Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Haven't we always known this?



Haven't we really always known this?

Maybe we're simply "too smart" for our own good and that of our kids.

Several years ago, I coached a co-ed baseball team of 4th and 5th graders in the Texas Rangers' Rookie League. We played about 20 games during June each year. These kids had never played baseball.

As we started the season, they hardly knew each other. By the time we finished each of two seasons, the players had become fast friends, took up for each other and all seemed in better condition.

If I had my way, I'd still be coaching in that league. We had to stop because early season workouts conflicted with TAKS test preparation at the players' school. Another win for standardized testing and a huge loss to the children, their health and, I would argue, their academic capacity.

What do you say?

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Goerge Will:
"In one wee particular, congressional Democrats want to shrink government. At the behest of the teachers' unions, the $410 billion omnibus spending bill dooms a $14 million (a rounding error on GM's bailout) scholarship program that enables 1,800 children, mostly low-income and minorities, to escape the District of Columbia's catastrophic public schools. But sinking this lifeboat for the poor serves liberalism's dependency agenda: No poor child left outside the government's education plantation."

Are Dallas public schools so busy educating that they can't spare a day or two for evaluation?