards favored by the Globe and its allies. Gosh, it’s such a drag when some out-of-town elite comes in and challenges the local aristocracy for the right to rule the ‘hood!
Anyway, ever since Obama stuck his nose into what is clearly the Globe’s business, editors and editorialists have been out of sorts and in a twist. Hence, the paper’s current campaign mode.
On March 13, we were treated to an op ed co-authored by conservative education reformer and Massachusetts board of ed member Sandra Stotsky. It argued against new national education standards and for current state standards.
http://www.boston.com/bostongl…
Two days later, a news story appeared about the standards controversy, with several prominent quotations from two members of the neo-con Pioneer Institute, one of whom was the redoubtable Sandra Stotsky.
http://www.boston.com/news/edu…
Today, March 18, the Globe hit for the cycle with an editorial in which it loftily reasserts its commitment to high standards and buttresses its position with references to Pioneer Institute research, which the Globe describes as a “tough critic” playing a “constructive role.” (Who knew the Globe liked tough critics? Perhaps critics can play a constructive role when they agree with the Globe?) Noteworthy, but not surprising, the editorial does not reference research by anyone else.
http://www.boston.com/bostongl…
So there’s the whole package: news, op ed, editorial. By next Sunday, even the obituaries and car ads may be pressed into service. Oy, enough already. As my grandmother used to say, “Hoch mir nisht in chinik arein”: “Stop banging me in my tea kettle!” This is an expression that hopefully will make it all the way to the not-yet planned MCAS Yiddish exam.
For all the sound and fury, though, the Globe has not felt obliged to informe its readers very extensively about the substance of these national standards. Apparently, the Paper and the Pioneers seems to feel state standards are more “content-oriented” and this quality makes them “higher.” Well, maybe and maybe not. Let me launch this question into space for further reflection: “What makes standards high? Does it have to do with the amount of information students are required to master? Or is about the thinking skills to be learned? Or some combination thereof? And what role does testing and teaching to a test play in all this?
All of this leads to two final questions that I have for my morning newspaper. As the state gears up for a MCAS social studies test, I need to ask:
1) Boston Globe…yes or no… do you believe in the value of multiple perspectives in our state history curriculum?
2) Do you believe in the value of multiple perspectives on your editorial page?
Speaking of which, there was a rare sighting today. An excellent, critical letter got into today’s Globe. This is always an occasion to celebrate and serves only to remind us of how vital this paper could be if the editors displayed a consistent commitment to an open, feisty public forum. That takes courage. Meanwhile, here is a shout-out for the author of that letter, Amika Kemmler Ernst.
http://www.boston.com/bostongl…
Yes, the Globe prints a dribble of critical letters hostile to the rigid education ideology/theology which currently holds the paper’s brain hostage, but I will always remember the grand day the editors went all out and printed something like four letters opposing the new ed reform law, the day after the law passed! How’s that for big?
Finally, I would like to recommend today’s comment section under the aforementioned editorial. There are some very thoughtful comments in the sub-basement. Please see link above.
Bill, is there any newspaper in the state that doesn’t have a knee-jerk line on the MCAS? I know the T&G in Worcester has the same position, ‘though they are better about printing letters (late, but printed). I see to recall that the Berkshire paper seemed to have given it some actual thought; is that still true?