Level playing field
After my post of yesterday re ‘Naivety’ I began thinking again and talking about how the concept of changing the nature of the ‘level playing field’ translates into other avenues of society as well as education.
We started off thinking about Sats and how in the beginning only a few people/schools went down the pathway of ’skilling -up’ their children to be more successful (sic) but as the governmental use of the data began to be exposed it became a given that children would be prepared for the tests - the playing field was now level again but in a different place.
The conversation went towards sport and way back:
- The innovation of spiked shoes gave an advantage to those who could afford them.
- The technological developments in cycling gave Chris Boardman his records.
- In F1 recently the leveling of the technology has become silly so that artificial rules are created to level things
- The recent change to the rule about swimming costumes again levels the playing field
None of these are solutions in themselves they are just changes to take into account developments and to make sure that every one has an equal chance in a competitive situation.
Where does this take the ‘drugs in personal intellectual performance’ argument ? I have no idea, but if it becomes accepted as the norm that the levelness of the playing field has changed then what next? Better to scrap exams altogether than to encourage drug taking? Better to change the very nature of assessment rather than create mistrust. It could open up a new set thoughts for a new government.
Attribution:
Original image: ‘end of the cricket season‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46924146@N00/268714076
by: Mark LorchReleased under an Attribution-NonCommercial License
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46924146@N00/268714076
by: Mark LorchReleased under an Attribution-NonCommercial License
3 Comments:
I think Mr Boardman might take exception to the notion that technical advancement gave him his records - his beating of Merckx’s “athlete’s hour” for example was down to pure physical ability.
The notion of children taking drugs to achieve exam excellence is sadly not new. I well remember undergraduates in the 80s popping Pro Plus to keep going during long revision stints. More recently there was the wholly misguided (and subsequently discredited) attempt to prove that merely taking a fish oil supplement would improve exam performance.
Sadly, the implementation of any high stakes assessment system will have unforeseen consequences. It is entirely questionable that such consequences for 11 year olds, however minor they might be, are worth it for the individuals concerned. The sooner teacher assessment replaces SATs the better.
John Sutton
7:34 pm
There is another extreme possibility as illustrated in “Harrison Bergeron” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron
Tricia Neal
10:55 pm
Okay … a bit hard on Chris Boardman … emphasis just to make a point … sorry. It just shows the sort of world I have grown up in where I have actually never come across people who use drugs in any way (apart from alcohol).
The worth is not about individuals though is it it is about status. Just thinking of those teachers who changed children’s papers for a better result. Cheating is cheating.
doug
9:26 am