"People say, 'Well, you know, test scores don't take into account creativity and the love of learning,'" she says with a drippy, grating voice, lowering her eyelids halfway. Then she snaps back to herself. "I'm like, 'You know what? I don't give a crap.' Don't get me wrong. Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don't know how to read, I don't care how creative you are. You're not doing your job."
This just documents the problem we have in education. Michelle Rhee… the wonderkind Chancellor of the DC Public Schools made this statement in this week's TIME coverstory: Can She Save Our Schools? – TIME
Once again… an education leader who should know better shows the same ignorance as other policy makers when it comes to improving education. She creates a false dichotomy like we have to make a choice between creativity and reading. That these are mutually exclusive. That somehow wanting to ensure we are developing creative skills is interfering with students learning to read.
This is a dangerous mindset we have seen far to much of lately. And once again an education leader demonstrates the narrow mindedness that has allowed other nations to surpass us in developing students to compete in the 21st century.
This pervasiveness of this line of thinking is beginning to concern me.
What about you?