Posted on 02/09/2013 4:00:16 PM PST by BruceDeitrickPrice
In 2007 Bill Gates said the public schools are a threat to the nations survival. Theyre that bad.
Its important that community leaders of all kinds (but especially business executives) become involved in fixing what must be called a crisis.
Your community needs you. Its easy to help. Heres how, in four steps:
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I: START WITH A CLEAN INTELLECTUAL SLATE
Public schools have been sinking into mediocrity for 70+ years. Statistics trend ever downward. Why?
Lets confront the obvious. The people at the top are grossly incompetent. Or their philosophy dictates that leducations true goal is leveling (i.e., dumbing down). Either way, its prudent to replace the so-called experts who created all this decline and misery.
In short, start fresh. Re-examine what went wrong. Re-imagine what is possible. Find your own experts and your own answers.
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II: TRUST ONLY THOSE WITH A RECORD OF SUCCESS
Every city has three reservoirs of educational wisdom. Talk to these people:
1) People who manage private schools.
2) Those in charge of good parochial schools.
3) Homeschooling parents. (Note: homeschoolers have to spend all day at the kitchen table teaching. They dont waste time on methods that dont work.)
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III: SELECT ONLY THE BEST APPROACHES
Investigate. Find out what goals and methods are used by the most successsful schools. Embrace only those methods!
Youre a VIP. People will answer your questions. What theories, what approaches, what curricula are mentioned again...and again?
In a few hours, youll know for yourself what works and doesnt work.
(Here is a preview of what youll probably learn...)
BAD METHODS OFTEN FOUND IN BAD SCHOOLS:
Sight Words
High-Frequency Words
Reform Math (12 varieties)
Constructivism
Cooperative Learning
Self-Esteem
Fuzziness
Whole Words
Dolch Words
Social Studies
Guessing
Relevance
Multiculturalism
No Memorization
Pretend Critical Thinking
Disorderly Schools
Permissive About Cheating
Just a few of these ideas, used relentlessly, can cripple any school.
GOOD METHODS TYPICALLY EMBRACED BY GOOD SCHOOLS
The 3 Rs
Basics
Phonics
Arithmetic
Cursive Handwriting
Mastery
Facts
Knowledge
Academics
Aesops Fables
Geography
Literature
General Science
History
Second Language
Homework
Proper Spelling
Accuracy
Promptness
Real Critical Thinking
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IV: PUT ON THE PRESSURE
The blueprint for success is simple: use only good methods. When in doubt, do what good schools do.
Praise and promote those methods. Spotlight successful schools.
Conversely, explain and criticize what bad schools do. Publish their scores. Name their principals. Laugh at their fads and foolishness.
Accept no excuses. When big organizations produce bad results, the top people should be replaced.
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SUMMARY: public education, throughout the 20th century, was debased to achieve political goals. Its time to say goodbye to all that.
The best schools around the country, and throughout history, have done much the same things. Kids learn reading, writing and arithmetic. From there they go on to geography, history, science, literature, and the arts.
We need to enforce the popular will, which surely desires substantive education, not indoctrination, for every child.
The problem is that the official leaders in education are like viruses in a computer; nothing works right with them around. We need new leaders, in every community, to reclaim the public schools.
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RELATED READING--
WHAT NOT TO DO: 56: Top 10 Worst Ideas in Education http://www.improve-education.org/id83.html
WHAT TO DO: A Bill of Rights for Students 2013 http://www.improve-education.org/id90.html
Lotta good thoughts in that article. And it does indeed echo what I’ve thought for ages - the community, not just the teachers, need to be involved. I think people in the homeschooling community have great ideas about curriculum and teaching methods and I wish they would share at their local school level and insist that they school board use sounder based books, etc.
Until you can brace yourself and be **that** frank, the painstaking, details you've provided so far as suggestions are beside the point.
Some of us, myself included, believe that "public schooling" has built-in operational problems which translate into the death of a "free" country by the destruction of its philosophy and culture. If you will be honest with yourself, you can imagine that we don't care much to talk about the latest flavors-of-the-month in educationist circles.
Wintertime says: “work toward complete privatization of universal K-12 schooling in this nation.”
Great!!! Go for it!!! IN THE MEANTIME, I think we need to get the last-remaining smart practical people involved in education. That’s all I said. Basically, if everyone who self-identifies as a conservative or a Republican got involved in the local schools, you could change things, maybe even quickly.
(One thing that people may not realize is the degree to which the local newspaper has completely sold out. They used to advocate for the parents, now they advocate for the NEA.
Thanks for many smart comments.
Note: this topic is from 2/09/201. Thanks BruceDeitrickPrice.
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