Stephen Colbert Should Replace David Brooks at NYTimes
Published May 13, 2009 @ 02:04PM PT
[Update: Aaron Pallas gives a good critical response to the Fryer/Dobbie research here. All that glitters.]
More on NYTimes columnist David Brooks and the generally rampant stenography posing as thinking in the NYTimes op-ed columns these days (see the Thomas Friedman posts for more).
Brooks begins his much-panned mis-reading of the Harlem Children's Zone "miracle" with this:
I was startled when I received an e-mail message from Roland Fryer, a meticulous Harvard economist. It included this sentence: “The attached study has changed my life as a scientist.”
Fryer and his colleague Will Dobbie have just finished a rigorous assessment of the charter schools operated by the Harlem Children’s Zone.
"Meticulous." "It changed my life as a scientist." Isn't this all a bit grandiose? Especially when it didn't change a lot of people's minds? And shouldn't Fryer have written "social scientist," anyway? Or has economics become a hard science due to the success of the free marketeers in economic science over the last few decades?
"A scientist." Kill me.
A 21st Century Rule of Thumb: Whenever a pundit drops a name, google it. I did so, and learned that Fryer is perhaps best known for his questionable idea that the way to raise the achievement gap was - hold on - to pay kids cash for grades.
Better still, google led me to Stephen Colbert's beautifully common-sensical fun with the idea in this classic interview:
.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Roland Fryer | ||||
|
||||
.
I hope reading Ravitch "changed Fryer's life as a scientist" back to whatever it was before he wrote his report.
For a straight criticism of the "pay-for-grades" idea, see Rethinking Schools: "Children as Guinea Pigs: Washington, D.C., bribes its students to perform."
Share this Post
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
EmailRelated Posts
-
A Foundation of Bubbles: Deconstructing the McKinsey Report, Part 1
-
What Thomas Friedman Doesn't Say, Conclusion
-
What Thomas Friedman Doesn't Say, Part Three
Comments (2)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
Clay is an American high school Humanities teacher, technology coach, and Apple Distinguished Educator who has taught for the last eight years in Asian international schools. According to law, he's married to his wife. According to his wife, he's married to his Mac.
Featured Education Actions
-
-
-
Eliminate Violence Against Women
1739 People
-
Eliminate Violence Against Women
Yes, I think of serious proposal should be made offering Stephen Colbert the opportunity to be first-choice replacement. The corporate media shows no signs of improvement. Philadelphia papers are as bad as the New York embarrassments. It is sad that the future of education remains in the hands of buffoonery. Although I usually do not use quotes that refer to imaginary characters...
'At first God made idiots..that was just for practice..then He made school boards.'
- Mark Twain
Posted by Rev Bookburn on 05/13/2009 @ 02:19PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Why would Stephen Colbert want to accept the demotion?
Posted by Doug Samuelson on 05/24/2009 @ 03:51PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.