What's wrong with "wonderful"

Even if we could make all the idiotic ideas and practices of our public schools magically disappear overnight, it would not do the slightest good, as long as the same shallow people were there the next day to find new idiocies to substitute for the hard work of teaching academic skills. - Thomas Sowell

What's wrong with wonderful? Well, a great deal if that's the best adjective that can be used to describe a program or idea.

For example, we know of an inner-city elementary school that adopted (at great expense) the entire MathLand program. It was full of wonderful activities, and the kids loved it, the teachers loved it, and the parents loved it.

It was so wonderful that the kids didn't learn a darn thing! (Actually, that's not quite true. They did learn something, they learned that "math is fun" despite the fact that they didn't actually learn much mathematics.)

If someone says to you, "I know of a wonderful program..." Stop!!! Stop 'em right there! Ask, "Is it proven to be effective in raising achievement in real classrooms?" You will soon find out how wonderful said program is.

But beware, don't make the mistake of just asking "Is it effective?" because that's not the same thing. See, they might have unhelpfully redefined the word "effective," as we discussed yesterday.