nothin Don Williams Blasts “Corporatization” Of… | New Haven Independent

Don Williams Blasts Corporatization” Of Schools

WNPR

Is standardized testing and the corpratization of education as much as a scourge on humanity — or at least, on American students — as some education advocates have made it out to be?

Yes, and then some, according to Don Williams, former president pro tempore of the Connecticut State Senate

Williams joined former U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdenson for his eponymous show on WNHH radio to explain why.

We corporatize, digitize our children … instead of turning our children into problem solvers,” he said. In order to succeed, and to build critical thinking, you need to master a fundamental knowledge. Without a fundamental knowledge, you’re just reciting things. That’s not how you build productive citizens.”

The standardized testing and insurmountably high costs of private and college education that we are requiring of our students, he continued, comes at the cost of a democratic and equitable society.

Computers create achievement gap and technology gap,” he shared of tests ranging from the Common Core’s curriculum to the PSAT, SAT, GRE and others, which are now done through computers and marketed with prep books that come equipped with CD-Roms and pay-to-play websites. If you come from a home with wifi,yo have a built in advantage. In urban schools … they teach to the test, drilling and spending time on test prep instead of enrichment that children deserve.”

It’s a crime that we should burden our children … they come out [of college] with the price of a whole mortgage cost, and that’s wrong,” he added. 

To listen to the episode, which also discussed arguments for bringing back tolls to Connecticut highways, click on the audio above.

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