Tasteless tomatoes and other unintended consequences
Friday, November 1, 2013 at 05:42AM 
The law of unintended consequences is an adage or idiomatic warning that an intervention in a complex system always creates unanticipated and often undesirable outcomes. Wikipedia
In The Tomato Harvester, the Smart Gun, and The Age-Graded School: Reframing the Problem, professor Larry Cuban writes:
Just as paying attention to the tomato rather than the machine and seeing the gun rather than the gun owner as the problem to be solved, the age-graded school has to be seen anew as the problem to be solved, not teacher unions, insufficient iPads, or policies that instill fear into teachers or tighten standards-based testing. Ungrading schools create different structures for students to learn at their different paces reducing dropouts while giving teachers time and flexibility to teach what has to be taught.
While I have great respect for Dr Cuban and his ideas, this post bothered me.
His first example of changing the physical nature of the tomato so it can be more easily picked by a machine rather than changing the machinery immediately made me wonder if this is why today's commercial tomatoes are tough and flavorless.
His second example of a biometrically secured gun made me wonder if the availability of these protections might lead to a false sense of security which would then lead to greater gun ownership and more gun-related deaths. (Most gun deaths are suicides.)
Might there be unintended consequences with ability-leveled, instead of age-leveled, schools? Would placing children with others who are much older or younger best suit their non-academic developmental needs? (Developmental needs and interests are chronologically-based, not based on literacy level, as I remember.) Would we see a higher incidence of bullying? Do we want 18-year-olds hitting on 14-year-olds in the same classrooms? By pushing groups of like-ability kids together are we simply enabling teachers to continue large-group instructional practices, rather than individualizing or personalizing their classrooms of multi-ability kids?
Cuban implies that reforms like ability-grouped schools are resisted by reactionary parents, politics, or unimaginative thinking. Might there also be some legitimate resistance due to the fear of unintended consequences?
Reader Comments (2)
Not sure I totally agree with you. Yes developmental needs are chronologically based but not in a standard form - you only have to look at 5 year old girls and boys to see that. As for different age children working together, rather than the deficit model, what about the positives of older students mentoring younger ones and the role models that they can become?
Hi Carl,
I'm not sure I totally agree with myself on this! I suspect both models (age grouped and ability grouped) have pluses and minuses. Most education choices are nuanced, situationally-dependent, and interdependent on other factors. I just don't think magic bullets are particularly productive.
Appreciate the comment. (Still have great memories of hiking Abel Tasman with my son a few years ago).
Cheers,
Doug