Letters
Letters Brideshead defended As David Segal's Trinidadian contemporary at Oxford (Balliol, 1986-89), I have no stake in the Anglo-American squabble in which he seems so interested ["Bill and...
...It can leave you with absolutely no study skills...
...However, her statement that "the preponderance of research-based evidence has not shown that grouping harms (low track) students academically" is itself untrue...
...Neither do proponents of untracking deny that some people are smarter and/or more motivated than others...
...For reprint rights for all or part of an article call S. Tallapragada at (202) 462-0128...
...I'm one of those fighters, so let me explain our motives...
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...That kind of smirking innuendo belongs in the gutter press, and not in the Monthly...
...MARTHA WRIGHT TOTH Belleville, Mississippi The author replies: Untracking is not an issue that fits neatly under the PC heading where Toth would place it...
...Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope...
...1993 The Washington Monthly Co...
...As parents, we see our kids' personalities distorted by that experience...
...Second class postage paid at Mechan-icsburg, PA...
...Oxford's tutorial system provides a rare opportunity to deal "one-on-one" with potentially engaging teachers and certainly compares favorably with that self-abasing ritual of American graduate school life—the cultivation of a "mentor...
...ROBERT PIERCE Essex, Connecticut Say you're sorry "Who's Who" [January/February] contained a slimy little piece claiming that suspicions "have been, urn, aroused" about Bill Clinton and Laura Tyson of the Council of Economic Advisers...
...Uxorial comeuppance Many thanks for Walter Pincus's illuminating article on Elliott Abrams...
...We are so far behind as a nation that we cannot afford this...
...If one includes, as some commentators do, those states which simply have a lever to pull for the Democratic or Republican candidates for president and vice president instead of for individual electors, in at least 24 states voters might be able to do what the authors argue for...
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...2 The Washington Monthly/March 1993 The Washington Monthly Editor in Chief Charles Peters...
...You have to imagine what it must be like to be a gifted child in a heterogeneous class: to be the smartest kid there, to know nearly everything before it is taught, to spend most of the day endlessly practicing what you already know...
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...But this detail is tangential to our analysis, and the rest of Josephson's assumptions and assertions—going to the heart of our article—miss the mark...
...Of course, no one deserves a second-class education, and no one defends the terrible inequities found in tracked systems...
...As my article states, the vast majority of current research proves precisely the opposite...
...Finally, I taught a mixed group of students for several years in a politically incorrect Catholic school...
...4 The Washington Monthly/March 1993...
...three years, $92...
...People who think gifted education will make kids' heads swell don't realize that the opposite is true: only contact with other gifted kids will put their talents into perspective...
...It can make you bored and frustrated and rebellious...
...and possessions: one year, $35...
...And the biggest consequence of our proposed system would be to increase compatibility between a president and vice president whenever voters chose a straight party ticket...
...Heterogeneous classes will further "dumb down" American education...
...two years, $66...
...Under the laws and practices of each state, its vice-presidential electoral votes would have gone to Quayle, even though 60 percent of the citizens voted for Bentsen over Quayle...
...Also, contrary to the authors' assertion, a bare majority, 26 of the 50 states, purport, one way or another, to bind electors...
...In the few times that I observed Abrams in TV appearances, he always struck me as arrogant, jejune, and the very archetypal ambitious sycophant that the Reagan-Bush regime foisted upon the American public...
...Publisher Mary T. Beiro...
...ROBERT AND CAROLYN BECKER Baton Rouge, Louisiana The editor's reply: See this month's Who's Who...
...WILLIAM JOSEPHSON New York, New York The authors reply: Josephson is right on one point: Richard Johnson was chosen by the Senate, not the House...
...It can make you cocky...
...The inescapable conclusion is that heterogeneous control classes were geared to the low-ability students...
...Each state counts votes for tickets, not votes for candidates...
...From you and the Monthly we expect better...
...Editorial Advisory Board Graham Allison, James David Barber, Edgar Cahn, David Halberstam, Murray Kempton, Richard Reeves, Hugh Sidey...
...If Toth foresees dire consequences for talented children in heterogeneous classrooms, I can only say that my honor students bore little resemblance to the bored, frustrated, cocky, rebellious monsters she describes...
...Abrams has exactly the wife he deserves...
...Letters Brideshead defended As David Segal's Trinidadian contemporary at Oxford (Balliol, 1986-89), I have no stake in the Anglo-American squabble in which he seems so interested ["Bill and Friends' Excellent Adventure," December 1992...
...A Harvard classmate was asked by a curious fellow-passenger on a flight to Boston what law school she attended...
...Graphics Consultant Christine Solomon...
...Despite widely publicized assertions to the contrary, the preponderance of research-based evidence has not shown that grouping harms students academically or hurts the self-esteem of those in the low track...
...You owe, we think, President Clinton, Tyson, and your readers an apology...
...Pincus has given me faith in my judgement of human nature...
...Correction: An item in January/February "Tilting at Windmills" misidentified the city in which a police official had used racial slurs...
...The correct location is Peoria, Arizona...
...RONALD ROBERTS New York, New York Vice squad "Split Decision" [Akhil Reed Amar and Vik Amar, November 1992] is full of elementary errors...
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...That's a valuable lesson for anyone...
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...Assistant to the Editor Pam Matthews...
...Interns Mike Bach, Marion Davis, Rebecca Evans, Ann O'Hanlon, Asha Karkhanis, David Smyth, Jon Zebrowski...
...Contributing Editors Jonathan Alter, Thomas N. Bethell, Tom Bethell, Taylor Branch, Matthew Cooper, Gregg Easterbrook, James Fallows, Paul Glastris, Mickey Kaus, Phil Keisling, Michael Kinsley, Nicholas Lemann, Suzannah Lessard, Arthur Levine, Timothy Noah, Joseph Nocera, Leonard Reed, John Rothchild, Jonathan Rowe,Walter Shapiro, Scott Shuger, Steven Waldman...
...On the issues of compatibility, succession, and (now rare) Senate tie-breaking, we remind Josephson that many states sensibly allow ticket-splitting between governor and lieutenant governor...
...Segal seems equally so...
...Reprints of articles are available to individuals or schools at $1.50 each (prepaid...
...Kean noted that parents of high-achieving students will fight untracking "to the death...
...What they propose is that all kids be challenged to the best of their abilities and that they have a chance to decide their academic fates rather than have standardized test scores predetermine them...
...Since, however, I've recently completed a graduate degree at Harvard Law School, I have a basis for comparison and find Segal's piece more jingoistic than informative...
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...The American system's "constant grading" which supposedly "keeps minds focused" actually degenerates at Harvard Law School into a facile exercise in regurgitating hastily digested outlines...
...our system eliminates current incentives to "balance" a ticket with candidates representing a party's different wings...
...The passenger disembarked oblivious...
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...Her assertion that "enforced homogeneity benefits no one" is both blatantly untrue and totally unsupported by the research on tracking...
...Even in the 26 states that purport in some way or another to bind the electors, there are serious questions about enforceability, both in state and federal courts...
...Chen-Lin Kulik's 1985 study found that low-ability students do just as well academically whether or not they are grouped...
...In fact, conservatives and liberals alike realize that our schools are failing a large majority of their students...
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...Our society has no problem acknowledging that some people are musically or athletically gifted while others are so tone-deaf or uncoordinated that no amount of instruction will let them play for a world-class orchestra or in the major leagues...
...I haven't seen the 1985 study cited by Toth, but the conclusion she draws —that they drag everyone else down—seems far from "inescapable" since she hasn't cited evidence that says the higher-achieving children were harmed by such a heterogeneous group...
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...None of the 50 states counts popular votes in a way that would give full effect to voters' preferences for a split ticket...
...Back track I must respond to Patricia Kean's "Blowing Up the Tracks" [January/February...
...Proofers Gladys Banta, Joan Dine, John Kalajian, Linda Mclntyre, Mary Mewborn, Jack Shellenberger, Nina Teicholz...
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...She answered, "Emmanuel Law School"—a mischievous reference to the series of outlines universally relied upon by Harvard Law students faced with imminent exams...
...They got competition in spades, and perhaps most important of all, realized that they did not know everything before it was taught...
...Editors Christopher Georges, Jon Meacham, David Segal...
...Why do we persist in denying that intelligence, too, runs on a continuum from profoundly retarded to profoundly gifted...
...Assume, for example, that in 1988, a state's citizens had voted as follows: 40 percent Bush/Quayle, 30 percent Dukakis/Bentsen, 30 percent Bush/Bentsen...
...But the solution is to fix what we're doing wrong without throwing out what we do right...
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...For example, in the 1836 case of Richard Johnson, when the electoral college did not produce a vice-president, the issue went to the Senate, not the House...
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...The fact that individual dons at Oxford may be delinquent tutors pales in comparison with (for instance) Harvard's systematic displacement of recognized authorities by all manner of "teaching assistants...
Vol. 25 • March 1993 • No. 3
