The World and Everything in It: February 21, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. I’m Tayte Christensen, a current sophomore at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, studying history and journalism. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Republicans head to the primary election in South Carolina on Saturday as criminal trials and legal fees weigh down front-runner Donald Trump.

 AUDIO: He’s still going to have to spend 50 to 100 million dollars defending himself, that’s kind of the point.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday. Also, World Tour. Plus, a friendship between two mothers that has stayed strong through tragedy.

CAMILLE: We agreed that we were not going to discuss the technicalities of our son's cases with each other.

And WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney warns of another educational “reform” on the way.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, February 21st. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

REICHARD: Here’s Kent Covington now with the news.

SOUND: [Rushing water]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: California weather » Torrential rain in Southern California has turned normally calm creeks into raging torrents. Ethan Ragsdale with the Santa Barbara Police Department:

RAGSDALE: Please stay away from the creeks. They are absolutely dangerous. It is swiftly flowing water.

Flash floods have forced first responders to carry out dangerous high-water rescues as another atmospheric river wreaks havoc in parts of the state. Andrew Rorke with the National Weather Service:

RORKE: Definitely a storm for the ages. In fact, so far, without the month even done yet, this is the fifth-wettest February in the history of Los Angeles County with records going all the way back to the 1880s.

He said the current system could drop up to 5 inches of rain in some areas.

Trump town hall / Haley address / Biden fundraising » Donald Trump and Nikki Haley are courting voters in South Carolina ahead of Saturday’s Republican primary.

Haley, the former governor of that state threw a few sharp jabs Tuesday at both the current and former president, calling Joe Biden and Donald Trump “two old men” who aren’t fit to lead.

HALEY: We’re talking about the most demanding job in human history. You don’t give it to someone who’s at risk of dementia.

Haley heard there in Greenville, South Carolina just hours before Donald Trump took part in a town hall event only miles away. He questioned why Haley is still in the race.

TRUMP: You’re not supposed to lose your home state. Shouldn’t happen anyway, and she’s losing big. I mean, look, if she was doing well, I’d understand it. But she’s doing very poorly.

Recent polls in the state show Trump up by 25 points.

But Haley is undeterred, vowing to fight on regardless of Saturday’s results.

U.S.-Russia sanctions / Navalny's mother » President Biden says the United States will hold the Kremlin accountable for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

BIDEN: I told you we'd be announcing sanctions on Russia. We'll have a major package announced on Friday.

The 47-year-old Navalny died Friday in a Russian penal colony. And the Russian government has refused to turn his remains over to his family.

LYUDMILA NAVLNAYA: [Speaking Russian]

Navlany’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, on Tuesday appealed directly to Vladimir Putin.

NAVLNAYA: [Speaking Russian]

She said, “Let me finally see my son. I require that Alexei’s body be immediately given so that I can bury him humanely."

Many of Navalny’s supporters say that by withholding his remains, the Kremlin is effectively hiding evidence about how the outspoken Putin critic actually died.

U.S. vetoes UN Security Council resolution » Top U.S. officials say they will continue to pull every diplomatic lever in pursuit of a new cease-fire deal in Gaza.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told members of the UN Security Council on Tuesday …

GREENFIELD: The United States is working on a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas along with Egypt and Qatar. This hostage deal would bring an immediate and sustained period of calm to Gaza for at least six weeks.

The ambassador spoke as the United States vetoed a UN resolution backed by Arab nations that would demand an immediate end to the fighting.

And State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that is a bad idea:

MILLER: Because we think just an unconditional cease-fire only benefits Hamas.

Miller said any arrangement that allows Hamas to regroup without freeing its remaining hostages will not be effective.

AI task force in House » At the Capitol, leaders in the House are forming a task force on artificial intelligence to help build guardrails for the AI industry. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the mission is to keep America at the forefront of the game-changing technology while also guarding against risks posed by A-I.

The 12-person bipartisan panel will explore possible legislation to achieve those goals and then hand in a thorough report with its recommendations.

So far, efforts to pass legislation to regulate AI have stalled out despite a number of high-profile hearings on the matter.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Chiefs parade shooting suspects charged » Authorities in the Kansas City area are charging two adults with murder stemming from last week’s deadly shooting at the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade. They’re identified as Lyndell Mays and Dominic Miller.

Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said the two men were involved in an argument.

BAKER: Mays pulled his handgun first. Almost immediately, others pulled their firearms. Defendant Miller was one of those individuals.

One person was killed and more than 20 more were wounded in the incident.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: A preview of the South Carolina primary on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 21st of February, 2024. This is WORLD Radio. Thanks for listening. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. First up on The World and Everything in It: Washington Wednesday.

The GOP primary in South Carolina is on Saturday, with just two candidates: Former president Donald Trump, and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. Many expect this to be the last seriously contested primary race this year.

REICHARD: Now, before we get into expectations for the primary, a quick update on Donald Trump’s court calendar. Many of the cases filed against Trump last year are coming to trial this Spring, but not all of them.

The Georgia case involves charges of racketeering and election interference. That one is on hold while the judge decides whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can proceed as prosecutor. Last week, Judge Scott McAfee held evidentiary hearings into whether Willis has a conflict of interest. She had a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired for the case. Here’s Willis during that hearing, lashing out under questioning.

FANI WILLIS: You’re confused, you think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.

BROWN: Still, a judge could rule that by hiring her romantic partner as a special prosecutor she violated numerous ethical rules. Attorney Nathan Wade had no experience in prosecuting a case of this complexity. He’s a family law, contracts, and car accident lawyer. Willis paid him significantly more than other experienced prosecutors in the DA’s office.

And Trump’s attorneys argue that Willis benefited from Wade’s earnings when he took her on luxury trips and cruises. But Willis insists she reimbursed him for her share of the travel in cash.

WILLIS: Whatever it is, I didn’t make him produce receipts to me. Whatever he told me it was, I gave him his money back.

REICHARD: So the evidentiary hearings are over. Now it’s up to Judge McAfee with three likely outcomes: (a) Willis stays on the job, (b) she doesn’t and the state picks a new attorney, or (c) the entire case against Trump is thrown out.

Trump was not in Georgia for the Willis hearings. Instead, he was 900 miles away in a courtroom in Manhattan. He asked a judge to delay trial in the case District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought last year. Prosecutors say Trump’s team paid women to silence stories about extra-marital affairs. While so-called “hush money” payments are not a crime, Bragg argues that Trump used campaign funds in 2016 to pay the women … and then lied about it on financial documents. Here’s Bragg talking about the charges:

BRAGG: Under New York state law it is a felony to falsify business records with intent to defraud and intent to conceal another crime. That is exactly what this case is about: 34 false statements made to cover up other crimes.

BROWN: Judge Juan Manuel Merchan last Thursday denied Trump’s motion to delay trial … and so jury selection is set for March 25th.

Meanwhile in Washington, special counsel Jack Smith wants his election interference case against Trump to head to trial on March 4th as previously scheduled. That’s not likely to happen, given outstanding questions about presidential immunity that Trump has asked the Supreme Court to decide.

REICHARD: And one more trial update: the Florida case about classified documents is set to go to trial on May 20th, although that’s subject to change if one of the other trials presents a scheduling conflict.

As time-consuming as these cases are for Trump and his legal team, another problem now is the cost.

Last week, Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron levied a $355 million fine plus interest against the former president for alleged business fraud, overvaluing business assets and falsifying financial statements to inflate net worth. Trump responded to the ruling from his home in Florida.

TRUMP: These are radical Left Democrats. They are lunatics, and it’s election interfering, so I just want to thank you for being here. We will appeal, and we will be successful.

BROWN: Keep in mind, this was a civil case, not criminal. The appeals process will take time and more money. And Trump has already been ordered to pay $83.3 million to journalist E. Jean Carroll in a defamation lawsuit he lost earlier this year. That’s in addition to another $5 million a jury found Trump liable for in a sexual abuse case Carroll won last year.

REICHARD: That brings Trump’s running total to approximately half a billion dollars, not including legal fees.

Trump’s super PACs have already supplied nearly $77 million dollars in fees, and the Republican National Committee has paid more than $2 million to legal firms representing the former president since 2021. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Nikki Haley supporter, says he doesn’t think Trump is guilty, but ...

SANUNU: He’s still going to have to spend 50 to 100 million dollars defending himself. That’s kind of the point, that whether it’s legitimate or not, that doesn’t matter. He’s got this chaos that surrounds him. It absolutely does and would keep surrounding him if he were to become president.

BROWN: So far, Trump’s legal problems have not deterred many Republican voters in recent caucuses and primaries. The ultimate outcome of these court cases may change that, or not.

REICHARD: Joining us now to talk about the South Carolina primary from the campaign trail is Washington Bureau reporter, Carolina Lumetta.

Carolina, good morning.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: Good morning, Mary.

REICHARD: Well, what is the lay of the land for South Carolina polls?

LUMETTA: Well, South Carolina is a well-known Republican stronghold. Republicans have a state trifecta, meaning that they control not only the governor's mansion but also both chambers of the state legislature. The last time the state elected a Democratic president in a general election was when they chose Jimmy Carter in 1976, and even that was an outlier. In 2020, Trump won with about 55% of the vote, which was more than 10 points ahead of Biden, so we're expecting a pretty strong Republican showing, also likely for Trump. Most polls find him well in the lead, typically in the low to mid 60% to Haley's 30. However, the caveat here is that the state does not register Republicans or Democrats. People lean conservative or liberal, which makes polling pretty difficult. They also have open primaries in the state, meaning any voter can vote in either primary, but only one.

REICHARD: Trump has such a big lead in the polls, I’m wondering what is Nikki Haley aiming for? If she cannot win the state outright, is there something she could achieve that would give her campaign a reason to go on?

LUMETTA: Well, what's interesting here is that this is very much home turf for Haley, not only in the state, but also in these polls. She had a pretty surprising win for the governor's race back in 2010, where she defeated a 30-year incumbent and she framed it as the first woman to kind of break into that "good old boys" club. She also won reelection when that was not expected and in a political environment where you can tell the outcome of most elections, that's really interesting, to the point that her campaign has created all these T-shirts that just say "Underestimate me, that'll be fun." In this weekend's election, she's trying to flip this narrative where Trump is not really the outsider anymore, she is. Since he's been president before, she's the one who can come in and bring something new. This is also the argument that she's trying to use to downplay the fact that nearly every state lawmaker who has worked with her in the past has endorsed Trump, even ones like Senator Tim Scott, who she appointed, and Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who she campaigned for in 2022.

REICHARD: Well, Political wisdom would say that Haley should drop out if she can’t win or at least hit that 30 percent mark. So is her campaign treating South Carolina as a deal-breaker?

LUMETTA: Not at all. The big question here is what counts as momentum. If she underperforms below the 30%, there's still a few ways that she could spin that. For example, Democratic turnout in the primary on February 3rd was dismal, below 4% of all registered voters in the state. However, you don't have to be a Republican to vote in the GOP primary. So if Democrats and some moderates pick Haley, she could use that as some momentum. If she can also motivate more women, young voters, and first time voters, that also helps to say that she has momentum she can use to get into Super Tuesday. What I noticed though, is that Haley is very much already looking past South Carolina. She's held rallies in California and Texas in recent weeks. She's setting up leadership teams in a bunch of Super Tuesday states. This isn't something that you do if you're getting ready to drop out. Here's one surprising thing I also noticed in my inbox yesterday morning, Harlan Crow is on her Texas leadership team. And for background here, he's a billionaire who's a good friend of quite a few Supreme Court justices, a major donor to conservative causes. So even if she's not winning voters in each of these primary states, it does look like Haley's winning donors that can keep bankrolling her campaign buses for a while longer. However, a major South Carolina loss could worry those donors, so we'll have to see.

REICHARD: Indeed we will. And as a reminder, you can keep up with election results with WORLD’s online election center. Check it out at wng.org. Carolina Lumetta covers politics for WORLD. Thanks so much!

LUMETTA: Thanks for having me.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

MUSIC: [ANTHEM]

ONIZE OHIKERE: AU Summit — We start today in Ethiopia where African leaders have wrapped up a two-day summit.

The African Union meeting came as the continent battles a host of issues. AU Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat called out the leaders’ failure to stop unconstitutional government changes.

Six member countries were absent from the meeting after the bloc suspended them following military coups.

FAKI: [Speaking French]

Faki says here that the African Union has not seen such a high number of military takeovers since its creation, which was in 1999.

He also raised concerns over the ongoing conflict in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Meanwhile, tension still remains high in Senegal where President Macky Sall postponed general elections initially scheduled for this month.

Azali Assoumani is an AU Chairperson.

ASSOUMANI: [Speaking French]

He says here that he hopes Senegal remains a model for other countries on the continent.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Navalny’s death — Over in Germany, protesters chant “Putin the killer” outside the Russian embassy in Berlin.

The protest followed the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Friday.

The 47-year-old had previously survived nerve agent poisoning and received multiple prison terms. Russian officials said he died from “sudden death syndrome” after he collapsed in a Siberian penal camp.

But Navalny’s team has insisted he was murdered. Authorities have not released his body to his family and they detained more than 390 people who took part in memorials.

Navalny leaves behind his wife Yulia Navalnaya, and their two children.

NAVALNAYA: [Speaking Russian]

Yulia says here that she will continue her husband’s fight for freedom.

Mourners also lit candles and dropped flowers outside the Russian embassies in Romania and London. 

AUDIO: [Responders talking]

Papua New Guinea violence — In Papua New Guinea, an escalation in tribal violence has left at least 26 people dead.

Authorities said one tribe in Enga Province was leading a group of allies and mercenaries to attack a neighboring tribe when it was ambushed.

Police deployed more troops to the remote highlands region as they anticipate a possible retaliatory attack.

The South Pacific nation of about 10 million people has more than 800 languages. An influx of illegal firearms has turned tribal violence more deadly.

David Manning is the Papua New Guinea Police Commissioner. He says authorities have been concerned about the proliferation of small arms in the region.

MANNING: But our priority is to ensure that we have a structure and a strategy that is able to not only understand and respond better to the challenges up there, but ensuring that, you know we, going forward, have a far more effective command that is able to deal with, you know, the conflict areas, the internally displaced people.

Enga faced a three-month lockdown back in July after tribal conflict.

AUDIO: [Music]

Colombia Christmas celebration — We wrap up today in southwest Colombia, where members of the Afro-Colombian community wore colorful dresses, played music, and danced for a fairly late Christmas celebration.

The tradition began nearly two centuries ago when enslaved Africans could not celebrate Christmas as they worked through the holiday. So, they pushed back their own festivities to 45 days after Christmas, keeping with a local tradition that reintroduced new mothers to society 45 days after delivery.

Helen Dayana Mina was one of the dancers at the festivities.

MINA: [Speaking Spanish]

She says here that they enjoy Christmas celebrations like everyone else in December, but the February celebrations hold more importance because of the connection to their ancestors.

That’s it for today’s WORLD Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: June 1940, London, the “Never Surrender!” speech by Churchill, not recorded at that time, but recited and recorded by him nine years later:

CHURCHILL: We shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender

A speech delivered wearing a special set of false teeth.

Churchill suffered dental problems most of his life, and had several sets of custom teeth made to preserve his natural lisp.

Earlier this month, the gold-mounted upper plate worn for that speech went up for auction. The winning bid: nearly $28,000. More than twice what they expected.

And file this under “hard to believe:” Churchill was born 150 years ago this year!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, February 21st. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: friendship in the face of suffering.

It’s easy to see the devastating toll violent crimes take on victims and their families. Much less apparent are the agonizing consequences for the family and friends of the offender.

Parents, spouses, and children often live under a stigma and battle feelings of responsibility for their loved ones’ actions. Navigating the legal system adds an emotional and financial strain that can drive people apart.

REICHARD: WORLD Feature Reporter Grace Snell caught up with two women who found themselves in this painful situation, but chose a different path forward. As a quick note, WORLD agreed to use different names for these women to respect their privacy.

GRACE SNELL: In a tidy white house in the Atlanta suburbs, two women bustle about setting out china, silverware, and a steaming apple crumble.

HEIDI: Actually, serve yourself. You can be lady-like or you can be a pig. You know, whatever you want. (laughing and dishes clanking)

Heidi and Camille are slender and active. They banter with an easy familiarity and could easily be mistaken for sisters. In fact, Camille says strangers often do.

CAMILLE: And it’s happened more than once. We’re about the same height. Anyway, anytime it happens I say, “Yeah, I’m the fat one.”

But they’re just good friends, which is pretty surprising given their circumstances.

In 2021, their sons were arrested and charged for the same murder. They could have easily felt pitted against each other. A lighter sentence for one young man would probably mean a tougher sentence for the other.

But Heidi and Camille refused to see things that way. They have been friends for years—ever since their boys became close in grade school.

So when news broke of the arrests, the women decided to stand by each other. They met up regularly and committed to praying for each other.

HEIDI: So that’s at the hospital. (Pages turning) I haven’t looked at this in a couple years.

Heidi opens a big, cream-colored paper photo album. A round-faced baby with big, dark eyes stares up from the pages.

She and her husband started fostering their son right after he was born in 2003. He weighed just four pounds when they brought him home from the hospital.

CAMILLE: Aww, looky there. Pitiful. (Laughing) I mean, he just looks so tiny.

HEIDI: Squashy.

CAMILLE: Aww, lookit.

They adopted him a year and a half later.

Camille and her husband also adopted from foster care. But their son was already three and a half years old when they got him.

CAMILLE: So this is when he first came to us. And he was the cutest little thing. And he was incredibly small for his age. He actually was like, below the charts.

But, long before their sons landed in court, the two women spent almost a decade raising their boys together. Camille met Heidi at a fifth grade book fair. She says she felt a connection right away.

CAMILLE: When you are an adoptive parent, you feel, definitely, a kinship. Because it’s crazy to adopt, because the Lord calls you to do sort of crazy things.

Their friendship took off from there. And that’s a good thing, because soon after Camille started running into a lot of challenges with her son.

CAMILLE: It was almost a blur of difficulty, because school was a nightmare as far as performing, not wanting to do what one was told to do, starting to hang out with people I didn’t feel great about.

Heidi knew what that was like.

HEIDI: Our son has had some challenges, like they seem to be innate to him. He was always a little hyper, but from kindergarten on, I mean, he had a lot of difficulty.

But Camille says her son also started experimenting with drugs. And facing more serious mental health issues.

Things took a drastic turn for the worse after Camille’s son dropped out of a drug treatment program. He was just 19 years old, and he and Heidi’s son decided to move in together.

Within six weeks, Camille got a call from Heidi. She told her something bad had happened, and sent her to the sheriff’s website for more details.

Camille searched her son’s name, and her heart dropped. A man had been shot. And their sons had been arrested and charged with his murder.

She grabbed her bike and came here, to Stone Mountain.

CAMILLE: ...and I just knelt down, I was just “Oh,” just like, moaning. And praying, “Lord, help help. What am I going to do? How are we going to take this? It’s just too horrible.”

That was nearly three years ago. Since that awful day, Camille has returned to Stone Mountain countless times, often with her friend Heidi.

Heidi’s son also faced charges related to the same murder. The two women could have let that fact turn them against each other. Instead, they chose to encourage and support each other.

CAMILLE: We have been able to comfort each other like nobody else. Because who else could understand, where you don’t even have to explain how you’re feeling?

Heidi and Camille share openly with each other about what they’re going through. But, they set one clear ground rule:

CAMILLE: We agreed that we were not going to discuss the technicalities of our sons’ cases with each other.

Camille says the situation challenged her view of God. Before that, it had been all too easy to think of Christian parenting as a formula.

CAMILLE: If I pray, if I take him to church, if I read good books to them. Then everything will turn out just the way you want.

She doesn’t think that anymore.

CAMILLE: Maturity and experience has shown me that’s not the way God works.

HEIDI: I think you realize, hopefully, as you get older, you can’t control other people. People do make their own decisions, or choices.

But they say no matter what happens, they’ll stick by each other.

CAMILLE: It seems to me it’s an example to the world that we can love each other and know that the Lord is in control of this and we don't have to be at odds. We want both young men to, to thrive and grow in the Lord, and me and my husband pray for her and her husband’s child, and she and her husband pray for ours.

Life keeps putting those words to the test. Both cases are now concluded. Last month, a judge sentenced Heidi’s son to 20 years in prison with credit for time served.

Last week, a judge decided Camille’s son should serve two years behind bars. The district attorney dropped the murder charge in his case, but retained other allegations.

Heidi and Camille still meet up every week. And went back to Stone Mountain just last Thursday.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Grace Snell, in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

REICHARD: To learn more about Camille’s story, and what’s going on in the U.S. jail system, check out Grace’s story in the March 9th issue of WORLD Magazine.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, February 21st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney says progressive educators’ new vision for testing students isn’t all that new.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: Watch out America—there’s a new vision for education on the horizon. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, in alliance with the Educational Testing Service, are out to “fundamentally change” the way we assess student achievement in schools.

These are heavy-hitters in the education establishment. The Carnegie Foundation originated the credit hour, a measure of the classroom time spent in a particular study. The Educational Testing System, or ETS, administers standardized tests such as the SAT. Credit hours and testing provide the framework for modern education—but both organizations say it’s time for a change.

The problem, they say, is too much emphasis on “cognitive skills” like reading and writing, math, and scientific knowledge. Their “New Vision for Skills-Based Assessment,” is available online as a .pdf, and it proposes to do away with credit hours and cognitive testing in order to focus on the ABC of Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive skills. Here’s how they put it: “The new assessment system will assess not only cognitive skills that extend beyond disciplinary literacies ([for example], creativity, critical thinking), but also a wide variety of affective” skills like compassion and empathy “and behavioral skills” like collaboration and communication, “along with skills that span multiple psychological dimensions ([for example], perseverance, self-management).”

This New Vision isn’t exactly new. Progressives have been experimenting with “affective” education for decades, from whole language reading instruction in the 1930s to character training in the 1980s to Social-Emotional learning today. To designate the Skills for the Future that every child will need, New Vision consolidates other educational systems and proposals from as far afield as India and Saudi Arabia. Those skills would describe any successful adult at any time, not just the future. We’re talking about self-awareness, self-management, relationship savvy, creativity, persistence, flexibility, compassion, risk-taking, critical thinking—even “responding with wonderment and awe.”

The skills aren’t new, but what the Carnegie Foundation and ETS are proposing are new ways to measure them. Assessment would follow five principles: reflecting individual social and cultural backgrounds, prioritizing equity and fairness, applying assessment to instruction, using technology responsibly, and tailoring education to the individual. New Vision seems confident that AI, sensing technologies, and mechanisms yet unknown will be able to evaluate each student’s needs and achievements with pinpoint accuracy. Microchips in the brain may be just around the corner.

In spite of the brazen confidence displayed by New Vision, nobody knows how to turn out successful adults by a top-down system. Underneath the language about compassion and creativity is a pit of ignorance that cutting-edge technology won’t fill. The Bible understands the seat of learning as the heart—and the heart, as Jeremiah 17:9 describes it, is perverse and beyond understanding.

Formal education has always been about cognitive skills and measurable knowledge: times tables, ABCs, the area of a square, the structure of a sentence. School does a reasonably good job of that, because it can. Whole child education takes place elsewhere: in the home, on the playground, at church. When school assumes responsibility for a child’s heart as well as his brain, neither will flourish.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

CLOSING

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