The New Child-Testing Craze

FTA:

"The rush to judge kids on their good behavior has been accelerated by the notion of emotional intelligence. In the 1995 publication of his book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman theorized that EI could be more determinative of a child's academic success than the child's IQ. That idea is so popular that few have noticed it’s not supported by the data—the theory has proven to be a fallacy. In a recent meta-analysis of 57 studies, scholars at Florida International University determined that the correlation between emotional intelligence and school success tops out at 0.10. That was for teens; for 5 year olds, it’s even more problematic."

I thought that part was particularly interesting, having been to a private elementary school where they talked about EI all the time.

If your private school is oversubscribed, and your entrance tests are basically random, why not just raise prices?

I could understand a proud parent enjoying the kudos of having a child in a school that selected on IQ (even if we all know it's a dodgy measure) but why be proud of a child being selected on entirely arbitrary standards of compliance and obedience?

Isn't it better to focus on oneself -- trying to be a better parent or teacher -- than to focus on testing the child in your care and trying to predict his future? It's not possible to predict people's futures anyway and all this tyrannical nonsense is simply contributing to depression and to the bureaucratisation of childhood.