An SAT Without Analogies is Like: (A) A Confused Citizenry...

[aquart]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/opinion/13sun3.html>

By ADAM COHEN

Published: March 13, 2005

-snip-

Nowhere are analogies more central than in politics. When Karl Marx wanted to arouse the workers of the world, he compared the proletariat's condition to slavery and, in "The Communist Manifesto," urged them to throw off their figurative chains. When Roosevelt argued for a balanced budget, he put it in homespun terms. "Any government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns," he said. "But you and I know that a continuation of that habit means the poorhouse."

The power of an analogy is that it can persuade people to transfer the feeling of certainty they have about one subject to another subject about which they may not have formed an opinion. But analogies are often undependable. Their weakness is that they rely on the dubious principle that, as one logic textbook puts it, "because two things are similar in some respects they are similar in some other respects." An error-producing "fallacy of weak analogy" results when relevant differences outweigh relevant similarities. On "Fresh Air," Mr. Norquist seized on a small similarity between the estate tax and Nazism and ignored the big difference: that the Holocaust, but not the estate tax, involved the murder of millions of people.

The last election was decided, in significant part, on specious analogies. A man who went to war, and came back to protest that war, was compared - by a group whose name helpfully contained the phrase "for truth" - to men who betray their country. Today, the federal tax system - which through much of the nation's history kept government income and expenditures in rough balance - is being compared to "theft" and recklessly dismantled.

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[Hissyspit]

1. Self-deleted.

[imenja]

2. the new test is an improvement

It tests writing and grammar. Analogies aren't nearly as important, and they are more culturally and racially biased.

[omega minimo]

3. Bad analogies are the stock in trade

of countless religious ministers. Convince flocks of people that apples and oranges are the same thing.

Of course, comprehending analogous thinking gives one the power to NOT be persuaded by bogus and nonsensical allegories (although peer pressure finishes off many congregants).

Analogies are an inherent part of creative and critical thinking. The mind that can look at things from different angles and form relationships engenders original ideas. Analogies are related to humor!

By disappearing analogies, are they trying to raise a new crop of automatons?

[Psephos]

4. Life itself is like an analogy

That's a joke, kids. :-)

[necso]

5. I am glad that there was no

such writing sample when I took the test.

I would have hated it... and I would not have done well on that part.

But I suppose that it would have been better to have weeded me out earlier in the process.

"One of these days,
It's gonna catch up to you."

High stakes testing is generally a bad idea. It rewards those who emphasize preparing for these tests (or who figure out how to game the system) and it punishes everyone else. And while some writing skill is essential for many tasks, I do not favor this type of testing as a measure of this skill -- or its potential.

And it takes a lot more than some skill with analogies to deal with the likes of Grover Norquist. -- Maybe we should start testing resistance to propaganda.

[omega minimo]

7. "Maybe we should start testing resistance to propaganda"

That's the point! of creative, discerning critical thinking skills (and trusting one's guts helps too).

Repeat:
"...comprehending analogous thinking gives one the power to NOT be persuaded by bogus and nonsensical allegories (although peer pressure finishes off many congregants).
Analogies are an inherent part of creative and critical thinking....
By disappearing analogies, are they trying to raise a new crop of automatons?"

There is no mystery or elitism to analogies. It is the ability to perceive relationships.

[blogbear]

6. Tax System? Perhaps..

We Should Ask Leona Helmsley or Say Singer Willy Nelson If They Think This System Is 'Kinder Or Gentler' Yet..Things Seem To Get Oh So Complicated Here! Why Wouldn't A Citizenry Be Confused Here? Wasn't That Always The 'Real Deal' ie To Get Us And Keep Us Confused?