When the College Board dropped analogies from the SAT, it didn’t make education more accessible. It made real thinking rarer. Here's why parents can't leave critical thinking skills to the system — and what’s at stake if they do.
Perhaps because this change happened 20 years ago - to a test, the SAT. And the College Board did this - "to match curricula." Not, "the State."
Good for a stack, though.
For something going on currently, consider trump administration mandating removal of over 300 words/terms from all government documents and websites, and from government funded research, publications, educational materials, etc.
In NC where I live, the SAT is *required* to graduate, as it is in many states. Most students are reluctant to take a second test, unless they think they have a chance at a higher score, and guaranteed acceptance of that score by the college of their choice.
So as long as most colleges take the SAT or ACT (or require one of the two), and as long as government funded (including private, via vouchers and school choice) schools require the SAT, the curricula, and teaching, will be to those tests.
It would be lovely if all schools were classical, and taught that curricula, but they don't, and won't soon enough for the vast majority of students. Therefore it's 100% incumbent upon parents to fill this gap.
I realize (and am saddened by the fact) the CLT is partnering with choice programs in a growing number of states, but I'm telling you a reckoning is coming. With few exceptions, the states will begin to demand the test change if they wish to maintain the partnership.
So so essential! The ability to link similarities of a thing is essential to survival, being able to identify similarities between dangers, poisons, people, we cannot survive, much less excel, without the ability to make judgements.
Judgements are based on experience applied to a current circumstance, in which there is a positive relationship (I mean that in a psychological sense, not a good/bad sense). That is an analogy, ‘this’ is to ‘that,’ as ‘that’ is to ‘that,’ therefore ‘this’ is true. The “therefore” is impossible to get right without an accurately assessed relationship between things.
Maybe that’s why the lawyers are screwed up, therefore the government is screwed up.
It ALL kind of maps out! David "Nobody gives a shit about what you think" Coleman, CEO of the College Board was also the author of the Common Core ELA standards....Jason Zimba wrote the math standards and then jumped ship! Funded by Bill Gates and numerous other rich assholes who would NEVER put their own children into public schools found a way to make the system worse than what it already was! It's ALL about the tests.....that have no worth at all for learning/teaching.
Regarding "The high cost of compulsory schooling;"
The only countries currently without any school requirements are Sudan, Somalia and Liberia.
Is that the kind of "FREEDOM" you're longing for?
Countries with very low levels of compulsory education, five or six years, are Haiti, Equitorial Guineau, Angola, Cambodia, Burma, Mozambique, South Sudan ....
The Taliban in Afghanistan require girls and boys to attend school - through year eight, I think.
What are you so salty about here? Every kind of political system in the world requires some education for all. Or are you longing for the freedom of 1880 USA (1850 in woke Mass.)?
It's bad for society to have illiterate, innumerate citizens. And you can home school. You're arguing for your right to produce offspring that will not be able to function in society.
This is really interesting but I only kind of agree with you.
Analogies may in theory be what you describe but those "GRAIN : GRANARY :: WEAPON : ARSENAL" type questions really befuddle students. If you know what those words mean, then you can figure it out. But if you don't know what the words mean, you can't even begin to do the analogy part. So people study for analogy tests by memorizing definitions of lots of words. That's probably why college board people think it encourages rote memorization.
Maybe students should be asked to write analogies instead of interpret them. That's an easier way to identify problems in their thinking. I taught analogies in my science writing courses because they are useful tools for explaining abstract science concepts and students were not good at creating them. It took a lot of work to get them to actually see when an analogy is appropriate and when it isn't.
If students read more they'd have the vocabulary needed to understand them, and it's the identification that is so vital. Politicians and other manipulators use false analogies DAILY (hourly) and the number of adults who fall for them is alarming. Any high school senior who is "befuddled" by those analogies can't think well enough to go to college for sure, but I'd argue they're unprepared to be active defenders of their own liberty.
I wouldn't have know about this if not for your article, so thank you. This stuff matters.
Yikes! *known* — spelling matters too!🤓
Perhaps because this change happened 20 years ago - to a test, the SAT. And the College Board did this - "to match curricula." Not, "the State."
Good for a stack, though.
For something going on currently, consider trump administration mandating removal of over 300 words/terms from all government documents and websites, and from government funded research, publications, educational materials, etc.
https://pen.org/banned-words-list/
Plenty of commonly used words ....
Any suggested approaches and resources for teaching and practicing analogies?
The CLT and Classical schools test and teach analogies.
In NC where I live, the SAT is *required* to graduate, as it is in many states. Most students are reluctant to take a second test, unless they think they have a chance at a higher score, and guaranteed acceptance of that score by the college of their choice.
So as long as most colleges take the SAT or ACT (or require one of the two), and as long as government funded (including private, via vouchers and school choice) schools require the SAT, the curricula, and teaching, will be to those tests.
It would be lovely if all schools were classical, and taught that curricula, but they don't, and won't soon enough for the vast majority of students. Therefore it's 100% incumbent upon parents to fill this gap.
I realize (and am saddened by the fact) the CLT is partnering with choice programs in a growing number of states, but I'm telling you a reckoning is coming. With few exceptions, the states will begin to demand the test change if they wish to maintain the partnership.
So so essential! The ability to link similarities of a thing is essential to survival, being able to identify similarities between dangers, poisons, people, we cannot survive, much less excel, without the ability to make judgements.
Judgements are based on experience applied to a current circumstance, in which there is a positive relationship (I mean that in a psychological sense, not a good/bad sense). That is an analogy, ‘this’ is to ‘that,’ as ‘that’ is to ‘that,’ therefore ‘this’ is true. The “therefore” is impossible to get right without an accurately assessed relationship between things.
Maybe that’s why the lawyers are screwed up, therefore the government is screwed up.
It ALL kind of maps out! David "Nobody gives a shit about what you think" Coleman, CEO of the College Board was also the author of the Common Core ELA standards....Jason Zimba wrote the math standards and then jumped ship! Funded by Bill Gates and numerous other rich assholes who would NEVER put their own children into public schools found a way to make the system worse than what it already was! It's ALL about the tests.....that have no worth at all for learning/teaching.
Excellent!
Regarding "The high cost of compulsory schooling;"
The only countries currently without any school requirements are Sudan, Somalia and Liberia.
Is that the kind of "FREEDOM" you're longing for?
Countries with very low levels of compulsory education, five or six years, are Haiti, Equitorial Guineau, Angola, Cambodia, Burma, Mozambique, South Sudan ....
The Taliban in Afghanistan require girls and boys to attend school - through year eight, I think.
What are you so salty about here? Every kind of political system in the world requires some education for all. Or are you longing for the freedom of 1880 USA (1850 in woke Mass.)?
It's bad for society to have illiterate, innumerate citizens. And you can home school. You're arguing for your right to produce offspring that will not be able to function in society.
This is really interesting but I only kind of agree with you.
Analogies may in theory be what you describe but those "GRAIN : GRANARY :: WEAPON : ARSENAL" type questions really befuddle students. If you know what those words mean, then you can figure it out. But if you don't know what the words mean, you can't even begin to do the analogy part. So people study for analogy tests by memorizing definitions of lots of words. That's probably why college board people think it encourages rote memorization.
Maybe students should be asked to write analogies instead of interpret them. That's an easier way to identify problems in their thinking. I taught analogies in my science writing courses because they are useful tools for explaining abstract science concepts and students were not good at creating them. It took a lot of work to get them to actually see when an analogy is appropriate and when it isn't.
If students read more they'd have the vocabulary needed to understand them, and it's the identification that is so vital. Politicians and other manipulators use false analogies DAILY (hourly) and the number of adults who fall for them is alarming. Any high school senior who is "befuddled" by those analogies can't think well enough to go to college for sure, but I'd argue they're unprepared to be active defenders of their own liberty.