We’re putting a tremendous amount of value on being able to pick the right one out of four little bubbles.
Diane Ravitch on No Child Left Behind, interviewed in Slate
epiphoneme, the memorable sum-up. From the Greek, epiphonema, meaning “speak out on.”
No thinker did more to push for No Child Left Behind than Diane Ravitch, who served as assistant secretary of education under George Bush the First. She got her reforms, but now she calls them “deforms.” In a new book, she says she was flat-out wrong.
Her take on No Child Left Behind, the federal law that mandates tests to ensure accountability of public schools, boils down to the ultimate boil-down figure. Pay close attention, class: the epiphoneme can make the difference whether you pass or fail as a memorable person yourself.
The figure acts like a reductio ad absurdum without the absurdum. Reduce an issue to its simplest, starkest point. If the result adds wisdom, you win. If you sound like Sarah Palin, you lose.
One of the most winning epiphonemes of all time comes from Charles Darwin, who neatly wrapped up human evolution and stuck a tail on it. (You can see other examples from Figaro here and here.)
We’ll declare Ravitch a winner as well. But we’ll give her an F for timing.