Re: A call to radically rethink high school

Ken Goodman (kgoodman who-is-at u.arizona.edu)
Thu, 20 May 1999 09:33:24 -0700

Sadder but wiser that I've grown as I've dipped into the attacks on
public education I ask- who had the connections to get Botstein's
totally unsupported demolition of public secondary education and his
totally unworkable "plan" into the New York Times and thus into the
nation's press (it hit the Arizona Star this morning)? Who subsidized
his book? WHo would lose or profit from his proposals? I know a lot of
16 year olds who are- for their age- reliable and responsible- but
woefully unready to sink or swim in today's complex society economically
or any other way.

There are other models besides the American 12 year model(plus
kindergarten. Ontario adds a year 13 for the University bound students.
Scandinavia has a ten year school starting at 7 after extensive and
universal pre-schools. Most graduates of the tenth year take a year or
two at a folkschule (no tests, no grades) before entering University if
that's their goal.

Reviving Ivan Ilyich's view that the only good school is a dead school
is of no help in solving any serious problems of American education or
of America's youth.
Ken Goodman

-- 
Kenneth S. Goodman, Professor, Language, Reading & Culture
504 College of Education, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ     
         fax 520 7456895                      phone 520 6217868


These are mean times- and in the mean time 
We need to Learn to Live Under Water