overTAKSed

This is it. The one day of my year that matters according to legislators. And I’m just sitting here impotently, reading the paper, walking around the room every few minutes. And blogging. Nothing, obviously, that has anything remotely to do with my job of preparing students for what’s still occasionally called-- by those pre-postmoderns among us-- the “real world”.

It’s TAKS day, and students across Texas are having their Knowledge and Skills Assessed. There’s so much to say about this system that reduces both students and teachers to a 30-page booklet and a set of numbers received around Spring Break. But for now I just want to comment on this “Texas Miracle” mythology. It’s largely been debunked now, but you still hear the phrase on the net, in the media, all over the place.

Well, everywhere but one place. I’ve never heard any educator that I know talk about any “Texas Miracle.” I asked the Significant Other, since she works in several different schools at several different levels. She had never heard anyone use it, either.

Why? Isn’t it obvious? The Weekly World News was always more credible to Texas teachers than any "Texas Miracle."

Yet a significant number of educators on this sunburnt steppe still support the Emperor. I’ve asked why, and they always say, “Well, Nickleby’s the only thing he’s done that I don’t support.”

And the all-too-obvious response to that? Maybe if you were directly influenced by more of the Emperor’s edicts, you wouldn’t support those either. The USA PATRIOT Act’s just fine, too, until your cousin gets thrown in Gitmo or your child gets investigated for some library books she checked out for her research project. The closer W gets, the more fear & loathing he causes.

SPACEDARK