No Computer Left Behind
Without getting into my feelings about the No Child Left Behind Act (that could be a novel in itself) this article hits the nail on the head of multiple choice tests. As a former teacher, I do admit that Scantron is wonderful for saving time. But you end up teaching the students things that college professors say are not all that important because you can just look them up somewhere. Even the more thoughtful questions become regurgitation once the kids figure out how to take the test. More essays in the primary and secondary classroom would kill two birds with one stone. Not only do these students not know how to think about history, they don’t know how to structure and argument on paper either. Some of my students (seniors in high school) could not put together a grammatically correct sentence. Let them write!
