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Edvolution

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Keillor on NCLB PDF Print E-mail
Written by Chris Whitside   
Saturday, 02 February 2008
Garrison Keillor added his two cents to the No Child Left Behind debate with his editorial "We're Failing Our Kids." The tagline is "No Child Left Behind has plenty of flaws, but throwing it out because it's a Republican plan is morally disgusting." Read his editorial at Salon.com.

I was appalled. The bard of Lake Woebegone siding with George Bush? It can't be.

I've long enjoyed the wit and wisdom of The Prairie Home Companion where Keillor displays a rustic kind of homespun wisdom in his monologues and songs. He calls himself a democrat and his writing is flavored with small town, common sense liberalism. So to hear him suggest even the slightest support for Bush's education agenda hit like a punch in the gut. I immediately thought "He doesn't know what's going on. He needs to be taught a lesson." I felt betrayed.

Those primal feelings of defensiveness, however, are exactly at the heart of his message. We've failed our children because we haven't helped them learn how to rise above those feelings. We haven't taught them the value of listening closely and with compassion to opponents so that common ground for negotiation can be found. Instead, liberals and conservatives alike, dismiss the concerns of their opponents with utter contempt. Keillor points out that liberals in the U.S. have done exactly that with No Child Left Behind. The result is no genuine discussion, no compromise, no progress and the children lose.

This is behavior that may have had value for our most primitive ancestors but it certainly does more harm than good today. We as a society and as a species are tragically stuck - making little progress on issues like poverty, pollution, oil, etc. - because our primitive inclination is to fight, not to negotiate. And every time we snear in contempt at those with whom we disagree, we model that way of thinking to our children.

It's particularly reprehensible because we know better. Conflict resolution and negotiating skills are long studied arts that can be learned easily by children. But we have to get it through our heads that they will never learn these lessons from lectures when what they see and hear is so different.
Last Updated ( Saturday, 02 February 2008 )
 
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"Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist. It should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it should allow you to find values which will be your roadmap through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves what you are doing, wherever you are, whoever you are with. It should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die." > John Gatto, Dumbing Us Down

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