The Daily Howler - 09/01/05

QUESTIONS NOT ASKED! Is Calixto given appropriate textbooks? The question is quite rarely asked: // link // print // previous // next //

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2005

SECOND EFFORT: Today’s post will serve as a replacement for (and extension of) yesterday’s sub-par effort. In fact, we’ll disappear yesterday’s post tomorrow. Read it today, ye who care!

DEFINING A CRISIS: Letters to this morning’s Times address Bob Herbert’s Monday column (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 9/29/05). We were struck by the first, from a Garden State teacher. Here are her first two paragraphs:

NEW YORK TIMES LETTER (9/1/05): Regarding the state of education in the United States, Bob Herbert writes, "I respectfully suggest that we may be looking at a crisis here" ("Left Behind, Way Behind," column, Aug. 29). As a highly qualified teacher of English at the high school level, I agree.

But this crisis we see in our schools has its roots in American homes increasingly devoid of books and printed material, where children turn exclusively to television, computers and electronic games for entertainment—and see the adults around them doing the same. Instant-gratification technology has, for many students, replaced the task—and the thrill—of reading.

The teacher describes a “crisis in our schools.” But what exactly is that “crisis?”