Reviews

A Better Admissions Test: Raising the Standard for College Entrance Exams by Andrew Seeley, Michael Bors, Janice Campbell, Daniel Foucachon, Brian G. Daigle, Joseph Pearce, Roy Alden Atwood, Ruth Popp, Jennifer Courtney, Jeremy Tate, William Fahey

theyoungveronica's review

3.0

The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.
Plato

This is a charming little book of essays advocating for a return to classical liberal arts education in America. As somebody who believes that we—as a nation—should radically overhaul public education (and standardized testing) so that it aligns more with our founding liberal arts values, I agreed with many of the points raised in this book. Among them: that education should not be organized around future job acquisition; that American schools and educators urgently need to re-evaluate the goals & aims of education; that standardized testing is a foolish attempt to quantify and systematize ‘intelligence’ (which is, itself, a bad metric for the full development of an individual). One essay in particular gives a much-needed dismissal of the oft-repeated accusation that liberal arts institutions are ossified relics of a bygone era (forgive the clichés here!) Where I disagree with the authors is on their insistence of incorporating Christianity into public education. I believe schools should not dictate or prescribe religious values; however, it is the role of formal education to nurture moral, educated, and independent citizens. (Shout-out to the Oxford comma here, which should really be universally adopted...)

To that end I believe in reviving liberal arts education at the secondary school level.