The War Against Excellence

from the preface of Cheri Pierson Yecke's book:

My dual passions for advocating for academic excellence and examining the motivations behind the contemporary middle school concept drove me to write this book. As a mother of two daughters who were academically gifted and as a middle school teacher, I experienced firsthand the frustrations of trying to meet the intellectual needs of high ability and highly motivated children within the prescriptive confines of the radical middle school plan.

My husband referred to my advocacy for our children as an example of the “she-bear” instinct--”if you mess with my cubs, you had better look out.” While both of our daughters generally had very positive experiences in their schools, during their middle school years I had to fight one battle after another as I sought to ensure that their educational needs were met.

As a middle school teacher, I became increasinly frustrated with administrative policies that were implemented by fiat with the solemn declaration that “this is good for kids because everyone is doing it.” Trendy new policies, such as the widespread elimination of ability grouping, the dumbing-down of the curriculum, and a wholesale embrace of cooperative learning and peer tutoring, were not good for all kids—and I didn’t care who else was “doing it.”

As a mom and as a teacher, I knew intuitively that these practices did not serve the best interests of all children, and I wondered where they were coming from.

As our district’s Teacher of the Year and as a concerned parent, I had a voice to express my views, but it did not carry the weight of those who were looked to as experts. I found that concerned parents and dedicated educators were often made to feel ignorant and insignificant when they attempted to argue against the latest trends and fads. Self-proclaimed experts, cloaking themselves in pseudo-wisdom, often looked with disdain upon anyone who dared to question either their beliefs or the translation of their beliefs into practice.

I left the classroom and went back to earn my doctorate so that I could become more knowledgeable and perhaps obtain the same level of mainstream credibility as these so-called “experts.” During those years, I became alarmed as I read article after article in which middle school activists expressed their arrogant assumption that America’s public schools were their personal vehicles for social engineering. I came to see how radical middle school activists were driving many of the policies and practices that have been so damaging to the public education system in America at all grade levels, and how such policies and practices were responsible for damaging the trust between many parents and the public schools.

The battle to determine the focus of the middle school—either as a vehicle for social engineering or one that supports rigorous levels of academic achievement—crystallized in a war of words between advocates for the middle school concept and advocates for gifted learners.