philobiblius (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
philobiblius) wrote2013-07-31 07:05 pm
philobiblius) wrote2013-07-31 07:05 pm
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Equality and the Schools (excerpts)
"No greater foe to the genuine equality of opportunity which our educational, as our political system, implies, can be found than the belief that equality can be attained by ignoring or denying diversity of gifts or by submerging all elevations in the vast ocean of the commonplace.
...
"The supreme test of a teacher's efficiency is not how well he has awakened sluggish minds, or how far he has led the capable, or what excellencies he has discovered, but how few he has "failed." Reward for, or even recognition of, high achievement in any line save athletics is singularly lacking.
...
"Soon we shall hear that college itself has been appropriated by the aspiring crowd and the inspiring dictum shall go forth that human society owes every child a college education.
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"It is undoubtedly true, as we are continually being reminded, that the public schools as they stand, do not produce the citizenship needed for the work ahead of the country.' But in all fairness, how can they be expected to when the whole tendency of teaching and of administration is toward the minimizing of distinctions by virtue of which alone special efficiency of any sort is possible?"
~ Frank P. Whitney,
Equality and the Schools in Education, Vol. 33, No. 2 (October, 1912)
...
"The supreme test of a teacher's efficiency is not how well he has awakened sluggish minds, or how far he has led the capable, or what excellencies he has discovered, but how few he has "failed." Reward for, or even recognition of, high achievement in any line save athletics is singularly lacking.
...
"Soon we shall hear that college itself has been appropriated by the aspiring crowd and the inspiring dictum shall go forth that human society owes every child a college education.
...
"It is undoubtedly true, as we are continually being reminded, that the public schools as they stand, do not produce the citizenship needed for the work ahead of the country.' But in all fairness, how can they be expected to when the whole tendency of teaching and of administration is toward the minimizing of distinctions by virtue of which alone special efficiency of any sort is possible?"
~ Frank P. Whitney,
Equality and the Schools in Education, Vol. 33, No. 2 (October, 1912)