We Must Take Charge
O'Brien, Dennis
of us but understand it too. That they not only read hearts but also sense the destinies-the transcendence, the possibilities of redemption--in the characters they create and bring into our...
...In an earlier alarm, A Nation at Risk, the authors concluded that if an enemy nation had wished to destroy the country it could not have chosen a better vehicle than the current school system...
...L i Aidan Nichols, O.P...
...While admitting the need for breadth in the curriculum, Finn sees multiculturalism as a potential trap for minorities...
...It has been said that education is the American "religion...
...Ninety-four percent of eleventh-graders tested in 1986 could not figure 12 percent simple interest for one year...
...What is interesting in both the bad/good nature scenarios is that education is trivialized...
...One problem may well be those exalted ends...
...556: Commonweal but teaching to probing tests such as are used in national tests in the rest of the developed world seems eminently plausible...
...3.00 mill...
...Finn's argument for testing is so plausible that one must ask what are the immediate and ultimate causes of resistance to measuring results...
...Finn finds himself on a plane to Frankfurt and notes that the "yuppies" in the next seat are looking forward to flying the Pacific...
...It makes an excellent text for study groups...
...In 1987, John James Cannell (a nonprofessional researcher) issued a brief report to which Finn subscribes...
...But, if education more modestly measures student effort, skill, natural aptitude, and the effects of good teaching then Finn's major argument (for national testing) makes sense...
...Dennis O'Brien p rojecting the aims of education must be an exhilaratingnay, a giddy-experience if one is to judge from some recent examples...
...In general, Finn's book is important because it takes education seriously as the determiner of our political and cultural health--that is a radical idea...
...If a D in calculus signs a lack of salvation, then I am for A's all round...
...If folks are naturally good, bright, and chock full of values, then education should stand aside and let these natural talents shine forth...
...Is chastity a plausible goal for monks or Mainers...
...That is no compliment (or help) for school children...
...The Shape of Catholic Theology An Introduction to Its Sources, Principles, and History Michael Skelley, S.J...
...John's Abbey, P.O...
...Chester Finn's We Must Take Charge is one in a series of alarming accounts issued over the past decade about the failure of American primary and secondary education...
...Rahner's concepts are presented in their full breadth, without oversimplification but with a welcome clarity of presentation and expression...
...As Finn says, "[t]his is regarded throughout the education profession as a heinous act, ranking on scale somewhere between denouncing Dewey and abusing children...
...Faithful to Catholic teaching yet critical, discerning yet impartial, Nichols offers this introduction to dogmatic theology, with the firm belief"that dogmatics are the center of theology, and that any theological discipline which cuts itself off from these heartlands does so at its own peril...
...2 PENCILS WE MUST TAKE CHARGE Our Schools and Our Future Chester E. Finn, Jr...
...Finally, one could believe that human beings are relatively blank when it comes to virtue, so that education makes all the difference...
...Ends-in-view are clearly connected to means-at-hand...
...Testing, grading, and ranking are suspicious undertakings which undermine self-esteem and democratic egalitarianism...
...6009-6 Paper, 164 pp., 6 x 9, $11.95 U THE LITURGICAL PRESS St...
...Trollope discovered in her travels, Americans are addicted to the "self-taught" person of genius, not the schooled savant...
...This historical treatment of Catholic theology looks not to the content of that theology but rather to the form in which that content is contained and how it is expressed...
...His testing proposals follow closely those of the Bush administration--and the book carries the endorsement of the current Department of Education establishment, Secretary Lamar Alexander and Assistant Secretary David T. Kearns...
...Determined opposition to the obvious connection between testing and educational ends makes one suspect that there are deeper issues at play...
...Though comprehensive and far-leaching, this work is not beyond the understanding of people just commencing a study of theology...
...I think that the immediate objections are superficial and Finn does a splendid job in demolishing them...
...But that is part of the problem...
...Anecdotes and statistics vie with one another to prove the case against American education...
...No tests, no accountability and we are left with free floating ends and kindness to domestic pets...
...Teaching to a dumb, routinized test may produce "dumbth" (Finn's term for a pervasive product of the present programs), "Must you always go according to the book...
...Payment enclosed.(lf prepaying, please enclose 10% for postage and handling...
...Basically stated, are students (as educational "raw material") good, bad, or blank...
...1909-6 Paper, 250 pp., 6 x 9, $14.95 For Rahner, the liturgy of the Church is the symbolic expression of the liturgy of the world...
...John Dewey, though much out of favor with educators, always insisted that one should choose "ends-inview...
...One of the current fashions in education to which Finn addresses himself is "multiculturalism...
...That they not only read hearts but also sense the destinies-the transcendence, the possibilities of redemption--in the characters they create and bring into our lives...
...SHARPEN YOUR NO...
...There may be murder and mayhem in the classroom, but the fault is in the system, not the soul...
...I suppose no one today would espouse a dour Calvinist theory of education, viewing pupils as sinners to be chastised into a semblance of order and virtue...
...The Free Press, $22.95,365 pp...
...It may be their only way out...
...Our earliest schooling in America was Calvinist (moral training for miscreant minors...
...Ninety percent of school districts claim that their averages exceed the national average...
...Unhappily for education, the "blank" position goes against the American grain...
...His rejoinder is, "What test...
...Foreword by Rembert G. Weakland, O.S.B...
...This examination of Rahner's writings explores his theology of worship for the benefit not just of other theologians but ofalI who strive to live and worship as Christians...
...11.95 [] Bill me...
...Finn argues that it is bizarre to specify any ends at all for education (from chastity to chemistry) and not have a standard method of testing to see if the ends are met...
...Name Address City/State/Zip 10896 27 September 1991...
...But the larger triumph of this powerful book is that he has taken a sordid moment in a high school locker room--the blood, booze, piss, semen, paranoia, cruel jokes, and later the faculty politics, power-lust, petty jealousies, corridor violence, and betrayals--along with the literature, laughs, and prayers--and told a heroic story about a very vulnerable man, who by his suffering and his courage redeems both himself and his school...
...If the kids are all naturally good, then the Lake Wobegon effect is an appropriate outcome...
...The Liturgy of the Worm Karl Rahner' s Theology of Worship An exemplary summary of the state of Catholic theology and what appears to be its future...
...Multiculturalism can be a variation on the inherently-good theme: if there is a "natural" racial or ethnic wisdom, education should stand aside and let this determinant be expressed...
...On the other hand, if wickedness reigns in the human heart, education is merely external discipline replacing salvific grace...
...Cannell "surveyed all fifty states and discovered that no state is below average on any of the six major nationally normed...tests...
...Since the United States spends more money on education per student than any other nation in the world, why have we attained such miserable results...
...557...
...If one wishes to project grand educational ends, it is worth asking whether students are up to the charge...
...Only California could do better by demanding "true comprehension of the rights, duties, and dignity of American citizenship, including kindness to domestic pets...
...Education may be dying--but always in another district...
...If there is one practical suggestion which leads all else in Finn's prescription, it is the demand for some species of national testing of student performance...
...Box 7500 Collegeville, MN 56321 Phone:612-363-2213 Fax:l-800-445-5899 Please send: _ _ (1909-6) Shape of Catholic Theology, $14,95 (6009-6) Liturgy of the World...
...Chester Finn concentrates on means for a set of very specific ends: reading, writing, and recognition of the difference between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
...American students are, of course, tested on all sorts of score sheets from local tests to SAT and ACT college entrance exams...
...All the virtues that ornament human society" is a tall order...
...Finn quotes to the contrary Jaime Escalante, whose successful math program for disadvantaged Hispanics was recorded in the film Stand and Deliver, "The barriers disadvantaged or minority students face are substantial, but it is the very possibility of their remaining trapped by them for an entire lifetime which requires that such students be urged to succeed in their academic studies...
...Teaching to the test" is one of the usual complaints...
...On one level, L'Heureux has handed down a scorching indictment of the irrational fear of homosexuality that can paralyze an institution or a whole culture...
...As Mrs...
...In sharp reaction to that gloomy curriculum, we rushed to natural goodness...
...Judging from recent report cards on American schools, kindergarten through twelfth grade, domestic pets may be the only beneficiaries of the system...
...For it is in dogmatics that theology is in touch with the heart of revelation, and only by virtue of the quality of its contact with that revelation is thinking Christian at all...
...The state of Maine (1980): schools are to teach "principles of morality and justice and sacred regard for truth, love of country, humanity, a universal benevolence, sobriety, industry and frugality, chastity, moderation and temperance, and all other virtues that ornament human society...
...The multiplicity of tests and the idiosyncratic possibilities for interpretation lead to the Lake Wobegon effect whereby everyone is above average...
Vol. 118 • September 1991 • No. 16
