4TH GRADER DRAWS WASL AS CHILD EATING MONSTER WHO GROWS FROM THEIR FEAR z42\doc\web\2000\05\waslmons.txt Spokesman Review May 11, 2000 To: wa-ed-deform@egroups.com From: Don Orlich Date sent: Thu, 11 May 2000 10:06:59 -0700 Send reply to: wa-ed-deform@egroups.com Subject: [wa-ed-deform] Spokesman-Review on WASL [ Double-click this line for list subscription options ] Fellow E-mailers. In the Thursday, May 11th issue of the Spokesman-Review is a 100 column inch front page story (Region Section) by education reporter Wendy Harris on the WASL. I will purchase a few extra copies and mail to some of you, including Arthur Hu. Last week, I E-mailed a message that implied the potential for psychological damage to be caused by the WASL. The first shread of compelling evidence is a picture of the WASL Monster, drawn by a Spokane 4th grader. The teacher asked her children to draw "What does a WASL Look Like?" and "A Description of my WASL." Fourth grader, Alan Guthrie, drew a scarry looking green thing with the caption, "a huge monster that eats children and gets stronger from their fear." Lest you po-po this datum, let me remind all that one of the convincing pieces of evidence that led to the US Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs Board of Education was the art work of Black children who were asked to draw happy children or dolls or some such picture. What surprised the University of Chicago's leading child psychologists and the Court, was that most of drawings were of White children, not Black. OK, I concede that one drawing is not conclusive. But Freud did not need 10,000 cases before he came to several of his conclusions. Regardless of what surveys report, I now propose a very testable hypothesis: H. 1. As a consequence of the WASL, children in the 4th and 7th grades will begin to show evidence of stress and anti-school behaviors. The latter will be more pronounced in 10th grade students and will lead to severe anti-school social behaviors. Ah, enough of science. Any researchers out there who might want to go for funding, perhaps from the Academic Achievement and Accountability Commission? dco Donald C. Orlich Pullman, WA 99164-4237 Professor (509) 335-4844 Sci. Math. Eng. Ed. Cntr. FAX (509) 335-7389 PO Box 644237 Washington State University Email dorlich@wsu.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Scrap your search engine. Inforocket.com is the fast way to the right answer - guaranteed. http://click.egroups.com/1/3998/4/_/8573/_/958067887/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------