kitchen table math, the sequel: The Townsend Plan

Monday, June 25, 2007

Anonymous said...: I have see several things like this in the last few years. I'm starting to think that teaching children how the nitwits who score these tests "think" (and I use the word with some reluctance) is what teachers mean by "teaching to the test."

If so, then they are correct to complain.

A related anecdote is a test on prepositions given in a private school (my wife knows someone there). The test would be of the following form:

Item: List all the propositions beginning with letters between 'X' and 'Y'.

Note that this turns the subject of prepositions into a list memorization exercise, with not testing benefit to actually learning what a preposition is. Again, if I was a teacher, I'd be complaining about this, too.

-Mark R.; June 25, 2007 at 9:18 AM
Anonymous said...: Given knowledge of this:
The idea was to end the Depression through consumer spending
and this question:
Who would have benefited had the Townsend Plan been enacted?

My answer would have been something like "the entire American public, because the economy would have been stimulated and the Depression brought to an end".; June 25, 2007 at 11:48 AM
Catherine Johnson said...: googlemaster

exactly

that would have been my answer

or I might have gotten confused about which answer I was supposed to write down, "old people" (wrong!) or "American public"; June 25, 2007 at 1:42 PM

kitchen table math, the sequel