The Elitist Hammer & Nail
“If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”
After watching a 2021 Fareed Zakaria GPS CNN commentary on K-12 pandemic learning loss and what to do about it, I was spitting nails (keeping with the theme) and compelled to write a response to his misguided one-tool solution. Sadly, Zakaria does not once mention the emotional toll that the pandemic has wrought on students, parents, and educators. Disappointingly, he does not reference even one educational practitioner, researcher, or child psychologist. Instead, he highlighted data from a global management consulting company and a billionaire’s op-ed to illustrate his points. It was a heartless commentary. See it below.
But, there’s a deeper issue. As progressive educators look for niches and toeholds to push beyond an archaic education system, there are powerful status quo forces that cannot see beyond the hammer – standardized test scores as the only acceptable way to measure dollars and cents…excuse me….I meant, to measure learning, not dollars and cents. Freudian slip of the fingers.
This is a mindset issue. Influential people like Zakaria and Michael Bloomberg (billionaire op-ed) have fixed views clouded by an Ivy League mentality concerning the academic achievement challenges in schools and the subsequent impact on society. They occupy and control huge media platforms (digital, print, TV) in the “global public square.” More than one million CNN viewers saw Zakaria’s program and it was posted/re-posted many times on Facebook and Twitter.
It is vital for the future of schools to wrest control of the narrative from elitist standardized dogma.
Author, Project-Based Learning proponent, and former carpenter Ron Berger warns on the real pandemic school effect, “If all we come up with is passing out diagnostic tests to quantify learning loss and then track kids into groups for remediation, it will be a terrible failure of imagination.”
We can no longer pretend to make the kids fit the system. The system must change to fit the kids.
– Fareed Zakaria’s Last Look (3m50sec) –
– My email response –
Dear Fareed,
My condolences to you and your family on the passing of your mother. It was a rightfully proud, loving son’s tribute that you gave your audience last weekend.
My purpose in writing is the “hammer and nail” commentary on education you provided at the conclusion of the April 4, 2021 Fareed Zakaria GPS broadcast. Respectfully, but pointedly, your comments about the pandemic’s impact on schooling were insufficiently researched and one-dimensional.
As you rattled off statistics about possible learning and earning losses from a McKinsey Report, I wondered if you understand that we cannot reduce children’s learning to data points and then scale up our interpretations. In reviewing the McKinsey report, the focus on learning loss is monetized with warnings on lower GDP, less life-long earnings. A single paragraph in the nine-page report mentions the social-emotional trauma that the pandemic has wrought on students, teachers, and families. You missed the mark here, Fareed.
Your other reference point was billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s March 10 op-ed in the Washington Post. For being credited with education leadership, Bloomberg’s piece was condescending and out-of-touch with on-the-ground reality. He states, “Biden should push states to run a universal summer school. The stimulus funding will help states pay teachers to work over the summer and to make facility upgrades as needed to ensure socially distanced classrooms and properly ventilated buildings. Buy fans, open the windows, set up tents, and serve lots of water — whatever it takes to prevent children from falling further behind. We cannot let a little heat and humidity doom their futures and devastate our country’s.”
He thinks all you have to do is pay burnt-out teachers, put up tents, and provide water while unsafe school buildings are under renovation. As if these aren’t human beings already distressed and emotionally challenged from the pandemic experience. Here you are broadcasting to an audience of more than one million viewers to “Catch Up! We have a lot of money at stake here!” There are multi-systemic structural issues on how we do school to kids and the standardized testing system (your hammer) is a major driver behind it all.
You reference those test scores when describing the “age-old achievement gap of non-whites performing worse on standard metrics of progress” coupled with phrases like “devastating deficits” and “Is it any wonder they (Korea, China) test better?”
While praising Korea and China’s educational systems, it wasn’t lost on me that the photos your producers chose were those of students sitting at individual desks in perfectly placed rows while doing a paper/pencil activity or test. This is not the education practice that will reach and improve learning for Black and other minority groups. The disadvantaged students you are so worried about are among the least likely to attend the type of summer school that Bloomberg demanded and you support.
We can no longer pretend to make the kids you have referenced fit the system. The system must change to fit the kids.
Not once during your commentary did you mention even one school practitioner, education researcher, or child psychologist.
Next time, you might consult with Angela Duckworth, Linda Darling-Hammond, Tony Wagner, Anya Kamenetz, Diane Ravitch, Douglas Reeves, or Rick Wormeli. If you are seeking even more progressive education voices, you could contact Alfie Kohn, Ruha Benjamin, Carol Black, Peter Greene. In the international sector, Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Yong Zhao (China/USA), Sugata Mitra (India/UK), Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Michael Fullan (Canada) are respected voices.
These are just the “tip of the iceberg” professionals creating a different educational world that works for all students, not just the good test-takers. It’s not the same world you remember or experienced. I doubt any of them are clamoring for summer school sessions in well-watered, well-fanned tents “to fill in some of the gaps” measured by invalid and unreliable pandemic-related data.
“If all you have is a hammer (standardized test), every problem looks like a nail.” Fareed, please put down the hammer. Reach out, dig deeper beyond the standard metrics and broaden your perspective to the realities of teaching and learning in today’s schools. Commentaries like yours are doing more harm, much more harm, than good.
Again, I wish you and your family well in cherishing the memories of your mother.
Thank you for listening.
Brad Latzke
Former international school leader
When someone else starts blathering about “falling behind” or “catching up”, send them one or more of these links.
“Falling Behind” Is A Dangerous Myth of Compliance and Control in Education
Is Learning “Lost” When Kids Are Out Of School?
Too Much Focus on ‘Learning Loss’ Will Be a Historic Mistake
Learning Loss Illusion
Going further, the Human Restoration Project has provided a Learning Loss Handbook.