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The Big Problem in K-12: Too Many Leeches
RantRave.com ^ | May 5, 2016 | Bruce Deitrick Price

Posted on 10/29/2016 5:32:06 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice

Bloodletting was, for more than 2000 years, the most common form of medical treatment on the planet. Theory and tradition agreed that the body sometimes had too much blood in it, and the best thing was to let it out.

According to Wikipedia, "Bloodletting was used to treat almost every disease. One British medical text recommended bloodletting for acne, asthma, cancer, cholera, coma, convulsions, diabetes, epilepsy, gangrene, gout, herpes, indigestion, insanity, jaundice, leprosy, ophthalmia, plague, pneumonia, scurvy, smallpox, stroke, tetanus, tuberculosis, and for some one hundred other diseases."

The doctor could cut a vein. Another method, dating back to 800 BC, employed a bloodsucking parasite. One species is even named after this function: Hirudo medicinalis.

"Leeches became especially popular in the early nineteenth century.…Through the early decades of the century, hundreds of millions of leeches were used by physicians throughout Europe." (Wikipedia) Modern science has concluded that in almost every case the bloodletting was harmful or, at best, irrelevant.

A soldier might suffer a major wound resulting in the loss of blood. Never mind. Doctors would prescribe bloodletting, and then more bloodletting. "The withdrawal of so much blood as to induce syncope (fainting) was considered beneficial, and many sessions would only end when the patient began to swoon." (Wikipedia)

So imagine a patient, pale and sickly, with dozens of leeches fastened to his skin. The patient takes a turn for the worse. What is the answer? More leeches.

In fact, what was actually the correct solution? First, get rid of the leeches. Which brings us to the perilous state of K-12 education. The patient is sick. The patient is covered with leeches. Experts demand: more leeches for this patient. Of course, the patient becomes sicker. Meanwhile, the cure is simple and cheap. Get rid of the leeches!

If you go back 80 years and make a list of all the reforms and experiments attached to public education, you will find that hardly one of them resulted in better results. Nearly every one was a leech sucking blood out of the children and the school system.

Whole Word (also known as Look-say) was introduced in 1931. That was a particularly large and nasty leech, still a pandemic. If the Education Establishment could get away with not teaching reading, while pretending to teach reading, anything was possible. The floodgates were open. New Math, Constructivism, Discovery Method, Self-Esteem, Multiculturalism, Relevance, No Memorization, Whole Language, Cooperative Learning, No Cursive, Sight Words, Common Core Math,…. you would need a page to list all the pretentiously proclaimed but ultimately destructive leeches. Enough.

How do we fix our schools? You will note that the Education Establishment's answer is always the same: MORE LEECHES. That is, they always want to try a new gimmick (for which they will be exorbitantly paid).

The correct answer is not to add bad stuff, but to get rid of all the bad stuff that was added in earlier decades.

Go back to 1930 and look at the typical public school curriculum. In a pinch, that would work fine. Teach all the basic skills, all the fundamental facts and knowledge, that were routinely taught, to the degree that each student can handle this information. Now the students have a foundation for acquiring a genuine education.

Ah, a school without leeches. That's what we need.

Do you realize what is happening nowadays? The schools teach almost nothing and give all the students A's and B's. What kind of people would create a school system like that?

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Three-minute video clarifies what works and what doesn't: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuihhEpQETs

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Bruce Deitrick Price explains theories and methods on Improve-Education.org.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Education; History; Reference
KEYWORDS: dumbingdown; socialism
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1 posted on 10/29/2016 5:32:06 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
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To: BruceDeitrickPrice

“I hate these ‘leeches’ to peaches!!!”


2 posted on 10/29/2016 5:33:45 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: BruceDeitrickPrice

Asbury Park spends about $32,000 per year per student, one of the worst districts in the country

Newark spends about $29,000 per year per student, one of the worst districts in the country

Camden spends about $25,000 per year per student, one of the worst districts in the country

Tuition at a private school $25,000 per year, per student, some of the best schools in the country

And yet, the liberals tell us everyday that we need to spend more money on public education......

Insanity

Anyone know where the 100 million dollars Facebook donated to the Newark public school went? Nobody can find it....


3 posted on 10/29/2016 5:39:18 PM PDT by arl295
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To: BruceDeitrickPrice

When the Wisconsin Capitol was under siege over Gov. Walkers reforms, I remember an interview with a private school administrator in the Milwaukee area. He gave the numbers spent per classroom, and the difference between his school (which got good results) and the state public school average was more than 2 to 1. What struck me is his comment that he couldn’t imagine how to spend that much additional mone even if he had it. It simply isn’t necessary to obtain good educational outcomes.

It was one of those statements that you remember forever because it cut through so much BS and spoke the truth.


4 posted on 10/29/2016 5:52:13 PM PDT by bigbob (The Hillary indictment will have to come from us.)
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To: arl295

Newton,MA $18.000.00 per year——great schools.

.


5 posted on 10/29/2016 5:54:21 PM PDT by Mears
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To: arl295
Asbury Park spends about $32,000 per year per student...

Newark spends about $29,000 per year per student...

For a 25-student classroom, that's $750,000.

If you figure $150,000 for the teacher, salary and benefits, that still leaves a $600,000 surplus per classroom.

Repeat that for each classroom in a given school.

WTF does it all go?

6 posted on 10/29/2016 5:57:22 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: arl295

Econ 101 teaches that monopolies provide bad service/products at a high cost. When the monopoly is governmental, the problems are an order of magnitude worse. This author unfortunately continues to provide fairly good critiques of the system, but then tells people that government schools can be “reformed”. They can’t be reformed any more than Soviet collective farms could be reformed. The only solution is to bring the system down by opting out and never, ever voting for a school bond levy or other tax. School “reformers” have been “reforming the government school system for the 50’s. 60 or so years, and trillions of dollars, of school “reform” has produced a system that is so destructive that most of our expensively institutionalized government school students are incapable of playing useful economic roles and are unfit to call themselves citizens. Anyone who calls for “school reform” is utterly irresponsible.


7 posted on 10/29/2016 6:01:49 PM PDT by achilles2000 ("I'll agree to save the whales as long as we can deport the liberals")
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To: BruceDeitrickPrice
I recently retired from teaching at the community college level. I saw the HUGE disservice to our American students who got through twelve grades and STILL had the reading and writing skills of a first grader.

THEREIN lies the betrayal.

.

.

But, BOY, did they have self-esteem. I DID ask one minority male if he felt GOOD about being an ignoramus. Since he didn't know what that word meant I was off the hook.

I had JUST corrected his Master's thesis for errors, at HIS request. The FIRST PARAGRAPH of four sentences had 50 (fifty) errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling.

In answer to MY question he just nodded and smiled.

8 posted on 10/29/2016 6:01:51 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: arl295
Anyone know where the 100 million dollars Facebook donated to the Newark public school went? Nobody can find it ...

More than half, over 50 million, went to the teachers' union as "backdated raises," that is, bribes, to even get them to talk about any kind of structural reform. A lot of the rest went to "consultants".

There's a book about it called The Prize.

9 posted on 10/29/2016 6:02:07 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I'm sure I don't know what you mean. You forget yourself.)
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To: cloudmountain

I’m confused: a person is writing a Master’s thesis in community college?


10 posted on 10/29/2016 6:03:08 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I'm sure I don't know what you mean. You forget yourself.)
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To: lee martell
“I hate these ‘leeches’ to peaches!!!”

Lol.

I don't know HOW many times I have mistakenly written PEACH ON EARTH instead of PEACE ON EARTH.

In the end, it's not so bad. I LOVE peaches.

11 posted on 10/29/2016 6:03:51 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: cloudmountain

Visualize whirled peas.


12 posted on 10/29/2016 6:04:27 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I'm sure I don't know what you mean. You forget yourself.)
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To: cloudmountain

That Xmas greeting would be very popular in the state of Georgia.


13 posted on 10/29/2016 6:06:32 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: Tax-chick
I’m confused: a person is writing a Master’s thesis in community college?

I taught yoga and had HUGE classes. Students were NOT required to take any physical education classes but could if they wanted. It was also open to the community.

He was in my yoga class one semester just because he wanted to be.

14 posted on 10/29/2016 6:07:41 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: Tax-chick
Visualize whirled peas.

I hated peas. My parents DID allow me to drink as much milk with dinner as I wanted to so I "ate" the peas like I was swallowing pills. Lol.

15 posted on 10/29/2016 6:09:13 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: bigbob

There is an inner city private school in Milwaukee with excellent results. Waiting list to get in. When they wanted to purchase an abandoned school for more space, the city said no. Public education. Another swamp that needs draining.


16 posted on 10/29/2016 6:09:14 PM PDT by mouse1
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To: Tax-chick

My brother-in-law used to call peas “little green bullets.”


17 posted on 10/29/2016 6:09:42 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: cloudmountain

If I understand you, you’re saying the person was not a student at the community college, but participated in a community-outreach yoga class at the community college.

That makes sense.


18 posted on 10/29/2016 6:09:47 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I'm sure I don't know what you mean. You forget yourself.)
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To: lee martell
That Xmas greeting would be very popular in the state of Georgia.

Lol! I hadn't thought of that. YOU ARE CORRECT!

19 posted on 10/29/2016 6:10:36 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: cloudmountain

Heh. I hated canned peas, but I like fresh or frozen peas.

Dragons love peas, but only fresh or frozen. Canned peas are too mushy.


20 posted on 10/29/2016 6:10:55 PM PDT by Tax-chick (I'm sure I don't know what you mean. You forget yourself.)
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