The "slow food" movement began as a protest against the global proliferation of McDonald's restaurants. Mr. Holt calls for a similar backlash against today's "hamburger" approach toward education, which emphasizes uniformity, predictability, and measurability of processes and results.
BY MAURICE HOLT D ESPITE THE support of Congress, a compliant press, and the relentless creation of targets, tests, and benchmarks, it looks as if the Great Standards Project is faltering. Not a single one of the goals set for the year 2000 is within sight. The results of state tests only confirm what we already knew: schools do well in leafy suburbs and badly in East Saint Louis. And perhaps most significant of all, the latest Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup survey of public attitudes showed solid public backing for a balanced curriculum, assessment based on classroom performance rather than on tests, and improvement to the existing system rather than the continuing rhetoric of reform. 1
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