One Size Fits Few : The Folly of Educational Standards
Author: Susan Ohanian
List Price: $18.00
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ISBN: 0325001588
Publisher: Heinemann (30 March, 1999)
Sales Rank: 30,891
Average Customer Rating: 5 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
By the End of this Book, "Standardistos" Will...
By the end of this book, all school reformers assuming that standardization of the curriculum improves quality will...
... recognize and understand the detrimental impact of educational standards.
... use the proofreader's deletion mark to eliminate standardization.
The title of a section in chapter 7 is "If You're Sure You Know The Solution, You Are Part Of The Problem." How true of many of the "school reformers" today who think THEY have all of the answers when THEY are not even in the classrooms! As is often the case with "education reform," those who are in the classrooms on a daily basis (teachers and students) are excluded from the debate - their voices lost in the sea of sound bites coming from those Ohanian refers to as "corporate-politico-infotainment standardistos."As Ohanian so concisely demonstrates in this book, the idea for education standards comes to us from the business world. What those "corporate standardistos" fail to realize is a simple (and yet major) difference between a classroom and a business office. In a business setting, if you have an employee that is slowing down production, lagging behind, refusing to do the work required, having problems working as a team player, and displaying a lack of concentration or focus, what do you think happens to that employee? The obvious answer is the reason a public school classroom is not like a business, has never been like a business, and will never be like a business. The moral here is STOP trying to "reform" schools like you would a business.
The current buzzword in "education reform" is accountability. I happen to agree that we need more accountability. We need to hold governors, school board members, legislators, and school superintendents accountable for failing our children by forcing through agendas laced with standardization and testing disguised as school reform.
It is long past time that the two groups most directly involved in teaching and learning are given a voice in the school reform debate. The voices of teachers and students need to be heard and respected.
Rating: 5 out of 5
A true activist teacher
"One Size Fits Few" is for all those frustrated teachers who see standadized tests as unfair and a complete waste of time. It's a book that full stories, arguments, and analysis that will provide teachers, parents, politicians, and education activists with ways to talk against the current standards craze. Like she says at the start of her book: "What the education world needs is a few strong administrators and teachers and parents to join together, proclaiming, 'Enough is enough'--people who know how to say, 'We're as mad as hell, and we're not going to this any more.'"
Rating: 5 out of 5
This Book is a Must Read for Teachers!
Susan Ohanian's book is a must read for any teacher or parent who is concerned about the current standards madness. With humor and insight, gained from actual teaching experience, she exposes standards as a dehumanizing experiment in social darwinism. Using examples from her work as a teacher, she shows how students do not easily fit into the little boxes that "standardistos" would have them fit into. Her final conclusion, that we should just trust teachers, is quite subversive. I really enjoyed reading this book.
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