Who Writes the Songs?
I write the songs that make the whole world sing.
I write the songs of love and special things.
I write the songs that make the young girls cry.
I write the songs, I write the songs.
I write the songs of love and special things.
I write the songs that make the young girls cry.
I write the songs, I write the songs.
No doubt that the Barry Manilow tune is now playing in the heads of most readers.[1] But who “writes the songs” in the larger sense of the term? Who and what determine how we look at the world, what you might call our ‘political narrative’?
We know this matters. Time and again research has shown the power of preconceptions over conclusions and decisions. If people are led to believe that a particular artist’s work is masterful or a certain composer’s music is sophisticated, that’s what most people are likely to see and hear. When a teacher is told that her students have low potential, those kids somehow end up performing poorly; conversely, if the teacher is told the students are gifted, that’s how they do in class. That’s the influence of the narrative.
What I find intriguing is the power of the current narrative about public education, which goes this way:“Effective teachers are the cornerstone of quality education, and, because so many of our public schools are failing today, it stands to reason that our schools must have a surfeit of ineffective teachers. Ergo, to reform education, we must drive out those bad teachers and replace them with quality teachers who will produce higher scores on standardized tests.”
Once one accepts that narrative, it makes sense to evaluate and fire teachers based on student test scores. Accept that narrative, and it’s logical for the federal government to award millions of “Race to the Top” dollars to states which agree to evaluate teachers based on test scores.
When I wrote about the public narrative about education just three years ago, the two sides were