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Standardized Testing in America July 2014 Issue

Undergraduate Times Journal of Arts and Sciences

Volume 1 Issue II, First Edition.

Publication Date: July 1st, 2014. New York.

Title: Rescuing Restitution from Wrongdoing.

Length: 38 pages A4

Cover Image mimics under Fair Use Policy the SATTM Blue Book. All rights are owned by the

College Board Company and are represented solely under free use policy.

Authors Included: Felstead,Nicholas; Graywill, K; Schnell, Gabriela; Madisetti, India; Pregasen, Mathew;

Teehan, Ryan; Chief Editor of Issue: Mohan, Kanika. Lead Graphics Designer: Pregasen, Mathew

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Table of Contents

Evaluating Human Sustainability by Nicholas Felstead Page 4 The Psychology of Discrimination: Reflections on Sexism in STEM Education

by K. L. Graywill Page 8

The Best Class That I Never Took by Gabriella Schnell Page 11 Standardized Testing in America by India Madisetti Page 14 Exploring Anna Karenina for Ethics by Mathew Pregasen Page 28 Capital and Identity Production: Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl Ad and Corporate Appropriation of Progressive Images

by Ryan Teehan Page 36

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Humans, being the most dominant species on Earth, are predominately to blame for the destruction of

our ecosystem. There was a time when humans and nature coexisted harmoniously; we only hunted out

of necessity, and indigenous tribes would travel between locations to avoid depleting natural resources.

A simple conclusion would be that our ancestors had a greater respect and appreciation for nature than

us. Low, Gleeson, Green, & Radovic suggest that we have an inbuilt fixation for nature, and attempt to

seek it out everywhere.1 The natural environment treated Homo sapiens exceedingly well, supporting

the evolutionary process that allowed us to become dominant. However, as we evolved we began

manipulating nature not out of necessity and survival but to increase happiness and make life easier. In

order to turn back this trend we must adopt a biocentric approach to sustainability and realise our actions

have consequences. Differing from an anthropocentric, or human-centered view, a biocentric outlook

considers the inherent value of not just humans but all living things.

Defining sustainability is a challenging exercise, as every definition is changed by the author’s own

perspective. A common definition of the term is “the ability or capacity of something to be maintained

or to sustain itself.” This definition is too vague and uses the word to define itself. The more appropriate

ninth working definition devised by Bender, Judith & Beilin, defines sustainability as the “ethical

human behaviour that’s aware and nourishing of every interaction, therefore contributing to the

persistence of the global environment.”2 I see sustainability as human behaviour where every interaction

is considerate of the reaction, thus advancing the ecological environment that we live in. Encapsulating

ethical and utilitarian values, I understand that an interdisciplinary approach is required if humans are

going to work towards sustainability.

Sustainability became erroneously interchangeable with the term sustainable development. It’s

important to distinguish between sustainability and sustainable development; sustainable development

primarily focuses on the economic system while sustainability focuses on all systems (ecological,

economic, and social) without preference. Differences between the two concepts come from opposing

views on economic/ecological growth. Jackson notes that economic growth cannot occur without

damage to the environment in terms of sustainability.3 In contrast, sustainable development would

suggest that economic growth can be achieved without environmental damage. Realistically sustainable

1 Low, N., Gleeson, B., Green, R., & Radovic, D. (2005). Nature in the City. In N. Low, B. Gleeson, R. Green, & D. Radovic (Eds.), The

Green City: Sustainable homes, sustainable suburbs (pp. 74-97). Sydney, NSW: University of New South Wales Press Ltd.

2 Bender, H., Judith, K., & Beilin, R. (2012). Sustainability – a model for the future. In H. Bender (Ed.), Reshaping Environments: An

Interdisciplinary Approach to Sustainability in a Complex World (pp. 305-334). Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press

3 Jackson, T. (2009). Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet. London, UK: Earthscan

Evaluating Human Sustainability

by Nick Felstead

Undergraduate at the University of Melbourne

Image by International Hydropower Association

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development concerns humans, while sustainability encapsulates all systems.4

In strengthening the relationships between humans and nature to work towards sustainability, it’s

important to understand the difference between weak and strong sustainability. Per Devkota (2005),

weak sustainability takes an economic approach is more suited to sustainable development rather than

sustainability. Strong sustainability, however, sees human constructs complementing natural constructs,

and takes a broader approach that looks at all systems. This idea aligns with Cronon’s view on nature

that we are integrated with nature, not a separate entity.

The issue of definition and clarification also occurs when discussing the concept of nature. In our

modern society, nature has been defined as “the vast domain of organic and inorganic matter that is not

a product of human activity or intervention. It deals with landscape rather than a built environment.”5 I

argue that nature includes human constructs, as we are an integral component of nature. Definition

difficulties arise from an argument of not necessarily what nature is but how humans are connected with

it. Cronon contends that humans project meaning on nature, and our socio-historical factors influence

our definition of nature.6 ‘Nature’ is a social construction rather than being ‘natural’, by definition. His

4 Hediger, W. (1997). Towards an ecological economics of sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 5(3), 101-109

5 Altman, I., & Wohlwill, J. F. (1983). Behavior and the natural environment.(pp. 14-15). New York, United States of America: Plenum Press

6 Cronon, W. (1995). The trouble with wilderness: or, getting back to the wrong nature. In W. Cronon (Ed) Uncommon Ground: toward

reinventing nature. (pp. 69-90). New York, USA: W.W. Norton and Co.

Painting created by the Nhunggabarra people depicting a human's journey in the world.

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personal view is that changing definitions have consequences on our concept of sustainability. If we

think of ourselves as separate from nature, we will be more likely to act irresponsibly.

This discussion occurs because somewhere in our history, humans began to separate themselves

from nature. However, in order to work towards sustainability, it is imperative that we realise we’re just

part of the larger system that is nature. Sveiby uses the Nhunggabarra people, an Indigenous Australian

tribe, as an example to demonstrate how humans should view themselves as an integrated part of the

natural world.7 They believe that every aspect of nature is ‘alive,’ whether it be an animal used for

hunting or rock formations that doubled as shelter. Indigenous Australians are the longest continuing

society on Earth; some date their arrival to 125,000 years ago, although the common theory is that they

have inhabited the country for around 40,000 years.8 It is without argument that a reason why they’ve

survived for so long is attributed to their understanding of, and relationship with, nature. This emotional

relationship would make humans less inclined to destroy and deplete natural resources as it views nature

on an equal level with people. However, our current detached perspective that we are above nature has

removed the guilt associated with destruction of the natural environment.

Jared Diamond regularly references historical societies and asks society to learn from its triumphs

and tribulations, and he has been heavily criticised for doing so. A country based on democratic political

principles and a capitalist economic system is unable to fully implement the methods of primitive

societies.9 Although humans are unable to return to a simplistic nomadic way of living, they should still

strive to think and act with sustainability in mind.

Humans are concerned with artificial beauty and appearance, and we constantly attempt to create a

facade of perfection. This perspective is consistent with the ‘aesthetic’ value category.10 Humans have

become distressed with a non-aesthetically pleasing environment rather than an environment that does

not consider sustainability. In contemporary Western society this resonates with people using makeup

(a non-natural product) in order to achieve an ‘all-natural’ look. This isn’t dissimilar to hiring

entomologists to exterminate a species. Lockwood & Latchininsky express that the reason we “extirpate

S. nitens or any other problematic species is because of who we want to be - a society that deeply

appreciates beauty and genuinely cultivates virtue.”11 Although Schistocerca nitens, a gray bird

grasshopper, has found its home on Nihoa, a Hawaiian island, it has destroyed what was thought of as

being the natural environment. However, a rounded approach would be viewing nature through a

utilitarian lens, or understanding that we have a give-and-take relationship with nature and our actions

have consequences.

The line between needs and wants has been blurred to the point that many people believe that

luxuries are synonymous with necessities. Factoring in the current issue of sustainability, our greed and

desire for more overshadows the need to help save and grow the natural environment. The current

relationship humans have with nature is very one sided; we thoughtlessly reap benefits from nature

without long term plans for replenishment. However, because we are so focused on economics and

number-crunching, we can apply economic and mathematical principles; although definitions of

7 Sveiby, K. (2009). Aboriginal principles for sustainable development as told in their traditional law stories. Sustainable Development, 17(6),

341-356

8 Roberts, R., (2004). When did Australia’s earliest inhabitants arrive? Retrieved from

<http://media.uow.edu.au/news/2004/0917a/index.html

9 Popper, K. (1945/2002). The Open Society and its Enemies (New ed.). London, England: Routledge

10 Low, N., Gleeson, B., Green, R., & Radovic, D. (2005). Nature in the City. In N. Low, B. Gleeson, R. Green, & D. Radovic (Eds.), The

Green City: Sustainable homes, sustainable suburbs (pp. 74-97). Sydney, NSW: University of New South Wales Press Ltd. 11 Lockwood, J.A., & Latchininsky, A.V. (2008). Confessions of an entomological hitman. Conservation Magazine, 9(3), 14-19

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sustainability vary, and it’s a largely non-tangible concept, Ulanowicz & Norden devised a formula to

measure sustainability:12

𝑆 = 𝐶 = 𝑆𝐸 + 𝑅𝐶 = −∑𝑇𝑖𝑗𝑖.𝑗

log (𝑇𝑖𝑗

𝑇..)

This equation allows us to view sustainability as a tangible concept, and in our society, tangibility

is key if we want change. Goerner, Lietaer, & Ulanowicz’s argument is consistent with the utilitarian

lens as they discuss the necessary understanding of tradeoffs we make in nature.13 Utilitarianism, in its

most simple explanation, is the idea of making decisions in order to create the greatest good for the

greatest number. As such, if destroying native flora will be beneficial for more than it is detrimental to,

then that is the most appropriate course of action. For example, Wilsons Promontory National Park uses

controlled burning to maintain the ecological health of the park and also in an attempt to reduce bushfire

risk.14 Their strategy clearly demonstrates both the utilitarian lens and how humans can have a positive

influence on nature.

Victor Corral-Verdugo argues that psychological benefits are also derived from pro-environmental

actions.15 Just as we grasped capitalism and grew exponentially, once we realise how beneficial a

relationship with nature can be, we won’t look back. A study conducted in the 1990s yielded the

conclusion that being exposed to the natural world results in an increased psychological well-being;

when viewing natural scenes, participants exhibited measurably lower stress responses.16 It’s

remarkable that the system we abuse and manipulate so aggressively provides psychological health

benefits. Promoting a healthy relationship between humans and nature would have positive

psychological benefits for all.

Since humans have risen to power, we have unfortunately developed an egocentric mindset.

Behaving in an egocentric manner, in regards to the natural environment, means unnecessary and selfish

risks to nature are taken to better our own lives.17 However, it is in our most hedonistic interests that we

work towards sustainability and a healthy relationship with nature. We reap such great rewards from

nature, and it would be of obvious concern if we could no longer do so as a result of selfish actions.

Thus, as stakeholders in our fate, acting in a purely hedonistic manner would see us working towards a

healthier relationship with nature. If we truly are a centripetal force and care only about our wellbeing

and advancement, then we should realise that acting and thinking with sustainability in mind is in our

best interest.

There’s no simple solution to reach sustainability. It will not just happen on its own, but if we can

close the gap between humans and nature, it will become easier. As a global society, we try to make

strides through government policies and industry regulations, but a major push is needed to head us in

the right direction. The world may not have realised it, but the human-nature relationship is absolutely

crucial in working towards sustainability.

12 Ulanowicz, R.E., & Norden, J.S. (1990). Symmetrical overhead in flow networks. International Journal of Systems Science, 1, 429-437.

13 Ibid 14 Department of Sustainability and Environment. (2010). Planned Burns for Wilson’s Promontory National Park. Retrieved from

<http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/315571/Planned-burns-for-Wilsons-Promontory-2011-13.pdf>

15 Verdugo, V.C. (2012). The positive psychology of sustainability. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 14(5), 651-666

16 Ulanowicz, R.E., & Norden, J.S. (1990). Symmetrical overhead in flow networks. International Journal of Systems Science, 1, 429-437. 17 Holmbeck, G. N., Paikoff, R. L., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1995). Parenting adolescents. In M. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 1.

Children and parenting (pp. 91–118). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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The Psychology of Discrimination: Reflections on

Sexism in STEM Education

by K. L. Graywill

Undergraduate at Duke University

The integration of women into the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – or

“STEM” fields – is a substantive charge in modern society and a large step towards achieving true

gender equality.

“But men and women are equal!” the masses cry, “Women can vote!” This idea, perhaps one of the

largest barriers in achieving true equality, is a reflection of our apparent inability to recognize the

nuanced nature of institutionalized discrimination. Sexism, a system of prejudice that has been

perpetuated in a multitude of cultures for hundreds and hundreds of years, did not disappear when

women received the right to vote. As with all forms of discrimination – racism, ableism, homophobia,

etc. – true change comes not only with civil rights but with evolution of attitudes. Understanding how

sexism affects education, especially for girls in the sciences and mathematics, is key to improving

education.

A rising freshman in high school, a mere 14 years old, I read about the difference in male and female

brains in one of my favorite scientific magazines. I remember reading that male and female brains were

wired differently, which made boys better at math and girls better at things like sewing and – for the

sake of appeasing female readers, to at least throw us a bone – better at suturing; therefore, men are

innately more suited to do certain things than women. This seemed reasonable to me at the time, but

being young and malleable – I was not able to fully understand how damaging and harmful this kind of

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thinking was. It is indisputable that male and females are different on a biological level, but given that

we do not have sufficient understanding of the psychological basis of intelligence, it often does more

harm than good to make sweeping generalizations on cognitive ability as it relates to gender.

At this age, I was being bombarded with all kinds of confusing information. If women’s brains were

supposed to be better at sewing or cooking, why were all the big star chefs and fashion designers men?

If the corpus callosum is larger in women, why were we not superior in analytical fields like engineering

and programming? If women are “right-brained” and creative, why were all the famous artists I learned

about in school men? Suddenly, everything confused me. I didn’t know which studies and statistics to

trust; they all seemed littered with sexism and confirmation bias. Moreover, I could not seem to separate

my true self – and what I was genuinely good at – from what society told me I was supposed to be good

at.

It is human nature to preserve our beliefs. People seem to find comfort in labels and normativity –

both men and women are capable of promoting sexism in its most subtle forms: microagressions,

heuristics, and cognitive biases, without even realizing they are doing it. It is important for people to be

educated on topic of the psychology of sexism so we can raise future generations to overcome it. Many

modern functions of sexism are not blatant, but rather subtle, often unintentional and unconscious,

ingrained attitudes and ways of thinking. For instance, a conventional belief is that women are

inherently better at multitasking than men; in citing the reason for this seemingly inherent difference,

many people will default to vague neuroscience, despite the little data that supports it. This notion,

however, arises from culture (consider how the fact that more women are stay-at-home mothers than

men may contribute to the multitasking stereotype), rather than hard science. It is difficult to “prove”

much of anything relating to gender-trait studies because gender is so entrenched in culture.

Similarly, many people are also falsely led to believe that girls are not as capable in STEM topics

as boys due to innate differences in their intelligence. Dr. Robert Rosenthal’s experiment on the

phenomenon of the self-fulfilling prophecy in classroom settings – how students labeled as high-

achieving are consequently more likely to succeed – is especially relevant here. Perhaps if, instead of

consistently swamping our female students with the notion that boys will always be innately better than

them at math and science, we started teaching our girls that one’s affinity for science and math does not

correlate to whether they are a boy, girl, or anything in between, we would see this stereotype fade.

Instead of attempting to delineate certain traits or abilities as conventionally masculine or feminine,

students should be taught that all brains are different and that anyone can be good at anything – from

art to science and music to math – regardless of sex, ethnicity or even social status and economic

background. On a more anecdotal level, once I, personally, was able to overcome stereotypes, I thrived.

I found that I was actually very good in STEM fields, particularly math; I moved four years ahead in

math and was placed in college calculus classes at age 15. However, despite this, because I had been

taught for so long that being good at math and science was a “boy thing,” I found myself changing other

parts of who I was. I wanted my peers to respect me as an intellect; I wanted to be assertive, logical,

and mathematical. I found myself sacrificing femininity for traits I considered more masculine in order

to achieve consonance with my subconscious belief that in order to be truly good at math, I needed to

be more like a boy. In retrospect, this was an obvious example of cognitive dissonance at play, but at

the time I did not consciously realize it, and it is startling to look back and see how subtleties like this

played a role in shaping my identity and self-esteem. Even if I was good in STEM, I was not always

confident in my abilities, an issue many young girls find themselves facing. Thankfully, the increasing

presence of women in STEM fields continues to encourage new generations of girls to find passions in

science and math.

Recently, Boston University designed a simple experiment involving a riddle to test gender bias. I

was asked this riddle once myself at a scholarship weekend: “A father and son are in a horrible car crash

that kills the dad. The son is rushed to the hospital; just as he’s about to go under the knife, the surgeon

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says, ‘I can’t operate—that boy is my son!’ Explain.” The answer seemed obvious to me, but everyone

in our group seemed puzzled, so I thought maybe I had missed something and asked to hear the riddle

again; after answering “the mother is the surgeon,” everyone looked at me as if I just explained String

theory. I was surprised to find that the answer to this riddle was not so obvious to many of them. I

believe it was obvious to me because I am, in fact, a premed student going into the surgical specialty,

but I find the study compelling nonetheless. The experiment, though simple and certainly open for

improvement, effectively reveals a disconcerting commonality and certainly calls into question just how

deep gender bias runs, especially concerning women in STEM careers.

As Natalie Angier of the New York Times puts it, “Ample evidence refutes the notion that female

brains just can’t rotate the object, leap the quantum, do the math.” Contrary to popular belief, the

stereotypes surrounding women’s talents in STEM have little to no statistical grounding, especially as

the gender gap in these fields continues to lessen and even reverse on some levels. On a 4.0 grading

scale, the nationwide science and math GPA for girls is 0.2 higher than boys. Girls’ worldwide scores

in math are on par with boys’, and in the top percentiles of mathematics testing, male advantage is

shrinking, as there are now close to 3 boys for every girl, compared to 13 boys to every girl in the

1980’s.

Yet as much as women continue to prove themselves capable of exceling in STEM fields, obstacles

remain persistent. Recent studies conducted at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

indicate that women and minorities are significantly more likely to be ignored by faculty mentors in

both STEM and humanities research than white males. Nevermind just getting women into STEM

careers – once there, women still face the wage gap, earning 20% less than their male counterparts,

most notably in computer science and engineering subfields. Because as a society we are still

transitioning into a gender equal society, many women “find it difficult to combine requirements of job

with family time” or feel pressured to choose between the two, as Donna Lisker, the dean of

undergraduate education at Duke University puts it. To combat this, STEM employees at Duke are

allowed to take leaves of absence and return to their positions later and go on “parental leave” – the

gender neutrality in these initiatives is key.

Change is gradual, of course, but now more than ever, people are taking action on this issue. Many

organizations and institutions are taking great care to promote gender equality within STEM fields, and

scholarship programs issue hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in grants to women entering

STEM careers. With so many opportunities arising, it is important for us to recognize the role that we

play in achieving true equality and educate ourselves on the psychology of sexism so that we can

dismantle it at its core and teach the next generation how to overcome the nuance of institutionalized

discrimination.

Works Consulted

Angier, Natalie. "Mystery of the Missing Women in Science." NYtimes.com. The New York Times, 02 Sept. 2013. Web. 11 June 2014.

Azar, Beth. "Math + Culture = Gender Gap?" APA.org. American Psychological Association, July 2010. Web. 11 June 2014.

Barlow, Richard. "BU Research: A Riddle Reveals Depth of Gender Bias."BU.edu. Boston University Today, 16 Jan. 2016. Web. 11 June 2014.

Daniels, Madeline. "The Self Fulfilling Prophecy." DrMadelineDaniels.com. N.p., 7 Feb. 2007. Web. 11 June 2014.

Dean, Jeremy. "Are men or women better at multitasking?". PsyBlog. April 2013.

Gorman, C. "Sizing up the sexes". Time: 36–43. 20 January 1992.

Hall, Gina. "Study Shows Gender and Race Are Barriers to Mentorships."Bizjournals.com. Denver Business Journal, 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 11 June 2014.

Sharma, Chinmayi. "STEM Jobs Pay More." DukeChronicle.com. The Duke Chronicle, 20 Oct. 2011. Web. 11 June 2014.

"Women in STEM: The Pay Gap." On My Toes. N.p., 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 June 2014.

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During the months of May and June, thousands of high schools held graduation ceremonies for the class

of 2014. An estimated 3.1 million students accepted their diplomas - that's roughly 3,100,000 cap and

gown sets, 4,811,200 parents and guardians filing into the ceremony, 6,200,000 feet walking in

succession to shake hands with the principal, and 21,204,000 roses given to female graduates.

On a simplistic level, graduating high school implies that students have completed the courses

necessary to succeed in the ‘real world.’ With increasing standardization regarding the credentials

needed to graduate, a majority of students finish high school only after completing a set number of

math, science, language arts, and humanities classes. However, knowing the basic laws of physics and

a rough timeline of American history does not provide students with the knowledge of how to interview

for jobs or dress for success.

Many suggest that the nature of school prohibits institutions from teaching students some of the

most basic life lessons such as ‘life isn’t fair’ or ‘you can't always question authority.’ The modern

school system centers on a fair grading system, the ability to question teachers, equal recognition for

accomplishments, and, in many cases, a participation grade. In the ‘real world,’ however, one can’t

always question his or her boss or be given a fair shot, even though students are taught those lessons in

school.

THE BEST CLASS

THAT I NEVER TOOK

Why High school Doesn’t Prepare Us for the Real World

by Gabriella Schnell

Undergraduate at the Newhouse School of Journalism

Why High school Doesn’t Prepare Us for the Real World

by Gabriella Schnell

Undergraduate at the Newhouse School of Journalism

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Concurrently, many school administrations have adopted the motto: “Every minute of school should

lead to some quantifiable gain,” explains Brian Gresko in his October 1, 2013 article for Disney’s family

magazine, Babble. When Gresko taught in an East Harlem private school, the administration attempted

to teach character building by creating a ‘character rubric’ that was used to assess students’ values and

interaction skills. Teachers were then required to fill out the rubric and discuss it with students.

Fundamentally, though, this system was flawed because the rubrics were victim to subjectivity and

selective observation. Furthermore, the teachers were then confounded as how to instruct kids to

improve their character skills because as Gresko highlighted, “It’s not the same way that you instruct

[students] that 1 + 1 = 2.”

By the same token, as much as schools might attempt to incorporate life lessons into the curriculum,

many students push these aspects to the side and instead replace them with concerns of grades, test

scores, and overwhelming hours of extracurricular activities. “Sleep, self-reflection, and character

building gets put to the bottom of the list in an attempt to cope with stress,” explains high school junior

Nidhi Mahagaokar. “Even though we know it’s bad for us, school hasn't taught us anything else; and

besides, it's the only way to get everything done.”

Like many others, Nidhi has fallen victim to the pressures of high performing students who, in order

to compete with other students, only sleep around four hours a night in order to do all their homework

and participate in a multitude of extracurricular activities. Now, it seems that there are ruts on both

sides, students and schools, making it increasingly harder to find pathways through which to teach such

skills in school.

For one, many students express concern over a school’s inability to teach overall life strategies.

Although students did say that school has taught them time management, timeliness, and other forms

of discipline, each one expressed at least one personality trait or life skill that was both of value and of

an unquantifiable nature.

“There isn’t a class in school that teaches [students] how to deal with difficult situations,” said high

school senior Caroline Summers. “When my grandma died there wasn't a class that gave me specific

steps on how to deal with it – like step one, cry.”

Likewise, Chris Fielder, a sophomore at Seton Hall University, felt that school did not teach the

skills needed to handle everyday problems. “High school doesn't always teach a person how to struggle.

Obstacles present themselves during high school, but we never receive formal education on how to

handle adversity with healthy measures,” explains

Understandably so, grieving and struggling are both topics that could only awkwardly fit into the

set boundaries of a class curriculum because of the vast number of strategies and ideologies involved.

Additionally, in accordance with the multitude of grades, report cards, and awards, students grow

up thinking that everything they do in life is going to be recognized formally.

“Where school really centers on students learning for the sake of some kind of accomplishment

(grades, recognition, etc.), my job doesn't – I don’t get a ‘good job’ at the end of every shift,” explains

high school senior Julie Chen. “However, because transcripts and test scores are so important, I’m not

sure how they could teach me that I won’t always get a grade for my work.”

The uncertainty surrounding how to teach such lessons in school coupled with the competitive drive

creates a lethal cocktail that further confuses teachers, parents, students, and administrators. They know

that these skills need to be taught, but at the same time they realize that because of the educational

structure, such skills cannot be taught in school, leaving them exactly in the same position they started

– nowhere.

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“The most important life knowledge is impossible to teach,” explains Gresko. “We develop our

personalities over years, and even as adults we change and shift. Some situations profoundly affect us,

but more often our values set slow[ly], over time. We tell our kids to ‘be nice’ or ‘have good manners,’

but it takes years of repetition. At some point, something clicks. We just have to believe that [children

will] get it one day.” Our job as adults, parents, and teachers is to “continue delivering the message [to

children] in the sweetest, gentlest, and least annoying way possible.”

The older generations are a testament to the fact that these skills can be taught or learned in some

way shape or form. Perhaps the best solution is to stop searching for a way to teach them in schools and

instead focus on cultivating the best possible ways to pass them down through mentorship and family.

Instead of trying to force such topics into school, society should expand the cultural definition of

teacher. As Ken Keyes said, “Everyone and everything around you is your teacher.”

So, why not teach kids this fact: while school can teach you a lot, it can’t teach you everything.

View everyone and everything as your teacher. This way, by the time those 4,811,200 parents and

guardians file into the ceremony and 3,100,000 hands grasp their diplomas, those students will have

learned to view their professors, guardians, parents, family, friends, and role models as teachers.

Ultimately, each student will become a well-rounded human being, with the help of a million teachers.

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by India Madisetti Columbia University

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The entire ideology upon which the concept of education was founded has been completely disregarded

in this day and age, where education for education’s sake is a thing of the past, and teaching to the test,

accountability, and proficiency are the buzz-words of the era. According to Waiting for Superman, the

companion novel to Davis Guggenheim’s film of the same title, “there’s no way our students can

become the thinkers, innovators, and leaders of tomorrow if they have exclusively been taught to the

test, and taught only the subjects on the test.”18 With the increasing popularity of standardized education

systems, schools across the globe are failing their students by not providing them with individualized

tools to succeed. However, while these systems may have their flaws, it is necessary to redefine

education and see how society has misconstrued the term itself, leading to the increase in stress among

teachers, parents, and students.

Not only do we have to worry about students succeeding and having access to education, but we

have to worry about the mental health ramifications of the methods through which we educate them.

Mental health and education professionals often worry about the “fragile identities” of children.19 They

are primarily concerned that the stress placed on students by examinations and/or competitive sports

may be detrimental to their character development and emotional stability. All the emphasis put on a

student’s success on a certain test has proven to be detrimental to the development of impressionable

children. This pressure has built up over the years, to the point where both students and teachers have

forgotten the fundamental premise of education overall and have become obsessed with something else:

a score.

With the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, standardized testing in

schools has become a widespread phenomenon. Unfortunately, these tests, which education reformers

believe are the only consistent way of gauging students’ progress in the education system, are causing

undue stress on both the teachers ‘teaching to the test’ and the students taking them. It is because of this

unmerited stress, coupled with my personal belief that education should be made enjoyable for students

in order for them to understand the material thoroughly, that I have come to the understand the education

crisis and why acts like NCLB and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) were put in

place. Drop out rates and the hype that surrounded the “education gap” between socioeconomic classes

pushed for educational reform, but those reforms simply perpetuated the issues. This problem can be

seen not only in the United States, but abroad as well. Numerous policies meant to “fix” education

systems have been put in place in many other nations, but have not had the intended effect, causing

problems that mirror those in America, such as the “education gap” and drop-out factories.

This past summer, I had the opportunity to begin working part-time at a private tutoring

establishment in my neighbourhood. Here, I dealt with diagnostic testing and results based improvement

for students with a wide range of learning disabilities at various age levels, as well as students who just

needed a little reinforcement of basic concepts. This opened my eyes as to why education reformers

believed standardized testing would be a good way to gauge achievement in students, but it also served

to reaffirm my beliefs as to why this approach is so fatally flawed: not every learner is the same.

Standardized testing, by definition, is designed to assess a standard of learning presented in a uniform

manner. Unfortunately, not all students comprehend information in the same way, therefore making it

impossible for such assessments to be accurate in measuring student achievement on a national scale.

Additionally, while there are certain “accommodations” for test takers, the tests themselves take into

account neither various learning disabilities such as Dyslexia, ADHD, ADD, or Autism spectrum

impairments, nor disruptive conditions that are not conducive to timed tasks such as diabetes,

Tourette’s, or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

In addition to having dealt with the subject in a setting external to the school system, I have experienced

the effects of standardized testing on classroom curricula as well. Starting with FCAT prep in 1st-3rd

grade, and moving on to ERBs, OLSAT/Stanfords, the PSAT, ACT, AP, and SAT tests as I transitioned

from a charter school in Florida to an all-girls private school in South Carolina, I have watched entire

days of school be dedicated to FCAT Explorer, classes be cut in order to administer the PSAT, and

18 Weber, Karl. Waiting for “Superman”: How We Can save America’s failing Public Schools. New York: PublicAffairs, 2010. Print. Pg. 54 19 Furedi, Frank. Wasted: Why Education Isn't Educating. London: Continuum International Group, Limited, 2011. Print. Pg. 43

16

math and science coursework completely stopped in order to take practice ERB and Stanford exams.

Standardized testing does not help educate students when it is taking up days of valuable classroom

time that could be spent teaching real analytical skills.

Collateral Damage by Sharon Nichols discusses how high-stakes testing corrupts America's

schools and provided a different perspective on student test anxiety which intrigued me: how teachers

view student test anxiety. Throughout the book, small excerpts of personal accounts by teachers,

students, or parents were sectioned off from the main text, supplementing the points made by the authors

with real, tangible, personal experiences. Haverford School District assistant superintendent Kathleen

Taylor said: “it’s all based on that one test, and, boy, the pressure is unbelievable… it's something that

is felt by the kids, felt by the teachers and administration, all of us. When you have third- and fifth-

graders really worried, that’s not fair."20 Fifth-grader Julia Skinner stated in a 2011 essay on the topic

of high-stakes testing in schools that students should not have to memorize what she calls "facts," but

instead should learn how to analyze information and utilize it. Her main point is:

Stress, stress, stress. […] Yet, today’s society contains far more stress for everyone,

including children. […] Testing creates significant stress for students, teachers and

parents. No Child Left Behind […leads] students to believe that this test is far more

important to their future than it actually is, since teachers, principals and parents are all

busy trying to help a student for a test that will judge them.21

The culture Skinner describes has created such a toxic environment that students are going so far

as to blatantly state that “if [they] fail, […] it’s going to be all [the teachers’] fault.”22

This changing trend in education has not been localized to just the United States but extends into

the world theatre as well. Students in South Korea spend 8am-4pm at traditional school, go home for

dinner, and return to a private tutor from 6pm-11pm, forcing them to stay up until 2am to finish

homework. This rigorous schedule is all so that they can pass a test that will tell them where they are

going to university. This pressure in South Korean society dates back to the war era, where many of

Korea’s exports were destroyed. In order to re-establish infrastructure, emphasis was put on education,

so Korea could export the knowledge of their citizens – a bulletproof way to reassert themselves as a

thriving and intellectually superior nation on the world stage after an unfortunate series of events.

This just goes to show how much high-stakes testing is not only warping our school system but the

minds of the next generation across the globe; they are becoming so obsessed, so concerned with high

achievement on these standardized tests that they often forget that life is not a multiple choice question,

or something that can be categorized in little boxes. An anonymous elementary school principal posted

an open letter to all students taking standardized tests, assuring them that people who grade and

scrutinize test scores often aren’t aware of everything that goes on in a student’s school day. As she put

it, “they do not know that you can be trustworthy, kind or thoughtful, and that you try, every day, to be

your very best… the scores you get will tell you something, but they will not tell you everything. There

are so many ways of being smart.”

In essence, this small excerpt of the open letter sums up all the problems in education systems across

the globe: “there are many ways of being smart.” With standardized tests, we shove creative students

into boxes, label them with nothing more than a number that will haunt them throughout their time in

school, and teach them to bubble inside the lines instead of handing them a blank sheet of paper and

letting them draw their own lines.

With the introduction of these tests in schools, students, teachers, and even administrators are

experiencing the side effects. The most poignant description of these effects at the hand of high stakes

testing can be found in Collateral Damage:

20 Nichols, Sharon Lynn., and David C. Berliner. Collateral Damage: How High-stakes Testing Corrupts America's Schools. Cambridge,

MA: Harvard Education, 2007. Print. Pg. 162 21 Strauss, Valerie. "5th Grader’s Essay: High-stakes Tests Lead to Stress, Not Learning." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 03 June

2011. Web. 22 Nichols, 19.

17

An elementary school principal [in] the suburbs of Boston received her box of test

materials from an armoured truck guard a few days before the high-stakes test was to

be given. She opened the large carton containing the tests and answer sheets and found

also her instructions, a large ziplock bag, and latex gloves.

Her instructions directed her, on test day, to put on the latex gloves and insert the test

booklets that children had vomited on into the ziplock bag, and return those tests along

with the others to the Department of Education.23

This book serves as a comprehensive assessment on what No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) have done to our schools, our children, and our future

generations. By providing numerous first-hand accounts and reactions to the increase in standardized

testing in schools, it highlights that the implementation of these acts have created not intellectually

superior children with innovative, individualistic ways of thinking but children categorized by their

ability to bubble in an answer sheet and think "inside the box."

The ESEA, passed by Lyndon B. Johnson as part of an attempt to close the achievement gap and

provide all students with equal opportunities to achieve an education, emphasises high standards and

accountability while explicitly prohibiting the establishment of a national curriculum. This act,

reauthorized in 2001 by George W. Bush as No Child Left Behind, provided funding for elementary

and secondary schools, while establishing the universal standard of excellence for American schools.

However, with the reauthorization through NCLB, states were required to create assessments aligned

with state-unique standards. This further involved the federal government in the role of education by

establishing annual testing for select grades, school report cards, teacher qualifications, and rerouting

the funding process.

Diane Ravitch’s The Death and Life of the Great American School System explores education hot

topics that have dominated present-day conversation. It investigates how both the grassroots movement

of KIPP, charter, and private schools in conjunction with a family's ability to choose which school their

child entered and skewed standardized testing data coupled with the implementation of NCLB seemed

to have a positive effect on education superficially but in turn negatively affected the system. Blunt

statements such as “[NCLB] could never ‘work,’ in that its goal of 100 percent proficiency by 2014 was

out of reach, unless states deliberately dumbed down the meaning of proficiency…its simpleminded

and singular focus on test scores distorts and degrades the meaning and practice of education,”24 detail

the frustration of those in the education field and the detrimental nature of the bill that was supposed to

save a nation at risk.

23 Nichols, 161. 24 Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. New

York: Basic, 2011. Print. Pg. 109

18

From Left to Right, Edicott Peabody, John Collins, and Lyndon B. Johnson, the latter whose

administration passed ESEA

The excerpt concerning students that become ill during the administration of standardized test is

irrefutable evidence that, while these acts were passed with the best of intentions in mind, the

subsequent stifling of creativity in children by the implementation of a “standard assessment” system

has negative effects, and continues with the following questions:

So the good people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts fully understand that these

tests are stressful to children, and that they expect a goodly number of children to throw

up as a function of their assessment program. Besides high-stakes testing, do we have

other programs that are sure to make some of our children sick? Why do we allow

ourselves to design testing programs that have these effects?25

Where issues like stress manifestation at the hand of high-stakes testing seem to be the norm in the

United States, where research goes not to prevention of this anxiety managing it after the fact, the

situation seems to be vastly different overseas.

As they rack up an estimated 12.26% (2010) government expenditure on education and have a

tertiary and secondary school graduation rate of 46.6% and 96.03% respectively,26 Finland's recent rise

into the limelight of education news is frustrating American reformers and policy makers alike. In the

Scandinavian country, education is free at all levels due to the socialist system. Class sizes are kept

small, with a student-teacher ratio of 12-1 (2006), and only one national examination is given at the end

of a student’s career in secondary school.

25 Nichols, 161. 26 Ibid

19

Regardless of their system's structure, many believe the key to its success is in the teacher training.

According to Diane Ravitch, details that admission to teacher education programs at the end of high

school is highly competitive, where only one in ten- or even fewer – actually qualify for State-sponsored

teacher preparation programs. All Finnish teachers spend five years in a rigorous program of study,

research, and practice, and all of them finish with a masters' degree and that, because of their training:

They do not understand the idea of 'merit pay.' They are paid more if they do more

work for the community, but they can't understand why teachers should get a bonus to

compete with one another for test scores. Since they don't have comparative test scores

for their students, [American] practices don't make sense to them. Nor do they

understand the benefits of competition among teachers who are meant to be

collaborating.27

This being said, one of the arguments against comparisons between the United States and

Scandinavian education systems is that they severely differ in the demographic make-up of the

population, as well as the area of land the system must be managed across.28 Because Finland is also a

socialist country, operating under different economic and political ideologies than that of the United

States, it is also difficult to make comparisons. Others refute by claiming that racial composition of a

nation’s population should not matter, and go on to state that regardless of socialist practices, equal

opportunities for an education of quality is something that every country should strive for. Additionally,

a topic of much debate and discussion can be found within the Finnish school system itself: the adoption

of national standards.

Arguments have been made countless times for national standards on the basis of Trends in the

International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data, as where the US scores in the middle of

the performance distribution, the countries that consistantly score higher have national standards. Many

countries that score lower on the TIMSS testing scale have no established national standards, and

Canada, who scores higher, does not.

Where many nations are moving toward the establishment of national standards in order to facilitate

the creation of a transparent education system, head teachers in the UK are discussing what they "think

schools in England should do once the national system for measuring pupils' performance is

scrapped.”29 This national system, to be made obsolete, previously told parents which level their

children were working at. The government thought it was too "vague" and "complicated" for parents

and decided that a system where children are "expected to have achieved at least a Level 4 in English,

maths, and science"30 should be overhauled. To replace this system, the National Association of Head

Teachers is setting out principles of how other Head Teachers should assess their students in order to

maximize potential and provide an unbiased, accurate estimate of what pupils are capable of

accomplishing.

With an average class size of 19 pupils, a high percentage of the population attending post-

secondary education, and a starting teacher salary of just over $31k (adj $36,113USD with current

exchange rate and salary), Great Britain seems to be doing things right for their students.31 Having a

completely different education system from most other nations, it is interesting to think about why this

particular system worked so much better than others; is it the system alone, or the combination of socio-

political and cultural factors as well? Great Britain has a smaller population, a different governmental

structure, a smaller land mass, and a more organized transportation system. Additionally, they seem to

put a lot of emphasis on their testing system (A-Levels and GCSEs). However, these tests are extremely

different from those that are used as American college entrance exams. A student is to sit these tests to

get credit for the subjects they take (in the case of GCSEs) and to focus their academic interests into

27 Ravitch, Diane. "What Can We Learn From Finland?" Education Week's Blogs. Education Weekly, 11 Oct. 2011. Web. 28 Burke, Lindsey M., and Jennifer A. Marshall. "Why National Standards Won’t Fix American Education: Misalignment of Power and

Incentives." Backgrounder 2413 (2010): 1-10. Web. 29 Harrison, Angela. "A-level Results 2013: Dip in Top Grades." BBC News. BBC, 15 Aug. 2013. Web. 30 Ibid 31 Zhao, Emmeline. "Education Olympics: How Does America Rank Compared To Other Countries? (INFOGRAPHIC)." The Huffington

Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 July 2012. Web.

20

subjects they plan on pursuing in post-secondary education (in the case of A-Levels). This system,

though the government is heavily involved, holds its own merits.

In regards to the abolishment of the Leveling tests, Russell Hobby, the general secretary of the

teachers' union, says "just because the government ceases to regulate something does not mean the

profession must accept fragmentation"32 and that the commissions to create the new assessment

techniques must think "deeply about what might work and [propose] a set of principles that can ensure

consistency without strait-jacketing schools.”33 This destandardization of assessments will allow for the

potential of students to be maximized and a more broad set of skills to be measured and catered to. The

previous Leveling tests were somewhat like the SAT for elementary school students; in the same way

that the SAT test caters to a special niche of thinkers, the Leveling test did as well. These new reforms

and principles starting overseas should be watched carefully by education policy makers across the

globe, as it is history in the making as far as renegotiating standards based testing is concerned.

Many education reformers operate on a platform that claims national standards and testing are

unlikely to overcome the various shortcomings of the American school system, as the problems are

rooted primarially in the “power and incentive”34 structure. Those who want to establish national core

standards argue that “fewer, higher, and clearer”35 benchmarks aligned with assessments would help

parents understand exactly what their children should be learning at school. By outlining these standards

and making them easily accessable to the public, parents are given more tools to hold the schools and

their teachers accountable for any gaps in their child’s knowledge base and an excuse to blame the

system for any low standardized testing scores.

However, it is not yet clearly stated whether or not national standards would establish a target of

excellence across the board, as opposed to standardizing and oppressing innovative thinkers like the

current system seems to be doing. Many children with stellar grades often bomb standardized tests,

cracking under the pressure of being reduced to nothing more than a number when they are clearly

capable of intellectual thought processes on a higher level than mindlessly bubbling in a scantron sheet.

As it is clear that not all children learn in the same manner, it would be near impossible to create a test

that determines how many unique learning skills students have gleaned from their courses, let alone

shift accountablity to a single teacher or body of administrators that have to tailor education for entire

student bodies. The question of accountability raises the chance of corruption in the system, and as there

have been suggestions to tie a teacher’s salary to accountability ratings as school funding has already

been linked, this opens the door for reported test score inflation and teachers giving students test answers

in order to appear more effective in the eyes of the Department of Education.

Current reforms are attempting to shift the emphasis from highly qualified to highly effective. Those

deemed highly effective would be assessed on the basis of student learning outcomes and other factors.

NCLB requires that teachers must hold a bachelors degree, be certified or licensed by the state, and

have mastered the content they’re assigned to teach. As accountability remains a central dogma in the

ESEA’s reauthorization, data on teacher performance (gleaned from students’ test scores) will indicate

strengths and weaknesses of teacher education programs and better direct reform efforts. Unless a test

is made that is cost effective in design and open ended, such as that of the IB curriculum or AP tests,

there will be no way to ensure this. Benchmarks, and some semblance of standards, national or

voluntary, do need to be set; however, they need to be broad and clear and easily assessable.

As all of these policy reforms are being discussed by government officials, they seem to focus

mainly on how it’ll affect students’ scores, as if they were a completely infallible way of indicating a

student’s and a teacher’s knowledge. They seem to forget that there are millions of children across a

diverse range of ethnicities, incomes, ages, and intellectual capabilities/interests behind those numbers.

As it stands, students that love learning for the sake of learning are genuinely interested in the course

content. However, it seems as if when there is a mandatory test associated with a course, interest flags,

and in-class inquisitiveness is all but erased because teachers must often abandon curriculum in favour

32 Harrison. 33 Harrison. 34 Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education. A Statement Concerning Public Policy. Rep. N.p.: Gordon Commission

on the Future of Assessment in Education, n.d. Print. 35 Ibid

21

of preparing for assessments. Those students with test anxiety, however, are even more negatively

affected, as it “has been found to have a debilitating effect on academic performance and general well-

being of effected people.”36

In a study of 362 students from selected secondary schools in Ogbomoso, Nigeria, the Sarason test

anxiety scale was employed to examine how it differs across several variables, including parental

education background and gender. The paper disclosed that as high as 33% of school age children and

adolescents experience some measures of test anxiety.37 In the study, it was concluded that

“manifestation of test anxiety varies across some psychosocial and demographic variables,”38 where

females had higher levels of test anxiety than their male counterparts, and students with low

socioeconomic backgrounds appeared to suffer from higher levels of test anxiety than more advantaged

students. Students with minority demographics and low parental education background had

significantly higher levels of test anxiety than those with high parental education levels and were also

considered automatically at a disadvantage. This trend is much like the data seen coming from various

studies concerning first generation and/or minority students and their SAT/ACT scores, which have

found that students of low socioeconomic status appear to suffer from higher levels of test anxiety than

more advantaged students.39

This study also explored the conjecture that some level of anxiety is necessary for performance, but

that when it becomes disruptive, it weakens performance. Evidence of this can be found in an article

from the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) concerning GCSE exams in the UK. The article

blatantly claims that, according to researchers from Edge Hill University and University of South

Australia who conducted the survey on 325 students a few months before they sat the exam, "teenagers

who stress about doing well in their GCSE exams are likely to get lower results than peers who remain

calmer."40 Additionally, the study showed that "there was a link between worry and performing badly

in exams - even after the pupils' previous achievements were taken into account."41 Similarly, it is

evident that this worry due to exams and fear of being compared to peers has negative effects on one’s

health. Dr. John Cotton, a New Jersey pediatrician who monitors teenage patients through their last year

of college, says he frequently treats students for stress. He asserts that "there are such high academic

expectations for teens today and so much demand on their time. Kids want to be successful in both their

academic and social lives.”42 A 2004 Gallup Poll asked teens how serious several health-related

problems were among their contemporaries, including stress due to activities and homework. Nearly

two-thirds of teens thought that this type of stress was a “"very" (34%) or "somewhat" serious (30%)

health problem. A third described it as "not too" (23%), or "not at all" (11%) serious.”43

However, research into the biological processes of stress shows that it can become a very serious

health concern if it gets out of hand. The Franklin Institute described becoming stressed as a body

entering a "Stress Zone." When a person becomes stressed, the brain sends out an alert that sounds,

relatively colloquially, like this:

Attention all parasympathetic forces. Urgent. Adrenal gland missile silos mounted atop

kidneys have just released chemical cortisol weapons of brain destruction. Mobilize all

internal defences. Launch immediate counter-calm hormones before hippocampus is

hammered by cortisol.44

Essentially, the part of the brain that deals with directing signals for hormone secretion, the

hypothalamus, sends a message through the parasympathetic nervous system, a branch of the autonomic

nervous system that deals primarily with the routine function of organs and involuntary bodily

processes. This message is received in the Adrenal glands and serves to switch on the body’s “fight or

36 Akanbi, Samuel T., PH. D. Comparisons of Test Anxiety Level of Senior Secondary School Students across Gender, Year of Study, School Type and Parental Educational Background. Ife Center for Phsychological Studies/Services, Mar. 2013. Web. 37 Ibid 38 Ibid. 39 Guida, F. V., & Ludlow, L. H. (1989). A cross-cultural study of test anxiety. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 20(2), 178-190. 40 Sellgren, Katherine. "Private Schools 'consider Dropping A-levels'" BBC News. BBC, 13 Aug. 2013. Web. 41 Ibid. 42 Lyons, Linda. "Do Teens See School Stress as a Health Risk?" Do Teens See School Stress as a Health Risk? Gallup Inc., n.d. Web. 43 Ibid. 44 Franklin Institute. "The Human Brain - Stress." The Human Brain - Stress. Franklin Institute, n.d. Web.

22

flight” response. The Adrenals, in turn, release cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine. These

hormones then flood the blood system, heightening sensitivity and awareness so that the body is more

prepared to react to a threat. However, if a person is in a state of chronic stress, this “fight or flight”

response does not shut off, resulting in many negative side effects, such as fertility issues, weight

gain/loss, nausea, elevated heart rate, and increased risk for depression, hypertension, and even some

cancers.

Hopefully before too much cortisol reaches the brain, hormones rush to the adrenal glands to

suppress the streaming cortisol on its way to the brain. Other hormones are sent to the brain to round

up all the remnants of cortisol. Long-term exposure to stress hormones like cortisol can cause the

hippocampus to deteriorate. The hippocampus primarily consolidates new memories, sends out

emotional responses, helps with navigation, and orients oneself spatially. The deterioration of this area

of the brain often leads to severe problems like anxiety, depression, digestive problems, heart disease,

sleep problems, and both memory and concentration impairment.

In today’s research, ways to combat this “stressful” biological response in a testing environment,

commonly known as test anxiety interventions, have generally consisted of either antecedent

interventions or anxiety reduction interventions.45 College counselling offices, private tutors, and even

elementary school homeroom teachers across the nation have conversations with thousands, if not

hundreds of thousands, of students every year, teaching tips and tricks to better prepare them for their

standardized tests and reduce their anxiety only as a way to mitigate it, rather than to prevent it.

Unfortunately, if we cannot find the root of the problem, there is no way to prevent it.

As many believe that the tests themselves, or the academic rigor of the programs they are associated

with, tend to create stress responses in students, Shannon Suldo and her research partner, Elizabeth

Shaunessy-Dedrick, set out to examine how students enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP),

International Baccalaureate (IB), and General Education (GE) curricula programs compare to one

another in terms of self-reported stress, psychopathology, life satisfaction, and social functioning in

their study “The Psychosocial Functioning of High School Students in Academically Rigorous

Programs.”

It is important to note the differences between the AP and IB curriculum options, as they both have

different components and goals that must be met in order to have completed the required work.

Advanced Placement courses, created by the CollegeBoard, were established in 1956. AP courses were

developed as college-level classes offered in high school settings as an alternative to general education

courses that have different demands of students regarding content-depth and academic rigor. Unlike

“prescribed, sequenced, holistic”46 curricula presented by the International Baccalaureate program, the

AP program’s main competitor, these courses allow students more choices in how many AP classes

they wish to take, as well as in what subjects. These courses were initially offered in 104 select schools

as an accelerated curriculum for advanced high school students.

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program was developed after the AP Program, in the late

1960s, to provide high school juniors and seniors with a comprehensive, internationally recognized

program of study based on a curriculum that emphasized “content depth, metacognitive thinking, global

understanding, interpersonal and communication skills, and service to the community.”47 The most up-

to-date version of the IB curriculum is currently offered to students aged 3-19, in four separate stages,

which are tailored to each learning level (pre-primary, primary, lower-secondary, and secondary). As

outlined in the program’s mission statement, the IB Organization aims “to develop inquiring,

knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through

intercultural understanding and respect,” while encouraging students across the world to “become

active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences,

can also be right.”48 In order to achieve this, the IB curricula operates with mandatory components of

45 Von Der Embse, Nathaniel, Justin Barterian, and Natasha Segool. "Test Anxiety Interventions For Children and Adolescents: A

Systematic Review of Treatment Studies From 2000-2010." Psychology in the Schools 50 (2013): n. pag. Print 46 Suldo, Shannon M., and Elizabeth Shaunessy-Dedrick. "The Psychological Functioning of High School Students in Academically Rigorous Programs." Psychology in Schools 00 (2013): n. pag. Web. 47 Ibid. 48 IBO.org.

23

an extended essay or research project, interdisciplinary course (Theory of Knowledge), and outside

experience (Creativity, Action, Service) at the secondary level.

Suldo and Shaunessy-Dedrick’s study is clearly prefaced with the assertion that the AP and IB

curriculum options are becoming more popular in schools as a “response to [a higher] demand for

offerings, preparation for college academic success, national and statewide rankings criteria, and

economically feasible options for students to complete high school and reduce time to degree in

college.”49 Where three college credit hours are often priced at $800 or more, a single AP exam, worth

12 credit hours if a student scores high enough, is only $89.50 This pricing scheme allows for

economically disadvantaged students to get a leg up in their college education without breaking the

bank. However, while there are numerous obvious advantages to participating in AP and IB curriculum

programs, the demands of such academically rigorous course-loads often take a toll on students.

Researchers discovered that the majority of students enrolled in IB courses at a certain rural high

school experienced higher levels of stress, relative to their General Education (GE) peers, but had

“comparable, if not superior, academic and social-emotional functioning.”51 These students indicated

more positive perceptions of school climate and felt more confident in their academic capabilities. They

were also seen to have good attendance records and little to no record of in-school behavioural problems

(i.e. referrals, detentions, etc.). Additionally, these students reported low levels of social problems and

seemed to have “significantly fewer affiliations with negative peers compared with the general

education population.”52

This being said, Suldo and Shaunessy (2013) found that students in AP and IB programs reported

higher levels of perceived stress than students enrolled in GE programs, which was consistent with their

preliminary assertions that students in academically rigorous programs face various other stressors,

external from those normally associated with adolescence. However, these students did not manifest

higher mean levels of anxiety, leading one to believe that students in such programs have access to

“unique resources that allow them to experience academic stress without manifesting compromised

functioning, specifically with regard to clinical symptoms of anxiety.”53 These findings further support

the hypothesis that some minimal level of stress is facilitative in academia.

According to The Gordon Commission on the Future Assessment in Education, there are two main

reasons for (standardized) testing - to assess learning and to assess for the purpose of learning. The

former, where the ACT, SAT, and most other state tests fall, is stated to involve "an appraisal of student

achievement after a period of instruction,”54 where such assessments can be used to judge attainment or

retention of information and basic skills for various purposes including accountability, admission to

college, and to evaluate educational programs and new approaches to teaching. This being said, it is

evident that the topics which most commonly appear on tests like the ACT and SAT are far removed

from what any student will ever learn in a classroom setting or even use in one at any given time.

The published report on public policy regarding educational assessments blatantly says that

"educational assessments are statements about what educators, state policy makers, and indirectly,

parents want their students to learn and - in a larger sense- become." How do tests like the SAT and

ACT reflect what we want our students to become? They may emphasize what they claim is "critical

thinking," but there is no way to measure that skill on a ScantronTM test. If we, as a nation, so choose to

emphasize critical thinking in our testing culture, skills like math, science, reading, and English become

secondary after a certain point. After someone has a basic proficiency in each of these subjects, they

should be able to apply their knowledge in order to problem solve outside of the classroom. Students,

however, need to learn to be “comfortable with ambiguity and recognize that perspective shapes

49 Suldo and Shaunessy-Dedrick. 50 "College Foundation of West Virginia (CFWV)." CFWV.com. N.p., n.d. Web. Franklin Institute. "The Human Brain - Stress." The Human Brain - Stress. Franklin Institute, n.d. Web. 51 Shaunessy, Elizabeth, Shannon M. Suldo, Robin B. Hardesty, and Emily J. Shaffer. "School Functioning and Psychological Well-Being

of International Baccalaureate and General Education Students: A Preliminary Examination." Journal of Secondary Gifted Education 17.2

(2006). Print. 52 Ibid. 53 Suldo and Shaunessy-Dedrick. 54 Gordon Commission.

24

information and the meanings we draw from it.”55 They need to use what they know to formulate ideas

and hypotheses and seek evidence to test them and contribute productively to their communities,

whether it be that of their work place or the town in which they reside. At the very least, when a student

matriculates from the education system, they are expected to be able to consciously evaluate the validity

and relevance of contrasting pieces of information and draw conclusions from them. Unfortunately, this

incongruence between the purpose standardized tests are meant to serve and what they currently achieve

transcends the walls of the standard American classroom and makes a home for itself in the college

admissions process in the United States. If this is what educational assessments are supposed to

measure, the SAT and ACT don’t seem to evaluate any of this; but if they even do, they shouldn’t factor

into the admissions process for institutions of higher learning.

Administered for the first time in 1926, the SAT was originally intended to identify talented students

who otherwise may not meet admissions criteria, “especially high-potential students in low-performing

high schools.”56 Back then, this test had been considered the great equalizer of American higher

education. Keeping current reforms in mind, this test now sends a very confusing message to all those

associated with it. Whether they be students, parents, teachers, or schools, the SAT team claims that

students sitting the exam “will be tested on material that is unrelated to what they study in their

classes,”57 and that their grades can be “devalued,”58 by an assessment that has absolutely no ties to

their school curriculum.

The College Board, founded in 1900 to “expand access to higher education” (College Board), has

recently announced that they will be changing the test to reflect elements emphasized in most high

school curriculums. The new test, set to be released in the spring of 2016, is the result of an almost

complete overhaul of the system. Instead of the 2400 scoring system that had been implemented in

2005, it has reverted to the 1600 scale that they'd used before. The new math section will focus primarily

on linear algebra, complex equations and functions, and ratios/proportions. Additionally, a calculator

will only be allowed on certain sections. The reading and writing sections will now be combined; the

reading portion of this section will be structured more like the Advanced Placement English Language

and Composition exam and will include a science related passage. Instead of the obscure vocabulary

that had littered the writing section of the old SAT, the words on the exam will be more tailored towards

words you'll hear in college, those mainly used in regards to literary devices and such. Unfortunately,

there is still a ¼ point penalty for any question answered incorrectly. The essay, as it was previously

based on taking a "right" or "wrong" stance, will now be more fluid in structure. Students will either be

asked to respond to a passage and talk about their own interpretations or write more about their own

opinions. These will then be judged on how well they articulate their points rather than what stance they

take. The essay will also be optional, and the score will be separate from the Reading/Writing score.59

These changes, however, bare a strikingly similar resemblance to the SAT’s rival exam: the ACT.

Introduced in 1959, the ACT test itself was created by two faculty members at the University of Iowa

as an alternative to the SAT. Initially designed to a student's ability to apply knowledge and concepts

in math, science and English, the ACT became known as a test that more accurately judged a student's

ability to perform well in higher levels of education because of its emphasis on critical thinking as

opposed to rote memorization of obscure mathematics concepts and irrelevant vocabulary. Unlike on

the SAT, there are no trick questions on the ACT. The four sections are structured the exact same way

on every test, include the same types of questions, and have a maximum score of 36. The English section

of the ACT is comprised of five essays with portions underlined that correspond to the 75 multiple

choice questions. These questions are tailored towards determining if the passages include grammatical

mistakes, punctuation errors or other general structural problems. The mathematics section, unlike that

of the SAT, is more straightforward. It covers topics varying in difficulty from pre-algebra through

elementary trigonometry, and all of the questions are multiple choice instead of including a small

55 Gordon Commission. 56 Zwick, Rebecca. Rethinking the SAT: The Future of Standardized Testing in University Admissions. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2004.

Print. Pg. 15 57 Zwick, 20. 58 Ibid. 59 Lewin, Tamar. "A New SAT Aims to Realign With Schoolwork." The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Mar. 2014. Web.

25

section of “grid in” answers. In a separate reading section, students are given four passages, one from

each of the following genres: Prose fiction; Social science; Humanities; and Natural science.

Prior to the renovation of the SAT, the Science Reasoning portion of the ACT was what made the

exam itself so unique. In this section, scientific information is presented in “passages,” all of which

include charts and graphs. This portion of the exam always includes a section on the conflicting

viewpoints of two or three scientists. Students are to answer the 40 multiple choice questions, the

answers to which can be gleaned from the provided information. Additionally, the supplemental essay

section is optional and is scored in much the same way that the new SAT essay is: as long as you clearly

state and defend your position, you’re in the green.

As the attitude of students, parents, and teachers concerning college entrance examinations shifts,

a new question arises: how are higher learning institutions handling the backlash of standardized

testing? As every junior and senior anywhere in the world knows, test scores are extremely important

in every university admissions process. However, this shifting view on tests like the ACT and SAT has

led many colleges to become “test optional.” Other schools that did not wish to make the full

commitment to the title of “test optional” became more transparent in their admissions process,

publishing more comprehensive incoming class profiles and explaining to prospective students exactly

how they would view their application and how much weight their test scores carried in the admissions

decision.

Skeptical of such an assertion, I decided to talk to a few visiting college admissions counsellors.

Towards the end of September, I went to my first college meeting prepared to ask exactly how SAT

and ACT scores played into admissions decisions. As Syracuse University was one of the first schools

to send a representative, I figured there was no better place to start. Initially, I wasn't sure if the

counsellor understood what I was asking. I explained that I was doing a research project on standardized

testing, how it was used to measure achievement throughout a student's time in school, and how much

the pressure to succeed on these tests affected them.

She claimed that Syracuse took a "holistic" approach to reviewing applications, taking care to

review each component - the Common app essay, letters of recommendation, extra curriculars,

transcripts, and the rigor of your academic curriculum - carefully, as well as your test scores.

Interestingly enough, she even said that they were a secondary part of evaluating a student's application,

and that they weren't "used to keep someone out."

A few weeks later, Bowdoin College sent a representative to the school college counselling office.

As Bowdoin was one of the first schools to go “test optional,” I was extremely interested in how they

took the test scores of students who chose to submit them into account during the admissions process.

I went and said my piece at the meeting; I told the counsellor about my project, what I was interested

in learning, and I asked my ultimate question. But, something caught my eye a few minutes after I had

received my answer. The representative had handed out the "Bowdoin College Profile" pamphlet, and

on the inside cover where it stated the middle 50% of SAT and ACT scores of those who chose to

submit (75% of enrolling students), there was a little blurb:

Bowdoin takes a thorough and holistic approach that gauges the academic and personal

contributions each student has the potential to make to Bowdoin's community. We hope

that this profile will help students, parents, and counsellors understand the overall

profile of the applicant group; we encourage interest and applications from a wide

variety of students including, but not limited to, those whose grades, scores, and other

standard measurements fit neatly into the profile.60

Ultimately, Bowdoin, a test-optional school, and Syracuse, a school that makes students submit

their SAT/ACT scores both use “holistic approaches” when reviewing college applications. The

representative from Bowdoin clearly stated that their admissions team did not want to "be

disadvantageous to students" by having them submit their test scores if they are not an adequate

reflection of their intellect and who they perceive themselves to be. They "care about people," rather

than the numbers that the 21st century has reduced them to. But, if SAT and ACT scores are not intended

60 Bowdoin College. Bowdoin College Profile for the Enrolling Class of 2017. N.p.: n.p., 2013. Print.

26

to be used to keep someone out, why do they end up keeping adolescents from attending the schools

they want?

It has, on multiple occasions, been seen that since the SAT and ACT have become the prerequisite

of college applications, tensions have been rising across the board, as have the stakes. What was once

the great equalizer of American education has become the catalyst of many arguments between students

and their parents and resentments between students and not only admissions offices, but themselves as

well. Evidence of this can be found in a questionnaire launched to gain a better understanding of

students and their views about the pressure standardized testing puts on them and their families. In this

questionnaire, a series of questions was asked. Some were phrased as statements that were to be

responded to with a level of agreement, ranging from “strongly agree” to “no opinion,” and “strongly

disagree.” 85 (n=85) surveys were received in entirety, from students in grades eight through twelve.

Despite the small size of the pool of respondents, a relatively accurate picture of the student mind-set

concerning stress and standardized testing was found when compared to similar research.

Concerning the immense pressure related to student achievement on standardized tests, 38.8% of

respondents detailed that they “sometimes” felt pressure, and 52.9% said they “always” felt the pressure.

Additionally, when asked where the pressure came from, 90.5% answered that it came from themselves,

and 65.9% said the pressure came from their parents. Other possible answers included “School

Administrators (42.35%), “The School Board” (27.06%), “The State Department of Education”

(22.35%), and “Peers” (48.24%), as the questionnaire was designed to be a comprehensive survey of

stress related to all forms of high-stakes testing.

When asking if their scores on standardized tests and their grades in school directly correlate to

their success in the real world, however, the responses began to vary a little bit more. It became more

evident that the meaning of a standardized test, an amazing tool designed to give opportunities to

students who may not have had the same educational background as others, has been warped, and it’s

been turned into something that is enshrouded in a stigma of stress, sleepless nights, and bubble-in

answer sheets. According to the data gleaned from my questionnaire, 7.06% of responders “strongly

agreed” with the statement “Success in school, quantified by grades and standardized testing scores,

equates to success in the real world,” with 21.18% claiming they “agree” with the statement, 25.9%

saying they “disagree,” 24.7% “strongly” agreeing, and 21.18% giving “no opinion.”

Those same students were also asked about the accuracy of standardized testing in measuring

student achievement, and many answered with some form of disagreement, with 42.35% stating they

disagreed, and 27.06% saying they strongly disagreed. Students primarily feel that such testing does

not accurately measure achievement even though many had agreed, in some form or another, that

success in school and on these tests equates to success in the real world. As only about a quarter of a

student's success in tertiary education is related to the student's score on standardized tests, such as the

ACT and SAT,61 standardized testing is becoming obsolete as an accurate measure of student ability.

However, there were still a small number of students who agreed that despite this, standardized testing

was still an accurate measure of achievement, as 2.35% strongly agreed, and 7.06%, albeit less

passionately, still agreed.

A separate component of the survey dealt with self-perceived stress levels of the students and how

it related to their performance in school and on standardized tests. Of the students that responded, only

3.57% claimed they felt no stress prior to standardized testing. A slightly higher 16.67% reported

limited stress, 41.67% claimed moderate stress, 29.76% detailed high stress, and 8.33% felt they

exhibited extreme or debilitating stress. Similarly, when asked how often they felt stressed at school in

a typical week, all respondents claimed that they felt stressed at least once and a while, with 24.7%

reporting “always,” and 36.37% saying “most of the time.” When asked what kind of impact they

thought the stress had on their overall performance, only 14.29% believed that the stress had a positive

impact, and 28.57% thought it didn’t have an effect at all. However, over half (57.14%) reported that it

had a negative effect on their performance.

61 Popham, W. J. "Ten "Must-Know" Facts About Educational Testing." National PTA. National Parent Teacher Association, n.d. Web.

27

Taking these percentages into account, it is easy to draw a connection between the pressure felt by

students and the societal emphasis on high-stakes testing. It also seems to be fairly representative of the

disparity between beliefs about education and how achievement should be measured in the system itself.

This being said, there is still much more to be done in order to fully understand the impact of such

testing strategies on the mental health of students and their performance, as well as the school system,

even though they were created with the best of intentions.

28

“All bachelors are unhappy.”

Many of the males in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina would agree with the previous statement. From Kitty’s

original suitor Vronsky’s note that “he have believed that he ought to marry”62 to countryman Levin’s

nonstop, horrific contemplations regarding whether he should marry a peasant girl or remain hopeful

for Kitty’s hand in marriage, finding a partner in life seems to be the ultimate form of happiness. And

while Kitty, a young aristocratic girl, may eventually choose between these suitors, the statement “All

bachelors are unhappy” remains a cornerstone of rational philosophy as it represents A posteriori

thought.

Jason Baehr63, a professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, defines A posteriori

thought as when a person has “a reason for thinking that a given proposition is true that does emerge

or derive from experience.” Levin and Vronsky draw their conclusion about bachelorhood after they

themselves have experienced the state of being a bachelor. Meanwhile, Galen Strawson, a philosophy

at The University of Texas, famously describes the converse A priori knowledge as anything anyone

62 Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Print. Pg 55

63 Baehr, Jason S. "A Priori and A Posteriori." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.

EXPLORING ANNA KARENINA FOR ETHICS

HOW TOLSTOY

EXPLOITED A PRIORI

AND A POSTERIORI

THINKING THROUGH THE

RUSSIAN COUNTRY AND CITY.

BY MATHEW PREGASEN, UNDERGRADUATE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

29

can derive merely by sitting on your own sofa. Such an analytic proposition may be that “All bachelors

are unmarried.”64 Everyone versed in the definition of a bachelor can conclude that statement as true.

Vronksy and Levin belong to different geographical sects of people. Both of them, accompanied

by a variety of city dwellers and countrymen in Anna Karenina, exhibit a correlative tendency based on

their locations to subscribe to either A priori or A posteriori notions regarding beliefs on politics,

religion, science, and art. Tolstoy effectively uses Levin to demonstrate the ideals of the countryside

providing a full insight into the A posteriori aspect of political discussion while Tolstoy uses a variety

of city dwellers and members of the intelligentsia to express the urban centers of thought which were

concentrated on A priori notions. While Vronksy may make A posteriori convictions about the state of

a bachelor’s life, as any general human being would make about his or her personal lives, aristocratic

city dwellers like Vronksy typically appeal to A priori notions regarding societal issues. Geographical

location is the culprit of this divergence primarily because the changes in Russian cities throughout the

industrial revolution jolted a sense of repulsion of Old Age principles by the intelligentsia. Because of

the detachment of cities from country life, the appeals for future Russia were born from A priori notions

of general human nature and value, as opposed to A posteriori ideas specific to experiences held by

different groups of people.

Levin and Sergey’s symbolic conversations about peasants express the political differences between

the two half-brothers. Levin, the country man, “had no definite and unalterable idea on the subject.”65

He is open-minded because he evaluates the peasantry based on his interaction with the peasants, not

by the sole definition or opinion of what a peasant is. Sergey, conversely, “had definite ideas about the

peasant— his character, his qualities, and his tastes.”66 Sergey subscribes to an A priori classification

of a peasant by assuming that peasants have some predetermined role to play in society based on his

reasoning regarding the merits of education. He is reliant on the assumption that the definition of a

“peasant” dictates their function in society.

64 Sommers, Tamler. "Galen Strawson." The Believer. N.p., Mar. 2003. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. 65 Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina pg. 224 66 Ibid

The Russian countryside as it may have been in Anna Karenina. Image by Evgeny

30

Finlay and Sendegar classify this A priori notion as that of a “functional obligation.” These two

philosophers argue that there is a critical difference between subscribing to agential obligations and

non-agential obligations. While their argument is established through linguistics, the scope of this

divergence between agential and non-agential obligations highlights the philosophical divide between

Levin and Sergey. The passive or non-agential statement “it ought to be that peasants receive

education” differs from the agential statement “peasants ought to receive education”. In the non-

agential statement, the obligation is due to the state of nature - that the very nature of the world should

presume that peasants receive an education. This thought, shared by the likes of Sergey, is labeled as

an A priori notion because it is derived from the state of nature prior to the experience of life.

31

Sergey questions “Can there be two opinions of the advantage of education? If it’s a good thing for

you, it’s a good thing for everyone.”67 Sergey appeals to the universal sense of education because he

believes that education has an inherent value to it. While one can argue that Sergey is appealing to an

A posteriori notion of education because he is evaluating the effects of education on Levin, Sergey still

is imposing obligations on the peasants based on an objective, predetermined role that all actors should

take. Sergey speaks to the ideal peasant life in the abstract sense as he reasons with universal logic of

goodness and badness. He ignores any experience that peasants may feel when faced with educational

opportunities.

But Levin appeals to an agential notion of society: he believes that personal experience is the

standard to establish value. Levin often uses his own personal experiences to justify his A posteriori

arguments. He experiences typical peasantry when he cuts the meadows with the scythe. As a

consequence, he determines peasants ought to do things because of their position in society. A common

objection is that Levin is associating obligations with peasants because they have a predetermined

definition to fulfill as a peasant. Levin even romanticizes the ideal peasant life when he praises the skill

of swinging the scythe or of bailing hay. Yet Tolstoy is clear that Levin is not appealing to abstract A

priori notions. Levin, rather, believes that education is not necessary for peasant life because of his

own experience with education, noting that in his own life it is “utterly useless.”68 Levin owns a country

estate, and thus he partakes in the farm activities that he praises the peasants for.

Levin’s internal acknowledgement of the importance of experience is most vivid when he mows

the lawn with the peasants. The sensations he recalls prove his holistic experience in the peasant life:

“…as he drove into the meadow, and recalled the sensations of mowing, he came near deciding that he

would go mowing.”69 Tolstoy hence provides readers with proof that Levin’s assertions regarding

peasants are based on personal, phenomenological notions of how he feels doing peasant-like activities.

Thus Levin believes that we ought to act based on our personal situations and desires, not based on the

prescribed, arbitrary whims of aristocratic thinking.

Levin’s beliefs here are not as curious as Sergey’s. Levin acts according to normal human behavior,

by aggregating his own experiences to form an opinion of the people who share a life similar to his.

Yet Sergey most likely has never cut an entire meadow so his beliefs are immediately based on some A

priori reasoning. The city is the root of this epistemological version of thinking. Sergey is described

by Oblonsky as a “Moscow intellectual,” and at the dinner party Sergey takes part in enthusiastic debate

with other aristocrats.70 This models Richard Pipes’ establishment that cities in Russia were the core

centers for reform because they housed the discourse among the intelligentsia.71 However, Pipes only

speaks to the question of liberalism and conservatism and fails to question the validity of the

intelligentsia’s opinion. The debates in the city may have emulated liberal ideals for progressive

change, but because the intelligentsia was not experienced enough in peasantry life to understand the

full dimensional role peasants played, the intelligentsia was only able to make rational conclusions of

reform based on appeals to A priori thoughts.

A number of these pre-determined principles pop up during the dinner debate: Alexey’s appeals to

“fundamental ideals,” Sergey’s argument that “real culture must be purely classical,” or Pestsov’s praise

of the value of the “natural sciences.”72 A primary reason for this variety of A priori ideals in the city

is due to the uneven effect the industrial revolution had on the cities and the country. With the cities

being the main hub for new innovations, a concentration on the modern philosophy of that time was

aggregated centrally in Moscow and St. Petersburg. As a consequence, the intelligentsia was motivated

to make prescriptions for future reform even though they lacked the knowledge of the countryside.73

67 Ibid 68 Ibid 69 Ibid 70 Ibid 335 71 Pipes, Richard. Russia under the Old Regime. 2nd ed. New York: Penguin, 1997. Print. 72 Ibid 365 73 Leonard, Carol. Agricultural Productivity Growth in Russia, 1861-1913: From Inertia to Ferment. Krakow: Final Conference of the

Research Training Network, 2008. Print.

32

Levin, however, lives a country life by taking

part in the agricultural work of his estate.

Because the Russian industrial revolution

specifically lagged on the agricultural front,

country estate owners were more connected to

the workers around their estate and received a

stronger understanding of the sensory, mental,

and physical aspects of farm life.74 Their

judgments hence were based on sensational

knowledge committing country estate owners

to A posteriori reasoning.

The appeal to A priori principles is rampant

at the dinner party hosted by Oblonsky. The

debate concerning the rights of women forces

many characters to boldly express their beliefs

on politics and hence their appeals to reason.

Alexey Alexandrovitch states, “The question, I

imagine, is simply whether they are fitted for

such duties.” Alexey is invoking A priori

principles primarily by appealing to the

construct of “duties.” Duties presume that

agents have prescriptive obligations that are

pre-determined because of agents’ placement in

society. Because Alexey is basing this debate

not on the experience of being a woman but

rather on the duties that are imposed on them,

his analysis isn’t derived from experience but

rather an appeal to A priori reason. A latter

introduced Russian Prince’s opinion provides a different light to the debate when he refers to the

functional ability for women to succeed. He compares Alexey’s view to “Just as though I should seek

the right to be a wet-nurse and feel injured because women are paid for the work, while no one will take

me.”75 The Prince’s opinion, while meant to be humorous, may arguably provide a quasi A posteriori

appeal by establishing that women are simply not able to fulfill their duties. Yet his assertion relies

primarily on two A priori notions: first that his observations of women are based on pre-determined

metrics of being successful and not personal experience, and second that he assumes that being

successful is core to a debate about ethical duties.

Pestsov, a Russian liberal thinker, is the primary exception among this circle of city intellectuals.

Pestsov’s reaction to the Prince’s evaluation on women highlights his preference of deriving knowledge

through A posteriori principles: “Just what they thought of the negroes before their emancipation.”76

His disbelief of the Prince’s reluctance to take a woman’s opinion into count is mirrored by his

questioning of what previous slaves thought before their emancipation. It is spectacular that Pestsov

doesn’t make a statement of what he believes the oppressed believe, but rather he just asks the Russian

intellectuals to consider the experiences of those who have experienced oppression. Pestsov is

described as “a liberal, a great talker, a musician, an historian,” which provides insight into the roots of

his beliefs.77 His alleged experience in history is most important because it highlights his knowledge

74 Freeze, Gregory L. Russia: A History. New York: Oxford UP, 2009. Print 75 Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina 336 76 Ibid 365 77 Ibid 349

First Volume of Anna Karenina

33

of the experiences of the past and how he uses the events of worldly affairs as opposed to hypothetical

principles to justify his notions. Pestsov represents the Russian intelligentsia’s attempt to sympathize

with liberal ideas with the growing movement of workers due to the influx of the industrial revolution.78

Pestsov’s understanding of class struggle and historical change allows him to appeal to systems of

knowledge that are not only based on general abstract principles but on scientific observations of

society.

The rivaling epistemological mindsets are evident in scientific discussions as well. Vronsky and

Levin’s quibble about electricity highlights this phenomenon. Vronsky is almost hopeful for a new

force, as if he is looking for one he already has predetermined to exist. While Vronsky appears to be

searching for something in life, this query for a new force is not A posteriori because Vronsky believes

that this force ought to have existed. While science behaves differently than philosophy because of its

descriptive nature, Vronsky clearly has a belief that some force may exist: “We admit the existence of

electricity, of which we know nothing. Why should there not be some new force, still unknown to us.”79

Levin, meanwhile, believes everything comes from some type of existent observation, not an aspiration

into the abstract future. He replies to Vronsky, “When electricity was discovered … it was only the

phenomenon that was discovered and it was unknown from what it proceeded and what were its effects,

and ages passed before its applications were conceived.”80 Levin’s assertion presumes that mankind

applies its principles after people have observed the effects of some phenomenon, aspiring to an A

posteriori sense of thought. What is intriguing about this is how the political mindsets between

countrymen and city dwellers apply to their assumptions about natural sciences. Levin, accustomed to

learning about the effects of agriculture, is inclined to believe that science is composed of descriptions

of the state of nature, not aggregated mystical forces that are meant to be searched for. It was common

for country estate owners to experience farm activities themselves because of the manual labor of their

work.81 As a consequence of his country experience, Levin adopts an A posteriori way of thinking.

Vronsky displays A priori thinking even when he appeals to utterly subjective matters such as art.

Art is important to the novel because it displays how characters visualize and convey their thoughts

onto inanimate objects. Specifically, the act of analyzing art is critical because it displays how

characters impose principles on a subject that is arbitrarily conceived. During his visit to Mihailov,

Vronsky’s comments about Mihailov’s painting provide insight into how Vronsky conceptualizes art.

Vronsky appeals directly to the technique of the artist as the primary aspect of the interpretation of the

portrait: “How those figures in the background stand out! There you have technique.”82 While Vronsky

is appealing to A posteriori characteristics as he visualizes and experiences the painting, his remarks

allude to a higher principle of technique that predates the painting. Technique has nothing to do with

the picture, for only the effect of the used technique is displayed. Thus, technique is not developed

from the experience of the painter but rather through philosophy of art. Vronsky believes that A priori

matters of technique determine the art of the picture, not the experience the picture provides.

Golenishtchev, a member of the “lofty, intellectually liberal line,” believes in other A priori aspects.83

He is obsessed with art history noting that “if they want to depict, not God, but a revolutionist or a sage,

let them take from history a Socrates, a Franklin, a Charlotte Corday, but not Christ.”84 But unlike

Petrov’s appeal to historical constructs, Golenishtchev proposes that the A priori aspects proposed by

Socrates and alike are the core principles to painting a revolutionist. This signifies the intelligentsia’s

pseudo appeal to history - the use of past writers to act as historical experiences. Golenishtchev pretends

78 Surh, Gerald. 1905 in St. Petersburg: Labor, Society, and Revolution. Los Angeles: Stanford UP, 1989. Print. Studies of the Harriman

Institute.

79 Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina 51 80 Ibid 81 Roosevelt, Priscilla. Life on the Russian Country Estate. N.p.: Yale UP, 1995. Print. 82 Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina 439 83 Ibid 427 84 Ibid 433

34

that his history of art is based on such factual claims; however, his statement is contaminated with A

priori presumptions of the opinions of Socrates, not actual trends in art.

Mihailov is described as uneducated by Golenishtchev. This implies that Mihailov is not attached

to any particular school of art and hence would not follow a general model.85 Mihailov has no support

from the government or the academy and hence is structurally ostracized from the Russian city centers

of art. Mihailov hence is similar to the uneducated countryman, and his painting style is free from A

priori notions on how art should be. Mihailov’s thought process of painting is illuminating: “He had

sketched this new pose, when all at once he recalled the face of a shopkeeper of whom he had bought

cigars, a vigorous face.”86 Mihailov paints based on his own sensory appetite and does not concern

himself with A priori opinion of art. While Mihailov most probably has not spent time delineating the

difference between the two schools of artistic epistemology, his human nature forces him to derive art

from his own experience. Mihailov is extremely different from Vronsky, who tries to imitate the French

model of painting. Vronsky doesn’t paint as a realist but rather as a subscriber to a particular school,

as Vronsky sympathizes with textbook principles rather than with the sensory experience of being an

artist.

Yet while subjective matters such as art highlight the intelligentsia’s A priori fanaticism, the deistic

question throughout the novel provides an unparalleled distinction between the country and the city

with respect to epistemology. Levin is concerned with the aspects of life he experiences. Thus, he has

little care for ontological questions such as the existence or non-existence of God. Levin boldly admits

that he has “doubts of everything” when the priest asks him if he believes in God.87 Yet Levin’s

expression is to be taken literally. Levin doubts if there is any meaning to life, evident in his suicidal

thoughts later on in the novel, and he hence rejects believing in any A priori matters. It is important to

note that Levin does not directly say that he is an atheist; Levin is just skeptical of any inherently true

deistic claim. This act of indecisiveness proves his lack of interest in the deistic question. He later

directly questions this field of study, noting that “I am questioning the universal manifestation of God

to all the world.”88 He bashes those who propose works as works of God, decrying how irrational it is

of “Not living for his own wants, but for God? For what God.”89

Levin’s detachment from God’s authority, philosophy, and belief systems is mimicked among city

dwellers. Even when it comes to art, Vronsky and Golenishtchev try to impose deistic questions into

the picture. Golenishtchev questions Mihailov’s depiction of “Him the man-god, and not the God-

man.”90 This is critical for it shows Golenishtchev’s obsession with deistic questions as he investigates

even the minor distinctions between terms as if they are an objective science. Other members of the

aristocracy invoke God as a principle of full A priori reason. Princess Varvara, Anna Karenina’s

directly addresses that the judgment of God supersedes individual judgment: “They live like the best of

married couples; it’s for God to judge them, not for us.”91 She directly disposes A posteriori judgments

people may make of others and rather believes God should be the central question. Because of the

city’s central churches and the Russian intelligentsia’s continuous use of A priori principles, the city

dwellers are obsessed with the idea and affairs of God.

The city, being the center of discussion, fails to relate to matters in a full philosophical light. Most

members of the intelligentsia, with a few exceptions, such as Petrov, are obsessed with certain idealisms

and schools and hence are stubborn to think of matters in a “basic” light. Meanwhile, countrymen, such

as Levin, do not see the need to philosophize outside of their own lives because their value is internal

to their manual labor. The countryman do not seek the need to prescribe obligations to other actors

85 Vladiv-Glover, Slobodanka. "Tolstoy's Mikhailov, the Painter of Anna's Portrait, and Constantin Guys, Baudelaire's Painter of Modern

Life." Linguistics and Literature 3.2 (2005): 151-60. Print.

86 Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina 51 87 Ibid 410 88 Ibid 735 89 Ibid 734 90 Ibid 440 91 Ibid 573

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because they were not affected by the industrial revolution as the city dwellers were and hence do not

have the same focus on futuristic change. Russian society is split in a near impermeable divide, as

countrymen and city dwellers cannot have true debate if one group appeals to experience while the other

to pre-natal reason. While their belief systems on certain issues may interact, it is safe to say that both

parties have very little concern for the perspectives of each other.

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“A conjunction of decoded and deterritorialized flows, this is at the basis of capitalism. Capitalism is

constituted on the failure of all the pre-existent codes and social territorialities.”

-Gilles Deleuze 92

“…each time something seems to escape capitalism, seems to pass beneath its simili-codes; it

reabsorbs all this, it adds one more axiom and the machine starts up again…”

-Gilles Deleuze

“I would flip through catalogs and wonder, ‘What kind of dining set defines me as a person?’

-Jack, Fight Club

Few can deny the increasing control and influence corporations have in the daily lives of citizens. We

are constantly bombarded by information and images, in advertisements, music videos, movies, music,

and any number of other sources, that reinforce consumer culture. What defines capitalism, as a social

theory, is not a particular unified identity, but rather the ability to mutate to fit the particular society

within which it operates. Chameleon-like, late capitalism changes its appearance to match the culture

that surrounds it, appropriating images as it sees fit. Such changes, however, leave untouched the

underlying movement of late capitalism to quickly form and dissolve identities. The article will first

92http://www.webdeleuze.com/php/texte.php?cle=116&groupe=Anti+Oedipe+et+Mille+Plateaux&langue=2

Flows of Capital and Identity Production: Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl Ad and Corporate Appropriation of Progressive Images by Ryan Teehan

Undergraduate at the University of Chicago

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outline a general blueprint for how capitalism operates and then identify those structures within Coca-

Cola’s marketing strategy during the Super Bowl.

Identification has long played a significant role in the continued functioning of late capitalism.

Jonah Peretti notes that:

Paging through a fashion magazine such as Vogue or Elle, we encounter a variety of

radically different images: some models are child-like, some are butch, some are waifs,

some are tattooed, some wear elegant party dresses, some lounge in torn jeans. …

[T]aking the TV remote in hand, we encounter a similar visual cacophony. The viewer

is encouraged to identify with cops, thieves, surfers, businessmen, princes, paupers,

house wives, and athletes, to name but a few. 93

Those are a small taste of the numerous images that bombard a consumer in America. Each subject

identifies with a particular “mirror” in the image. They imagine themselves in the position of their

mirror and briefly take on that particular identity. In contemporary consumer society, these images

move rapidly, producing many quick opportunities for identification to push products. Peretti notes

that “[i]n order for an advertisement in GQ to be successful, it must provoke an ego formation that

makes the product integral to the viewer's identity. This fragile ego formation must persist long enough

for the GQ reader to purchase the product.”94 A symptom of late capitalism is the production of more

and more “weak” identities, images with which one’s identification can fade quickly. Each identity

need only last long enough to click the “Buy now” button on a webpage.

This method of identity production extends beyond the mere association of individuals with images

of celebrities or models. Late capitalism is increasingly movement-based. Socially conscious? Do not

worry, we promise that we did not exploit too many non-white people to bring you this cup of coffee.

They’re better off that way, trust us. Environmentally conscious? We’re sure the polar bears will thank

you for purchasing this cup made of 100% recycled paper. And so goes the capitalist drive to

incorporate things that seem to escape it. Capitalism asks that people forget that the destruction of the

environment and indigenous populations often happens under the guise of the profit motive.95 Instead

of recognizing that these movements, environmental, social, are largely incompatible with capital,

individuals succumb to the larger capitalist blind. They are made to believe that capitalism has made a

big sacrifice: proving slightly higher wages, promoting “sustainable” products, “ending” indigenous

exploitation, when in reality it has traded a pawn for the queen. These “progressive” marketing

strategies present a positive image to the consumer in order to continue doing the opposite in reality.

Business as usual.

Coca Cola’s Super Bowl advertisement is a perfect example of both the rapid-fire identity

production and the incorporation of progressive movements. The commercial has the familiar song

“America the Beautiful” sung by individuals of a variety of different cultures. Each group presents

itself in a manner that is easily identifiable to the broader American (white) public as “other”. In the

process, the commercial offers a number of images that viewers can identify with. The Coke bottle

appears at the center of this unfolding cultural parade, completing the link between the identities

produced and the product consumed.

Above the various cultural identities, the commercial produces broader identities with specific

appeal. The most obvious of these is the general “American” identity. The song “America the

93 http://www.datawranglers.com/negations/issues/96w/96w_peretti.html 94 Same as above 95 See The Wrath of Capital for environmental damage

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Beautiful” brings forth nationalistic and patriotic sentiments and aligns Coca Cola and cultural diversity

with “being an American”. An interesting result is that the divergence from “normal” white society, a

divergence that is emphasized in the commercial, becomes acceptable and valorized within the frame

of being American. Differences that would not normally be held in high regard, and often form the

basis for targeting, are praised once that difference is situated as part of a path to become American,

become white, and legitimize the existing order. Not insignificantly, the start of “America the

Beautiful” is sung by white Americans. This move serves as a subtle message that the diversity that

follows is only allowed at the behest of white society. Instead of embracing difference as difference,

difference is embraced only insofar as it is on the road to becoming white.

This exposes the two poles between which consumerism oscillates. On one hand, individuals are

completely identified with an exaggerated image of their culture and thus are understood as an

expression of the farthest their group can diverge from white society. In that way, they are defined by

particular territorial, cultural, and religious positions. On the other hand, each disidentifies with the

particularity of their position through the work of capital. Capital differentiates consumers based on

their ability to purchase, which subsumes the aforementioned positions under the dollar sign. A further

level of disidentification occurs through the dual images of the “American” and the tolerant

multicultural society, both of which are steeped in whiteness. Both operate by invoking the common

(white) humanity that underlies the particular cultures presented and place a premium on the sameness

of cultures rather than embracing the differences in themselves. The consumer oscillates between an

individual completely determined by various social positions and one with no identity other than a fluid,

white non-identity. The fact that the American identity is both the background for and the narrative

that links the images of cultural diversity together, both through the song and through returning to the

English language throughout the commercial, should be no surprise when we live in a white world.

Capital, as shown, operates by appropriating the local codings and using them to its benefit. It does

not have an “essence”, but is instead defined by its ability to mutate and continually produce and

dissolve identities. It is no surprise, then, that it subtly reproduces majoritarian identities (white, male,

cisgender, heterosexual, able bodied) as a result of their central role in how the world reveals itself.

Corporations appropriate progressive images to turn the social forces tending towards progress into

forces that oil the wheel of capital. As society becomes less tolerant of bigoted individuals, citizens are

called to take up “progressive” identities. More deeply, this move by capital hijacks identities that one

ought to take up, namely ones that are tolerant and inclusive. Through these superficial projections of

tolerant identities, capitalism bends various social pressures towards its own goals while subtly

promoting the agenda of the existing majoritarian identities.

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