In School, Talking the Edutalk

Washington Post ^ | January 18, 2004 | Linda Perlstein

[Cincinatus' Wife]

At many schools, 6-year-olds don't compare books anymore -- they make "text-to-text connections." Misbehaving students face not detention but the "alternative instruction room," or "reinforcement room," or "reflection room." Children who once read now practice "SSR," or "sustained silent reading."

And in Maryland, high schoolers write "extended constructed responses" -- the essay, in a simpler time.

Jargon has been a mainstay of bureaucracy for centuries, satirized in the works of Jonathan Swift and George Orwell. Education is particularly fertile ground: At school board meetings, stakeholders gather to align curriculum to content standards. Teachers learn to vertically articulate and differentiate instruction and give authentic, outcome-based assessments.

Now -- with the teacher training industry uncommonly influential, children encouraged to think in more complex terms, and new tests and reforms each coming with its own vocabulary -- the vast menu of what's called eduspeak or educationese has oozed into the classrooms. A second-grade teacher announces "modeling efficient subtraction strategies" as the task of the day, while "selected response" has taken the place of "multiple choice."

"These are terms that will drive anyone to complete hysteria," said Robert Hartwell Fiske, publisher of the Vocabulary Review and author of the forthcoming "Dictionary of Disagreeable English."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Just teach English, reading, math, science and history.

[Jeff Chandler]

Just teach English, reading, math, science and history.

One doesn't "teach". One facilitates higher learning skills and critical thinking by formulating individualized modes of diverse intelligence type processes oriented towards the allowment of ....

You get the picture.

[EuroFrog]

Homeschooling here I come.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Yes I do. If you can't teach, confuse.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[Gal.5:1]

I'm so glad my kids are just reading, writing, thinking, memorizing, listening, studying, experimenting, creating, playing and learning.

[First_Salute]

The President of the United States is unwilling to correct his own language errors, then why should any student?

[Vineyard]

Homeschooling is a great option ... and many more are doing it!

We are nearing completion .... 2 children "finished" (1 finished H.S. last June, the 2nd is officially a senior, but is completing his 2nd year of college courses via "Running Start" (a great WA program - and the state pays the tuition at the local Jr. College) and hoping to enter the Navy Academy next September). Our last one is still homeschooled ... 9th grade at present.

If you need additional motivation, read the book "Conspiracy of Silence" by Martin Gross ... after reading it, you definitely will avoid the public schools!

We have seen the schools only slide downward ... all while complaining that the problem is a lack of funding. But it is ironic that as funding goes up, the success of students (as measured by SAT scores, or number of entering students to Univ. of Washington requiring remedial math or english courses) goes down.

Mike

[neverdem]

You beat me posting this article while I was composing my comment to the article. I can't type, just hunt and peck. The article wasn't posted when I checked initally, and then I checked again before posting to find that you posted it. Drat

With the education establishment endorsing such nonsense, now you can understand why students today need a bachelor's degree when years ago a high school diploma would suffice. 1984 came and went, but we never appreciated it. Orwell was quite prophetic.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Orwell was quite prophetic.

Bump!

[185JHP]

Teach "compare and contrast" and before you know it, kids will think some ideas are better than others...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

....all while complaining that the problem is a lack of funding. But it is ironic that as funding goes up, the success of students (as measured by SAT scores, or number of entering students to Univ. of Washington requiring remedial math or english courses) goes down.

The longer students are in school, the more they fall behind. That is a very scary picture.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The President of the United States is unwilling to correct his own language errors, then why should any student?

Because they're taught well. Later in life, when they campaign and win the highest office in the world, they too can use strategery, or refuse to eat broccoli, or be impeached.

[Jaysun]

"alternative instruction room," or "reinforcement room," or "reflection room."

Isn't that sweet? Isn't it also sweet how some schools have stopped recognizing the brighter children in order to keep the other children from feeling "alienated" or "inferior"? In fact, an overall lowering of standards has been the "solution" to poor results in public schools for years. Even minimul amounts of discipline have been replaced with mambsy pambsy compliance by those in authority to avoid damaging the "self esteem" of what could have been a decent child. We have hoards of kids being pumped into society who can barely (if at all) read the diploma just given to them. They also have no idea how to fit in to a competitive society that doesn't reward you according to how good you feel about yourself.

Public education is the cancer of America. The people who could do the most to change that are more interested in the job security, pay, and benefits of those who administer failure than anything else. In today's American education system, it's the kids serving the public schools - not the other way around. Be careful and diligent if you have school aged children. To send them to public school today may be the equivalent of sending them to receive a lobotomy.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

NEA challenged on political outlays - Teacher's union fields "army of campaign workers"

[dasboot]

Hey Mike,
Congratulations! Navy Academy is a good deal. We know a homeschooler whe just graduated 2003.
Our two 'graduated' five and four years ago, (one is a Marchant Marine Engineer, the other going the same way) , my wife couldn't stand not teaching anymore (I adjusted after a while) and started tutoring other peoples' kids. Her latest 'project' is a 16 year-old she's had for three years...a public school throwaway...who's getting ready to take SAT's , and scoring in the 1400 range on the practice tests! Solid scholarship territory!
I don't know how common it is that vet homeschool parents are continuing to contribute to the progress of civilization, but I'd like to think it's a growing trend, as well as homeschooling proper.
Good luck to you, and enjoy it while it lasts. I miss those years.

[Lil'freeper]

A second-grade teacher announces "modeling efficient subtraction strategies" as the task of the day, while "selected response" has taken the place of "multiple choice."

So long as there is a rubric in place to measure effectiveness! How I despise that word.

[Kozak]

Just teach English, reading, math, science and history

One must know the material in order to teach it.
Why do you think the teachers unions are so opposed to basic competency tests? They know the emperor has no clothes......

[ladylib]

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh!t.

Public education is getting sillier and sillier every day.

[Imal]

Perhaps most vexing of all is the incessant use of the passive voice.