The Neocons declaim: "Why do Liberals hate America?" to which I ask "Why do the Neocons hate childhood?"
(SALEM, Ore.) - Stepping off a bus into a dark alley in just about any North American city would make me feel ill-at-ease, but when the alley was in city of Marrakesh and the continent Africa, my stress-o-meter darted into the red.
The members of our tour group spoke French, Portuguese, Spanish, Egyptian Arabic, and an assortment of other languages I couldn't identify. The few of us who spoke English did so with very different accents. We stumbled after our multi-lingual tour guide who assured us that wonderful Moroccan food awaited us at the end of our destination.
After we'd walked about five minutes through a series of twisting, narrow passages a group of a dozen or more boys descended on us in the darkness their hands probing our pockets. It was hard to judge their age by their size since Moroccans are smaller than their European or American counterparts. They were maybe ten to fourteen years old--possibly older.
We infidel-dogs didn't dare touch Islamic children even when their hands were in our Christian pockets, but reflexively I swept the boys' arms away. No one in the tour group was gullible enough to keep anything of value in their pockets, nevertheless the boys all but picked us clean. At last with a shout an Australian flashed a small pocket knife in the air, and the boys took off at a run.
Our guide wasn't aware of what had happened to her clients at the end of the line and didn't seem much disturbed by the news when she found out. She responded in French which someone translated as "Tomorrow you will see good Moroccan children." Although I hadn't decided to become a teacher at that point in my life, I guessed we would be visiting a school.
But the next day the bus pulled up in front of a carpet factory and not a school. We were introduced to the owner who proudly gave of us tour of his facility. He was careful to show us young girls, eight to ten years old, whose clever hands were busy working on rugs. These were the good Moroccan children we were promised.
"Why aren't these children in school?" someone asked in English.
Through our translator the owner explained that these girls were learning important skills and earning money for their families. How could this be a bad thing?
"What are they doing to these young people's childhoods?" said an Irish woman next to me in disgust.
The answer: what childhoods?
Jacob Bronowski wrote in his grand opus The Ascent of Man: "Who am I to belittle the civilizations of Egypt, of China, of India, even of Europe in the Middle Ages? And yet by one test they all fail: they limit the freedom of the imagination of the young." Bronowski's message was that the greatest gift that western civilization gives itself is permission for its children to play. Play is the opportunity to explore and to learn, to pursue interests without the need to fulfill adult responsibilities. In the west this investment in play has paid enormous dividends in culture, business and technology. As in the case of Homer Hickam (author of Rocket Boys which was made into the film October Sky), your father may be a coal miner, but you may discover that your bliss is rocketry. Your talent as a rocket scientist is of greater value to society than your lack of talent as a coal miner. Children who feel the pressure of adulthood don't have the opportunity to discover what they are really good at.
A friend on special assignment as a consultant to the Oregon Department of Education during the 90's told me that calling someone "creative" was a put-down. And yet America leads the world not because we are good test takers, but because we are creative. America was born of revolution. We know when to break the rules. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, for example, are both Americans (and college drop-outs) who clearly know when to be creative and when to ignore the rules. Apple Computer's "Think Different" exemplifies this. It even breaks the rules by dropping the "ly" from differently the correct form of the word.
When I stepped off the jet into the muggy air of Morocco the first sound to reach my ears was not the murmur of the Arabic language. Someone unloading the plane had a portable radio cranked. The music? Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode." American language, American technology, American arts influence the world.
As I watch the implementation of No Child Left Behind grind into place, I have to echo the words of the Irish woman in the carpet factory. "What are you doing to these young people's childhoods?" Teachers under pressure to raise test scores cannot help but pass some of that pressure on to their students whether they wish to or not. The underlying message is: stop being a kid and perform like an adult. The Neocons declaim: "Why do Liberals hate America?" to which I ask "Why do the Neocons hate childhood?"
No Child Left Behind is an chillingly accurate description of a nation where there will be no children left behind--only small scale adults. We will find ourselves listed among the cultures which Bronowski counts as failing because we limit the freedom of the imagination of our young.
It is important for our children to learn. It is important for our children to be well-educated, but let's not let that education prevent them from developing the faculty which is of greater value than knowledge alone--imagination.
Time magazine's "Man of the Century" (1999) Albert Einstein is best known for his formula E=mc2, but he is also remembered for these words: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I will modify that slightly. "Imagination is more important than high test scores."
For more information see the links below:
• Jacob Bronowski: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ascent_of_Man
• Homer Hickam: homerhickam.com/index.shtml
By One Test They All Fail
Salem-News.com