Posted on 09/01/2014 6:24:21 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
Local newspapers in the US don't cover education in any depth. Maybe they'll tell you superficial and trivial stuff (for example, that a superintendent was hired or fired, that there will be a meeting next month of the school board). But you won't find anything about the nuts and bolts that determine whether you child learns to read, or learns anything at all.
At first glance, this non-coverage can seem to be a mystery.
Everybody's interested in education, especially parents and grandparents with kids in K-12. Probably one of the most valuable things that you could tell these people is how to help their children do better in school.
So, why not cover education more thoroughly?
But look deeper and the mystery goes away.
American public schools are full of failed theories and dysfunctional schemes. In a phrase, there is a lot of bunk and junk. For example, Rudolf Flesch wrote a famous book in 1955 explaining why Johnny can't read if you teach him with sight-words. But here we are 60 years later and children in elementary schools are being taught in that same way. Think about that for a moment.
New Math, which the country laughed into oblivion around 1965, came back with multiple variations under the heading Reform Math and now Common Core Math. The common denominator is inefficiency. In short, the Education Establishment has a total affection for clunkers.
And now in almost every classroom, the dominant teaching method is called Constructivism, which dictates that teacher shouldn't teach and children should forage in the intellectual forest for themselves. With teachers not teaching, you will surely get a lot less learning.
That's just three of many bogus theories and methods. Cynics would say that there are almost no good ideas in the public schools. Our Education Establishment has systematically purged them.
In sum, our public schools are absolutely awash with bad ideas. Apparently the smartest people in the Education Establishment make their bones, as the Mafia guys say, by coming up with creaky, unworkable curricula.
Aha.
Now you're seeing the problem. If newspaper started explaining what's really going on in the public schools, there would be such an outcry. The peasants might even be in a mood to revolt. Irate parents would show up to argue with teachers and principals. Administrators might be stalked on the street. School boards would have to deal with endless complaints. Professors at the nearby ed school would find themselves despised. Publishers of useless textbooks would get hate mail. If the truth brought improvement, most tutors and remediation people would be out of work. Shrinks and manufacturers of Ritalin would find their business way down. And what would Sylvan and Kumon do if the schools stopped crippling children intellectually?
In short, newspapers do not want all those people mad at them. Better not to rock the boat. Don't anybody say a word. Better to let the kids be dumbed down.
This sounds pathetic and pusillanimous. And it is. But consider that the editors and publishers of the newspapers are merely human. Probably they are friends with the local NEA bosses and big shots from the federal bureaucracy. They want to stay friends. They don't want all these parents coming down to the schools every day shouting, "Look what it says here in the paper," because those angry shouts will reverberate in their own lives.
So it's a lot simpler just to leave the kids ignorant, let the parents puzzle on in silence.
Education is a big trough and it seems that everybody has a place at the trough, except maybe kids and parents.
Eric Hoffer, the philosopher, said that every great cause— and here one might think of public education—"begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket."
———----------------------------------------------------
“The Top 10 Worst Ideas in Education”
http://www.improve-education.org/id83.html
“A Bill of Rights for Students 2014” lays out what schools should be doing.
http://www.improve-education.org/id90.html
It’s not rocket science. Schools start with reading, writing, and arithmetic. Then they go on to geography, history, science, arts and literature, and all the rest but you have to start with the basics.
END rantrave piece
>>It’s not rocket science. Schools start with reading, writing, and arithmetic. Then they go on to geography, history, science, arts and literature, and all the rest but you have to start with the basics.
<<
How DARE you suggest such things!!!! Education should be educative not knowledgeative!!!! (/Teachers’ Unions)
As one who was born in 1955, I experienced sight words with Dick, Jane, Sally, and Spot but the teachers in my small Kansas town were experienced enough to realize that was not going to get the job done for many students. There was lots of phonics and sounding out unfamiliar words for those struggling to read. I was fortunate that reading came easy and early. It’s only with the ability to remember back to those who struggled that I understand why taxpayers and parents need to take the “educators” off their pedestals to question methods and results.
The biggest problem with education is the worthless parents. No system can overcome that.
Even then, Dick and Jane were pathetic compared to what my parents and grandparents were required to learn. At least they did teach us self discipline to supplement what we were taught at home.
Worthless parents? Please explain why parents are “worthless.”
Thanks.
Agreed that Dick & Jane readers were well below the standard of McGuffey’s Readers used by previous generations. Experienced teachers realized this and supplemented with phonics, some straight out of McGuffey. Involved parents also made a difference that is not seen today. I bless my parents every day for my early reading skills and opportunities. As the author notes, that foundational learning skill sets up everything else.
I’m blessed that reading took me well beyond the boundaries of a little desert town. That and a couple of really good math and science teachers and home instruction in addition to school saved me.
I have twin girls that are now 34 years old. I had always done well in school and trusted that the public school would do as good a job with educating my children as they had me. I was taught to read phonetically and assumed that my girls were being taught the same way because they brought home worksheets using phonetics concepts, yet they had problems learning to read. I discovered the above book when they were in third grade, as well as the sequel that was written 20 years later Why Johnny STILL Can't Read
I was shocked to find that my girls had no idea that, for ezample, "ph" is pronounced "f" and that they were completely unfamiliar with any of a number of simple rules that I had learned long before I was their age. I realized then what a terrible fraud had been perpetrated on the public school children of America! Phonetics had become passé, boring, and old-fashioned and the new "look and say" method was considered to be far superior. The schools of education and the textbook companies had staked their careers and their fortunes on the success of that flawed method. Even though they knew it was not working, they refused to abandon it. The result was the explosion of dyslexia and remedial reading classes that we have today.
Around that same time, I remember reading an article that was written by a young mother who had always thought she was "dumb" because she had problems with reading. Imagine her surprise when she took a foreign language and learned it with no difficulty because she first learned the sounds the letters made and to read each word from left to right. The "look and say" method teaches a child to "decode" a word any way they can. To be successful, children are required to memorize a large number of words rather than simply how to pronounce the letters as they are. Children "trained" to read using one set of textbooks often had trouble reading if they switched to another publisher's textbooks. Those who had been taught to read phonetically could read The New York Times even though they did not always understand the content.
I could go on and on because I feel so strongly about this issue, but I will get off my soapbox. I will say that, as terrible as this was, what the powers that be in education are doing to try to "brainwash" our children by giving them a distorted view of American history is even worse!
Since the MSM doesn’t recognize the truth how are they able to tell the truth. The MSM has destroyed its credibility.
ping so I can find this again
I can't remember if I was taught sight words or not, nor can I remember any official phonics lessons ... I just know I started to read early and well, and loved it
BTTT!
Obviously you haven't met parents such as I've had to deal with. Not only do they not know their kids' grades on their report cards, they don't even know when the report cards come out. They don't know what kind of slutwear their girl is wearing or filthy slogan t-shirt their son has on in school. In many cases, they don't even know if their kid is in school!
Such "parents" don't make sure they drill their kids to make sure they understand the material they're learning. They don't make sure homework is done or projects are completed.
I don't think kids missed out on getting any semblance of manners or respect for adults because they had great parents. An incredible amount of them don't have parents--they have parent. In some schools, it's an occasion to break out the champagne if you see a kid on your roster with the same last name as the parent. Like, WOW!
Parents of worth don't have kids who tell teachers to "suck my d__k" as a preface to most sentences or threaten them with bodily harm for asking them to put their cell phone away or to stop talking. Kids with parents of worth don't steal the teacher's personal property or assault other students.
Have I explained the concept of "worthless parents" sufficiently?
And don’t forget, everyone involved in public education is making damn good money as they screw up whole generations of innocent kids. Kids who deserve better.
They should be ashamed to take the salaries, benefits and pensions that they suck out of the taxpayers. We should be demanding an accounting of these selfish creeps.
California FReepers can find out what their local schoolteachers and staff are making here:
http://transparentcalifornia.com/agencies/salaries/school-districts/
A second grade teacher in my county is making over $92K a year and her high school math husband is also making over $92K a year. Mind you this is for working (?!?) nine months. $184K for part time work!
You can also check out all California government workers salary at the main site:
http://transparentcalifornia.com
These days they're more interested in teaching them Dick+Dick and Jane+Jane and in no time at all it will be Sally and spot.
Government news readers say nothing about government indoctrination centers? Go figure.
Old Pennsy/Dutch saying
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