What would Nation X do?

(Cross-posted on my professional blog.)

This morning, my morning paper had a column by Susan Taylor Martin, Finns set teachers free, with enviable results, discussing the secular, largely-standardized-testing-free Finnish schools that have enviable student outcomes by almost any measure.

On the one hand, this argument is extraordinarily tempting: See what the Finns do? We need to do that: provide substantial social welfare, provide higher status for teachers, then leave them to do their jobs without the corrosive testing regime we have in the United States.

But the historian in me says something different: Wait. This argument has been made before: no, not the one about Finland but the one about needing to follow Nation X, whatever that country happened to be in a particular decade. At the end of the 18th century, a strong push inside the new country said, "We're different from Europe ["Old Europe," as Donald Rumsfeld might put it]. This new nation is a fresh start. We need to be as different from Europe as possible." As David W. Noble argued years ago in Historians against History, that was a dominant theme among 19th century amateur history writers.

But there has also been a counter-argument: other countries have model systems of education, and we need to learn from them. (If you want the academic jargon, you can call it mimetic isomorphism when the rhetoric is all about national anxiety and panic and normative isomorphism when the rhetoric is "this is professionally best.") The most famous 19th century argument along those lines was that of Horace Mann, who traveled to Prussia before writing his seventh school report. While he noted the flaws of Prussian schools, he also thought they treated students much better than schools in Massachusetts. You don't have to beat your students to teach them, he argued, and Prussia is the proof. Why Mann went to Prussia to make that case is an interesting question. He should have known that one of the responses would be the reference to American exceptionalism, and he could have found reasonably kind teachers somewhere in North America if maybe not in Boston.

You can find the "we should do what Nation X is doing" argument sprinkled through the rest of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the post-WW2 era, the comparison nation was whoever our military or economic adversary was at the time, from the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s to Japan and Germany in the 1980s. In the last half-century, many of these comparative arguments were projections of adult anxieties onto children. As many have pointed out over the years, most notably David Berliner and Bruce Biddle, schools are carrying the rhetorical water for adult failings. In almost all cases, the comparison is superficial, omitting information about context and structure. So the blithe suggestions for us to copy Japan in the 1980s often failed to mention the juku market (of private cram schools) or the common Japanese parenting repertoire of letting preschools socialize children through group pressures. Even academics fall into this trap: James Rosenbaum et al. wrote in Market and network theories of the transition from high school to work that professional networking between schools and work was great, and they pointed to Japan as a model... right before the Japanese economy dove into a 10-year downturn. Oops.

There are plenty of wonderful comparative education analyses one can make, but the standard rhetoric you see in American political discourse is usually shallow. Caveat lector.

Is One Laptop Per Child Insulting?

As far as I can tell, we really don�t have anyone with a broad international focus on this blog, and I wish we did (anyone want to join?). But let me say a little about a recent critique of the XO �$100 laptop� project. For those who don't know, the XO is a tiny laptop that consumes little energy, can be recharged in the field, can be easily fixed by local folks, has an incredible screen that can be read in direct sunlight, and more . . . .

John Dvorak in PC Magazine went on the attack recently, arguing that One Laptop per Child Doesn't Change the World. Dvorak notes the incredible challenges of starvation and malnutrition around the world, and then ridicules the XO project:

So what to do? Let's give these kids these little green computers. That will do it! That will solve the poverty problem and everything else, for that matter. Does anyone but me see this as an insulting "let them eat cake" sort of message to the world's poor?

"Sir, our village has no water!" "Jenkins, get these people some glassware!"

He goes on to note that:

People don't want to consider the possibility that their well-meaning thoughts are a joke and that a $200 truckload of rice would be of more use than Wi-Fi in the middle of nowhere.

Now, I�ve noted before the dangers of thinking that education, by itself, can create jobs or change economies. However, simplistic responses like Dvorak�s don�t help the situation. I am no expert on the complexities of �development� but I recently have done quite a bit of reading about it, and Dvorak�s quip completely misunderstands how challenging it is to bring economic change to incredibly isolated and disconnected areas of the world.

For example, it turns out that except in the most dire circumstances, the last thing you want to do is send a �$200 truckload of rice,� at least when that rice is from the developed world. In fact, poorer nations are increasingly refusing direct food aid. Why? Because when you flood the market with free food from outside, you completely destroy the local food production economy. And you create the conditions for more food emergencies in the future.

So it�s not so simple. And in contrast with the United States, since access to any education or any books is extremely limited, it may be that education is more likely to have some economic impact. Furthermore, in many of these areas, whether outsiders agree or not, there is an incredible desire for education for children.

I don�t know whether the XO project is a good idea or not. But snide responses like Dvorak�s simply avoid the incredible challenges involved in assisting areas that face vastly different challenges than anything we are used to grappling with in the United States.

In places where there are almost no books, it may be that solutions like the XO may make it possible for local people to engage with the vast amount of information available in the world outside, and make decisions for themselves more effectively.

Ed Links

The Secret to Raising Smart Kids

Hint: Don't tell your kids that they are. More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort�not on intelligence or ability�is key to success in school and in life

Are Whites More Likely to Support the Death Penalty When They Think Blacks Are Being Executed?

The answer, it seems, is yes. In a 2001 survey conducted by Mark Peffley and John Hurwitz, a random subset of whites was asked: �Do you favor or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of murder?� Somewhat favor: 29%. Strongly favor: 36%.

Another random subset of whites was asked: �Some people say that the death penalty is unfair because most of the people who are executed are African-Americans. Do you favor or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of murder?� Somewhat favor: 25%. Strongly favor: 52%.

Unhappy? Self-Critical? Maybe You�re Just a Perfectionist

Several recent studies stand as a warning against taking the platitudes of achievement too seriously. The new research focuses on a familiar type, perfectionists, who panic or blow a fuse when things don�t turn out just so. The findings not only confirm that such purists are often at risk for mental distress � as Freud, Alfred Adler and countless exasperated parents have long predicted � but also suggest that perfectionism is a valuable lens through which to understand a variety of seemingly unrelated mental difficulties, from depression to compulsive behavior to addiction.

BLOWING IT TheStar.com | Ideas | Unlocking the secrets of self-sabotage : Unlocking the secrets of self-sabotage

A new study suggests that if you believe you're mediocre, chances are you'll keep shooting yourself in the foot to prove it

Measuring ancient inequality

Is inequality largely the result of the Industrial Revolution? Or were ancient incomes as unequal as they are today in poor pre-industrial societies? Looking at pre-industrial inequality from the Roman Empire in 14 AD to British India in 1947 generates new insights into the inequality and economic development connection over the very long run.

College Admissions as Conspiracy Theory

Four books about access to higher education have recently been released, and each has much to say about what is wrong with college admissions. They all successfully support their themes and are worth the read, especially for those not familiar with the grave sociological impact of admissions practices.

Time Waster Extraordinaire: New York Times Magazine: Seventh Annual Year of Ideas

For the seventh consecutive December, the magazine looks back on the passing year through a special lens: ideas. Editors and writers trawl the oceans of ingenuity, hoping to snag in our nets the many curious, inspired, perplexing and sometimes outright illegal innovations of the past 12 months. Then we lay them out on the dock, flipping and flopping and gasping for air, and toss back all but those that are fresh enough for our particular cut of intellectual sushi. For better or worse, these are 70 of the ideas that helped make 2007 what it was. Enjoy.

Participation In High School Activities Lowers Risk Of Smoking 3 Years After Graduation

Students who participate in high school sports or individual physical activity are less likely to smoke than their classmates. The new study indicates that the protective effect of participation extends at least three years beyond graduation. Researchers discovered, however, that girls do not derive the same level of protection from school sports as do boys.

Parents Want Teachers Who Make Children Happy

Parents prefer teachers who make their children happy even more than those who emphasize academic achievement, a new study shows. When requesting a teacher for their elementary school children, parents are more likely to choose teachers who receive high student satisfaction ratings than teachers with strong achievement ratings.

Humans Appear Hardwired To Learn By 'Over-imitation'

Children learn by imitating adults and will change what they know about an object to mimic adult behavior. Watching an adult do something wrong, or in a disorganized or inefficient way, can make it much harder for a child to learn to do it right.

Even Low Lead Exposure Linked To ADHD

Very low levels of lead in the blood -- previously believed to be safe -- could be contributing to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The research findings support a growing body of national evidence suggesting there is no safe level of lead in the blood. Other studies show a link between low-level lead exposure and lower IQ.

Kids Of Depressed Moms More Prone To Behavioral Problems And Injury

Young children whose mothers are depressed are more prone to behavioral problems and injury, suggests new research. For every 1 point increase on the depression score, the risk of injury rose by 4% and the risk of behavioral problems increased by 6%.

Smaller Babies More Prone To Depression, Anxiety Later On

Turns out there might be some truth to the popular wisdom that plump babies are happy babies. A landmark public health study has found that people who had a low birth weight are more likely to experience depression and anxiety later in life.

Labeling Keeps Our Knowledge Organized, Study Shows

A popular urban legend suggests that Eskimos have dozens of words for snow. As a culture that faces frigid temperatures year-round, it is important to differentiate between things like snow on the ground ("aput") and falling snow ("qana"). Psychologists are taking note of this phenomenon, and are beginning to examine if learning different names for things helps to tell them apart.

Brain Patterns Of Former Anorexics Reveal Clues To Disorder's Lasting Impact

Even after more than a year of maintaining a normalized body weight, young women with past anorexia nervosa show vastly different patterns of brain activity compared to similar women without the eating disorder. Studying these differences in brain function could lead to a better understanding of why some young women are at greater risk of developing the disorder.

George Will Blames Lyndon Johnson for NCLB

With the colossal wreckage that NCLB has wrought in America's schools now apparent to anyone not in a coma, it is fun to watch the old cons and the neocons cutting and running on Bush Co.'s grand domestic disaster, while at the same time revising history to blame someone else for setting fire to the public schools.

In looking for someone to blame for Bush's NCLB mess, Will goes all the way back past Bill Clinton, through Jimmy Carter, to Lyndon Johnson, whose support for the original ESEA in 1965 made it possible, obviously, for George Bush to totally screw it up 40 years later:

NCLB was passed in 2001 as an extension of the original mistake, President Lyndon Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which became law in the year of liberals living exuberantly -- 1965, when Great Society excesses sowed the seeds of conservatism's subsequent ascendancy. ESEA was the first large Washington intrusion into education K through 12.

Actually, George, it was President Eisenhower (R) who got the federal "intrusion" rolling in 1958 with the National Defense Education Act. And yes, 1965 was an exuberant time for anyone concerned with civil rights, human rights, and gender equality. And yes, it was the "excesses" of ESEA's dollars that enticed many a racist governor to finally desegregate public schools and to abide by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

As for conservatism's subsequent ascendancy, Lyndon Johnson knew that his actions on civil rights would mean a political sea change in the South and everywhere else that racism trumped common sense. By 1980, most of the Southern Democrats who had not already had a political conversion became Reagan Democrats for life. How do you think we ended up with an ever-poorer-and-oppressed white working class that votes consistently to elect those whose primary social agenda is based on tax cuts for the wealthy? Johnson knew his decision would cost him the South, but that did not stop him from doing the right thing. Such an act of courage could never happen among today's covey of political cowards.

And, of course, George Will is intent to reverse the responsibility of the Republican Congress for NCLB in 2001:

NCLB was supported by Republicans reluctant to vastly expand that intrusion but even more reluctant to oppose a new president's signature issue.

The fact is that the the Republican Congress was ecstatic when Bush came to town with his testing plan that would offer school vouchers to children in schools not making Adequate Yearly Progress, as well as a plan to redirect Title I money intended for the poor into block grants that governors could carve up as they saw fit. When these two components were struck from NCLB for the last time in 2001, it did take take some cheerleading by Bush water carriers like Sen. Judd Gregg to revive the disappointed Republicans, but in the end the corporate tutoring provision and the charter school sanction that would result from impossible performance targets were enough to assure victory for Bush. From Elizabeth Debray's book, quoting Judd Gregg:

�Well, the supplemental services [tutoring] are a foot under the door for vouchers. They�re going to show that these schools aren�t working properly, and we�ll finally be able to show that the schools aren�t doing well. The assessments are going to prove the same thing� (Debray, 2006, p. 96).

So where is George Will wanting Federal policy to go now? Backwards, of course. Now that a Blue national tidal wave is predicted for '08, George Will and the other protectors of privilege are eager once more to argue for the unassailable virtues of federalism and to get the the federal government out of the business of education reform. More block grants and tax cuts, please. As Will would seem to have it for federal policy, if you can't do anything bad, don't do anything at all.

The Jobs of the Future

Writing in Thinking K-16, a journal published by the Education Trust, Patte Barth argues that �The Information Age set off a rush to find skilled workers in many occupations and simultaneously reduced the proportion of unskilled jobs.�

She warns ominously, �The future holds grim prospects for young people who lack sufficient skills, for they are increasingly shut out of good, middle-income jobs. The occupations experiencing the largest growth are those that demand well-developed cognitive skills and postsecondary credentials.�

That growth, reports Ed in 08 on a �fact sheet� entitled American Education Standards, means that �Two-thirds of new jobs being created in today�s economy require higher education or advanced training.�

Those students not entering �high skill� jobs must receive a rigorous education heavily dosed with math and science, urges Education Sector, because �Today even blue collar jobs call for more than basic computational skills.�

Take a moment and check out this November's Bureau of Labor Statistics job forecast for 2006-2016.

Look at the top 10...top 15...jobs experiencing "the largest growth."

How can someone say "2/3 of new jobs being created in today's economy require higher education or advanced training?"

Which blue collar jobs call for "more than basic computational skills?"

Am I missing something?

Children on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown

Posted, too, at Schools Matter.

When John Locke observed the behavior of the homeless street urchins of 17th Century London, he noted their vigor, ruddy cheeks, and energy as they ran around barefoot and thinly clad, even in winter. Based on his observations, Locke recommended that middle class parents shod their young boys in leaky shoes, thin pants, and to keep their rooms icy at night in order to make them as tough as the street children. What Locke could not have known from his limited Experience is that he had been observing the lucky and uniquely hardy street children, the fortunate minority who had not yet died from flu, hunger, pneumonia, disease, and exposure.

All of this is simply to suggest that when we see the Caitlins and Seths appearing to thrive on the cut-throat non-stop resume building treadmill, where individual branding and constant test tutoring are required to claw out a path into Yale, stop and think about all the less hardy children who succumbed to the pressure or who now believe that they are failures for not getting into one of the Only 20 Worth Going To. Maybe we should do something more attuned to the basic requirements for mental and physical health.

A reminder from Karen Kisslinger at Huffington Post:

. . . . We can keep the challenge, excellence and the creativity in eduction and life without making ourselves and our children sick and overwhelmed. As it is, the student aristocrats of the American educational scene are those who just happen to have the constitution, genes and endurance to withstand workload and time pressures and the frequently denatured and toxic food supply. Other brilliant, creative, interesting people dwindle in the face of the demands they face, and we often don't get to see them thrive on their own, perhaps less busy or better nourished, terms. They are more likely to end up diagnosed.

Recently I went in to talk to the Head of a private school where I teach. I suggested to her that we might implement a four year Stress Reduction Skills program, which the students could put on their "resume" for college application. I suggested that colleges would look favorably on students who had been committed, over the course of their high school career, to learning relaxation and stress reduction skills other than binge drinking, binge eating and marijuana use. Taking fewer course would be an option for the stress reduction "track", and I suggested that this could be seen as a positive stress-less decision as opposed to a sign of less commitment and rigor in academics.

My suggestion was greeted with the kind of look government officials must often give when they say something needs to be evaluated for needs assessment and perhaps become the subject of a commission or special report before any changes could actually be made. That's a "BIG" idea she said, implying to me that it might be too big to take on at the moment....and there was a distinct implication that any one school might be vulnerable in being the first to implement such a program before others did to. That is: "If I relax first you might 'get ahead' of me."

So, I'm suggesting that we all agree together to relax more, which, as I teach my students, means we'll be able to do things BETTER, MORE PRODUCTIVELY AND WITH MORE FOCUS AND AWARENESS. Skill for relaxation and for acquiring positive traits of consciousness such as generosity and compassion need to be taken as seriously as other skills learned during the course of young people's education.

Ed Links (Now with Less Ed)

Chaim Soutine, �Return From School After the Storm�

The Future in Academic Reading: iRex Iliad review

We�re book people. The usual result is we�re laden down with overstuffed briefcases and bags every time we get on planes . . . . Since purchasing my Iliad, I�ve gotten this under control. Everything that I get in text format, I PDF in a big friendly font, and I upload to the Iliad before traveling.

[I want one when they get cheaper and a little better, and got a two-side-at-once scanner for our Department in preparation for the imminent death of boxes full of articles�you can take notes on the page and highlight with this thing�AS]

Working Mothers: Who's Opting Out?

Are mothers dropping out, or being pushed out, of the workforce? What are the labor statistics for moms as a whole? What are the trends among the more privileged women? Ours was an all-star panel�including Heather Boushey, Ellen Bravo, Linda Hirshman, Joan Williams, and a brilliant volunteer in the audience, Pamela Stone, each of whom has researched and written a great deal about working families.

Just Interesting: Is Atomic Radiation as Dangerous as We Thought?

A mounting number of studies are coming to some surprising conclusions about the dangers of nuclear radiation. It might not be as deadly as is widely believed.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Job Quality in the United States over the Three Most Recent Business Cycles (pdf)

Over the current business cycle, the share of "good jobs" fell substantially (2.3 percentage points), following much smaller drops over the same period in the 1980s (down 0.5 percentage points) and 1990s (down 0.1 percentage points) business cycles.

The Geography of Hate

The level of hate crimes in the United States is astoundingly high � more than 190,000 incidents per year, according to a 2005 Department of Justice study.

Where the Wild Things Came From

How children's books evolved from morals to madcap fun. [A slide show.]

A new cosmopolitanism is in the air

Sociologist Ulrich Beck presents seven theses to combat the global power of capital.

The Dance of Evolution, or How Art Got Its Start

By her reckoning, the artistic impulse is a human birthright, a trait so ancient, universal and persistent that it is almost surely innate. But while some researchers have suggested that our artiness arose accidentally, as a byproduct of large brains that evolved to solve problems and were easily bored, Ms. Dissanayake argues that the creative drive has all the earmarks of being an adaptation on its own. The making of art consumes enormous amounts of time and resources, she observed, an extravagance you wouldn�t expect of an evolutionary afterthought.

More Teens Victimized by Cyber-Bullies

The schoolyard bully has gone digital.

The Story of Measurement

The Story of Measurement covers not merely the obvious elements that we record � distance, time, temperature � but also the more intriguing: body mass, light frequencies, scientists� peer group ratings and stress of both humans and building materials.

Let Me Count the Ways: A book in which one isn't the loneliest number.

And her haul of facts makes for a tasty bouillabaisse of the numbers found in language, math, love, literature and everyday life. For example, she tells us that, in the 18th century, the English Royal Treasury maintained their numerical accounts in the form of marks on wooden sticks called tallies. Having ported their system to paper, they began burning the vast number of outdated tally sticks in the furnaces beneath the Parliament buildings -- which set fire to the paneling and burned down both Houses!

Good Stories, Good Math

Preschoolers who can tell good stories develop good mathematical skills by the first grade

Automated decision-making: The death of expertise

Mr Ayres predicts that automated decision-making will soon see other professional jobs going the same way as that of the bank-loan officer, once well-paid and responsible and now a mere call-centre operative, paid peanuts to parrot the words a computer prompts. [And look what a wonderful job these loan officers did�AS]

Your preferences are in your genes: Genetic Influences on Economic Preferences

We find strong evidence that economic preferences are heritable. For altruism as well as risk preferences the genetic effect is significantly different from zero. In our best fitting models, the point estimates suggest that 35 percent of the variation in altruism and 27 percent of variation in risk preferences is explained by genetic influences.

Pierre Bourdieu

From Sociological Research Online, a special issue on Pierre Bourdieu: A Critical Tribute in Times of Uncertainty. [Scroll down�AS]

Pre-school Program Shown To Improve Key Cognitive Functions, Self-control

An innovative curriculum for pre-schoolers may improve academic performance, reduce diagnoses of attention deficient hyperactivity disorder, and close the achievement gap between children from poor families and those from wealthier homes, according to new research.

Violent TV, Games Pack A Powerful Public Health Threat

Watching media violence significantly increases the risk that a viewer or video game player will behave aggressively in both the short and long term, according to a new study.