The Invisible Counterpoint

When I heard the news last week that the Department of Education is aiming to subject 4-year-olds to high-stakes testing, all I could do was shake my head in disbelief and despondently mutter a slightly altered riff off "The Big Lebowski's" Walter Sobchak. Four-year-olds, dude. [. . .] Finland's story, recounted in the new documentary "The Finland Phenomenon," is particularly striking. According to Harvard's Tony Wagner, the country's modernization campaign in the 1970s included a "transforming of the preparation and selection of future teachers." "What has happened since is that teaching has become the most highly esteemed profession [in Finland]," says Wagner, who narrates the film. "There is no domestic testing ... because they have created such a high level of professionalism, they can trust their teachers." [. . .] Where Finland rejects testing, nurtures teachers, and encourages its best an...

Undoubtedly, had this been the behavior of a Republican administration, "the left's" big environmental organizations would be scheduling D.C. protests and calling for firings, if not criminal charges. Yet, somehow, there are no protests. Somehow, there have been almost no calls for the resignation of Salazar, who oversaw this disaster and who, before that, took $323,000 in campaign contributions from energy interests and backed more offshore drilling as a U.S. senator. Somehow, facing environmental apocalypse, there has been mostly silence from "the left." (David Sirota, “Laying bare the myth of the ‘left,’” Salon, 21 May 2010) Be careful When primitive civilizations used to feel guilty for excess and too good living, they devised sacrificial wars where all their best and brightest -- representatives of happiness, ambition -- could be offered up to placate the anger of their abandonment-suspecting gods. What we're doing now is trying to entice our be...