Because - and especially in their assessments - they tend to reflect familiar categories: The sharp and often distorting distinctions among and between «subjects»; age grading; the value placed on quick recall; the dumbing down
of the
quality and grace
of expository prose to make it fit into some sort
of rating scheme; the overload
of material to be covered, usually the inevitable result
of intracommittee ideological logrolling, which leads to a bit
of this and a dollop
of that; the almost absolute denial
of a value placed on individual ingenuity, craggy but provocative thinking, sustained work, and desirable variety; the
lack of interest,
signaled by the assessment apparatus,
of the virtues
of fairness, good character, and imagination.