Mayhem in the Middle

By Chester E. Finn Jr. - Septermber 20, 2005 - National Review Online

Subtitle: Out with the “Middle Schoolism.”

This is an article that will not be popular with the educrats of America. The fact that many of the people who control our schools actually believe that students in middle school should not be challenged is a surprise to most parents who send their children to school to be challenged.

If ever an education fad showed dreadful timing, reaching its intellectual and political pinnacle just as lightning struck the mountaintop, it's "middle schoolism." The key year was 1989, when the middle-school bible, an influential Carnegie-backed report named Turning Points, was published. It hit just as the governors and Pres. George H.W. Bush gathered in Charlottesville to place the United States squarely astride the standards-based reform that is antithetical to the central message of this education religion.

In the ensuing decade and a half, the National Middle School Association (NMSA) and its acolytes, flying the banner of "Turning Points" and arguing that the middle grades are no time for academic learning, argued with great success that these schools should be devoted to social adjustment, coping with hormonal throbs, and looking out for the needs of the "whole child."

We are making progress, but it is critical that more parents become aware of the hidden agendas of many in the education establishment. These agendas border on a religion to control education and steer it in directions that are actively opposed to the agenda of parents, and as noted above, the Governors of all of our states.

I find it truly astounding that anyone can seriously argue that we should take 4 years of a childs life and stop teaching them in a challenging way.