Fraters Libertas

Basic Composition

Amid the controversy of the nomination of Cheri Pierson Yecke as MN Education Commissioner, the Pioneer Press delves into her background and digs up some 12 year old essays, uncovering the shocking truth:

To this day, those writings provide a telling glimpse into Yecke's philosophy and her style in dealing with school issues.

She mixes personal anecdotes with selective references to research favorable to her side. She takes an extreme example from her opponent's argument and hammers it hard.

Wait a minute here. In an attempt to persuade, she selectively references research favorable to her side? Then criticizes “extreme” examples from her opponents arguments as invalid? With a style like that, you’d almost think Ms. Yecke was a political appointee or something and not the divinely ordained grand oracle of objective truth and balance in social science research.

Well, if the MN Senate rejects her candidacy, I must say she at least has a bright future in blogging. Or perhaps newspaper reporting? I think the above style would work well in, for example, doing a news article with the agenda of trying to discredit a political appointee as unfit for service by selectively excerpting from three essays she wrote 12 years ago and hammering them hard as extreme and then generalizing them as indicative of her entire career while at the same time as not putting her alleged transgressions in context with the styles of political appointees from previous administrations. At least that should be good enough to work for the Pioneer Press.

But folks, you may want to think twice before blindly agreeing with me on this issue. As Ms Yecke wrote 12 years ago about the South Washington County School District ...

”Hard work and self-discipline are looked down upon, and status is often achieved by non-performance,'' Yecke wrote. "The prevailing attitude among many students is 'Why study? They can't fail me so who cares?' ''

At this point I’m forced to admit that I am a graduate of that school system (the formerly prestigious Neil A. Armstrong Elementary in Cottage Grove, class of ’81). Although my years there predate Ms. Yecke’s experience and the district’s outcome based education experiment, if she ever needs me to testify on her behalf, I’d be happy to come. I promise to be as lazy and undisciplined as she needs me to be to prove her case. Yes, I think I can fake that for a few hours.