This review appeared in From the Board Room, June 2008, a publication of the Vermont School Boards Association.

by David Cyprian

Author Susan Ohanian, a Charlotte resident and former teacher, has
published a passionate, literary retort to the obsession with
standardized testing that has engulfed public education in America. When Childhood Collides with NCLB
is a book of tightlyl related poems exploring the relationship between
tests, learning, students, and teachers. Ohanian unabashedly ridicules
the notion that standardized tests are improving public education. Her
verse is flush with pithy attacks on both the No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) law, which mandates extensive testing, and NCLB's proponents,
including the Bush administration, certain business interests, and
others.

On each page of When Childhood Collides, the right column
displays real, brief news clippings concerning education, and on the
left column, Ohanian reacts to these stories in breathless verse. For
example, one headline reads, "Alabama Schoolsl Drop Naptime for Test
Prep," placed alongside this stanza:

Test prep busy-ness

Like dry leaves.

The effect infuses Ohanian's fervent verse with provocative, dry
snippets from the real world of public education. Although it can be
challenging to simultaneously follow the logic of the news clippings
while experiencing the pacing and lyricism of the poetry, the
combination precisely contextualizes Ohanian's message with the world
of bureaucracy and politics that produced NCLB.

Ohanian enthusiastically adapts a vocabularly borrowed from
revolutionaries, taking "standardistos" and corporate politicos" to
taks for their affinity for measuring and quantifying children. "

Test prep piled on test prep

Mental Torture in the classroom.

Merciless in her attacks, Ohanian offers no apologies for her message. Why did the Standardisto cross the road? To kill the chicken and sell the data, she writes.

When Childhood Collides also contains a call to action,
particularly to Ohanian's fellow educators, that grows stronger later
in the book. It's not just ideas outside the classroom that Ohanian
finds discouraging; she is angry that too many teachers are compliant
and obedient in testing their students. She reminds us that a teacher
should be a creative professional who ought to shield her students from
scripted, test-oriented teaching.

Teaching-to-script

#2 pencils and fly?

Ohanian's work provides the reader a unique, vivid journey through
the world of contemporary schooling. Her reverence for genuine student
learning and individual student-teacher relationships shines through as
freely as does her disdain for standardization. Her "take no prisoners"
approach makes for an enjoyable read that should resonate soundly with
parents and teachers who have experienced the stress and anxiety their
children feel because of testing.

When Childhood Collides with NCLB is pbulished by the Vermont
Society for the Study of Education. It is available in paperback for
$8.95. (msclass@gmavt.net)