Book review: What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated?
Alfie Kohn is one of the USAs most interesting and energetic school policy critics. Unfortunately things are not going Alfie Kohn´s way and the current trends are the exact opposite of what he believes is correct.
Kohn is most critical of the movement towards standardized tests. In his book What Does It Mean to be Well Educated, Kohn has collected his essays on standards, grading and testing (and other follies as he puts it). It is a fine collection and a should be widely read. In the first essay Kohn poses the interesting question that is the title of the book. Because most testing is at the fact level students are graded on their short term memories. But knowing dates, names and terminology – is that the same thing as being well educated and prepared to defend and develop our democracy? Kohn thinks not.
The effort to standadize education with national and state testing is self-defeating says Kohn. We are creating less educated students as when we ”teach to the tests” and do not have time to engage students in a dialog nor offer them other programs that make them well-rounded. (American school districts are cutting back on art, sports and music programs for make room for more test oriented memory teaching.)
Alfie Kohn is an important voice in the desperate effort to improve educational systems and should be read by any educator who is serious about what education should and can be about. Explore any Internet bookstore to discover his many other titles, but this one gives a good summary.
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