What the Masters Golf tournament Can Tell Us About Education Policy

Anybody who watched the Master's Golf tournament yesterday saw genius at work in the shot Bubba Watson hit out of the woods on the final playoff hole. It was a shot that no one would dare to teach, created out of the imagination of a self-taught player who never took a lesson in his life. Yet the traits that make Bubba Watson so brilliant are being relentlessly squeezed out of children in the nation's public schools by a regimen of scripted lessons and continuous test prep. Students unique learning styles and aptitudes are being smothered by a one size fits all standard that not only penalizes students with disabilities, but smothers creativity and innovative thinking. The idea that such an approach will make the US internationally competitive and contribute to future economic growth would be laughable if it were not entrenched as official policy on the national state and local level. Unless people challenge the obsession with testing and uniformity, our schools will be Racing toward mediocrity and intellectual sterility at breakneck speed