Para meditar

Diane Ravitch é uma académica norte americana (New York University) que desde os anos 70 tem tido um papel preponderante na educação nos EUA. Porque serviu nas administrações Bush (pai e filho), sempre foi considerada mais como conservadora do que como progressista. Nos começos do século, apoiou o NCLB (No Child Left Behind), um programa muito conservador que tem sofrido contestação. Pois bem, Ravitch publicou, no ano passado, um livro intitulado “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education”. Nesse livro, rompe com o apoio dado e em mais de duzentas páginas é dura para com o que está a acontecer nois Estados Unidos, precisamente pela política conservadora adoptada.

Perto do fim do livro, podem ler-se as seguintes conclusões que transcrevo (sem traduzir):

“Our schools…
... will not improve if we continually reorganize their structure and management without regard for their essential purpose
... will not improve if elected officials intrude into pedagogical territory and make decisions that properly should be made by professional educators
... will not improve if we value only what tests measure
… will not improve if we rely exclusively on tests as the means of deciding the fate of students, teachers, principals, and schools
... will not improve if we continue to close neighborhood schools in the name of reform
... will not improve if we entrust them to the magical powers of the market
... cannot improve if charter schools siphon away the most motivated students and their families in the poorest communities from the regular public schools
... will not improve if we expect them to act like private, profit-seeking enterprises
... will not improve if we continue to drive away experienced principals and replace them with neophytes who have taken a leadership training course but have little or no experience as teachers
... cannot be improved by blind worship of data
... cannot be improved by those who say money doesn't matter
... cannot be improved if we ignore the disadvantages associated with poverty that affect children's ability to learn
... cannot be improved if we use them as society's all-purpose punching bag, blaming them for all the ills of the economy, the burdens imposed upon children by poverty, the dysfunction of families, and the erosion of civility. Schools must work with other institutions and cannot replace them”