Subject:
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Re: Radio Talk show host ranting about LEGO test
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general, lugnet.loc.us.ga
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Date:
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Wed, 2 Feb 2000 22:45:54 GMT
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Viewed:
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181 times
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<adjusting barber's bowl on head and taking aim at the windmills>
"James J. Trobaugh" wrote:
> Radio Talk Show host Neal Boortz got on the idea of using LEGO blocks in
> place of test. Below is a segment from his web site.
>
> From www.Boortz.com:
>
> FORGET THE SAT—WHERE’S MY LEGOS?
>
> Oh, those troublesome Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Bane of the high-school
> athlete. To so-called civil-rights groups, they're just an instrument of The
> Man to keep minorities down. Because we all know that questions like, "What
> is the area of a triangle?" is just so prejudiced.
Boy, this is just plain stupid. Not only is the sentence's verb conjugated
wrong, the entire statement is a complete blanket statement. The standardised
tests do have a bias, but it's not a bias over something stupid like the area of
a triangle. Rather, it's a very small bias--but a bias that's just great enough
to deny some students admission to the best schools for their ability.
> What message is Colorado College sending out? If you're a minority or
> "disadvantaged" and your standardized test scores aren't good, then it must
> be because the test isn't fair to you. So we'll ignore your inability to
> apply knowledge and evaluate your ability to play with Lego blocks instead.
As someone else said, the aptitude test is only a part of the entrance process.
And nobody said that the minorities' or poor's test scores weren't good! It
kind of tells you where this boor[tz] is coming from that he presumes they're
bad. The problem is more that they're not truly reflective of the full
potential of these students. An applied aptitude test would help to balance the
overall portfolio of a prospective student.
As someone who did well on the exams but did not get good grades K-12, I'm glad
they look at more than one or two factors.
best,
Lindsay
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