Only science, history, music and art are left behind ...

Kevin Schofield's Education Blog lays out the likely consequences of our fixation on testing as the way of insuring no child is left behind, at least in school. Aside from the fact that we have all learned a good deal of math and science by reading, playing music, and even futzing around in the kitchen, we are convinced that universal testing is the solution to declining literacy. Skill in reading and math are crucial for participation in modern society. But in addition to being able to count and calculate we desperately need some skills in learning how to choose what to count and when to calculate, and how to use the results.

I'm just starting to wake up to the fact that we all need a general understanding of both science and the humanities. This is especially true, if we're going to ask useful questions about how to use science and research to solve problems and imagine practicable possibilities.

In 1926 Everett Dean Martin wrote "The Meaning of a Liberal Education" (W.W. Norton & Co., now out of print). Near the end of the introduction is this:

"Whether the present increase of interest in education is to be an empty gesture depends on whether the thing demanded is really education. There is no one right way, and certainly each age with its special needs and peculiar industrial and cultural environment should make its own contribution to educational achievement. But there is something which belongs to no special time and to all times, a way of approaching our tasks or valuing experiences. No one who is merely a creature of his own times is really educated."

So now begins my own learning of what's going on now and what's gone on before regarding a liberal and useful education.

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