Racing in place

Democracy is about starting equally and ending unequally as quickly as possible.

When schools base their success goals on comparing students progress to other students, there is always someone who does the best and someone who does the worst. In fact, the best are recognized only because there are people who fail and are unable to compete fairly. These 'fair' tests that schools base funding, child intelligence, and general statistics about students is obviously in need of reform. How can a system where a small percentage of the students are given ample time to prepare, be used to judge a whole population.

Individual success is based on work others do.

I had never seen competition this way. I had also not considered games like "Screw thy Neighbor" to be something of a real-life impeding game. Its just a game...right? This sort of "leveling" between students, where someone recognizes they are better or worse then others, is told in the Racing in Place reading to have significant impacts on children's self-confidence. More than being able to get a good grade or even get a good grade that is universally recognized as satisfactory (although everyone has different standards), the important outcome for students is a sense of self worth.

Middle class kids get middle class jobs because others let them. Working class kids get working class jobs because they let themselves.

The consequences of a testing system that judges students for their product in schools is having real life consequences for their sense of self-worth. I rather believe that it is the testing system that is failed, in such that the system to gauge students is not reflective of students potential, but rather their ability to conform. These who dont score high on tests kids have potential. These kids who grow up in economically poor conditions are unique. They have something to offer and they have abilities that are not being tapped in the traditional sense. So what can be done to recognize them and provide them the necessary support, fairly of course.