Why compete with this?

One of the goals of RTTT and every other standardized test score driven initiative or curriculum is to catch the Chinese. Apparently, our kids' test scores just don't measure up.

But is it worth it?

I read a great response that worried - all too legitimately, I think - about how RTTT - and its preoccupation with test scores (though, I must say that I did hear how students would only be tested three times a year instead of six) will take away violins, choir robes, acting lessons, chances to sculpt, and, instead, put them in more basic skills classes (reading, writing, science, and math). And that would be a shame.

Yet, when China reportedly does this to their youth, why on earth would we be concerned with competing with them? They'll implode soon enough.

I read an article by Deborah Meier that warned about our obsession with testing. She stated some very good points - first, higher test scores on cheap standardized tests have proven nothing. Since colleges have emphasized the ACT and SAT, their product has not improved significantly. Just as employers. Same goes for K-12. Second, has a higher test score on a cheap standardized test proven to produce a better citizen? Third, Reagan pushed hard to have us catch up with the Soviet Union, whose children were supposedly far better educated (at least they scored higher on the tests). And how did that all turn out for them?

We don't need to compete with China; we need to fear the bastards. And we should seriously consider doing the EXACT opposite of what they are doing to brainwash and kill their youth.