This article about education really gets my goat. Dammit, it was my last one, and now I'm all out of goats.

It's supposedly a defense of memorization, which would be fine, if it didn't go off on these tangents that are beside the point. It's these tangents that annoy me:

• It attacks "the progressives’ educational philosophy", and defends classical education.

  I think both sides have a point, but it's a false dilemma. I don't know what schools the author was looking at, but the kids I've seen recently are getting neither a classical nor a progressive education.

  Instead, public schools have gone all Moneyball on us: our kids are being measured objectively. School districts, administrators, and teachers are now all rewarded based on how well their kids do on test scores.

  This means that the subjects that can be measured objectively are emphasized, and subjects that cannot are neglected. Curricula are now designed to maximize test scores in math and reading. Nothing wrong with math and reading, but the result is an education system designed to create a society of people who can do well on multiple choice tests.

  Real life provides few multiple choice tests. Meanwhile, parents who think artistic creativity and critical analysis are also important skills are forced to hold bake sales to hire art teachers.

• It states opinions as if they were some kind of scientific fact:

  Classic verse teaches children an enormous amount about order, measure, proportion, correspondence, balance, symmetry, agreement, temporal relation (tense), and contingent possibility (mood).

  Does it really? Based on what evidence? How does classic verse do this better than say, a modern rap song?

  Look, I'd like my kids to be exposed to classic Western literature. But there is no scientific evidence that classic art is better than modern art, or that Western art is better than Eastern art. None. Scientists are just beginning to ask these questions. We're nowhere near an answer.

Objective tests or subjective evaluations? Rote memorization or open play? Scouts or stats? Beer or tacos? Both, you fools. This need not be a religious war.

Now excuse me, I need to find someone to eat this tin can.