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SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Beware The Tools of Totalitarianism
William Sherer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich makes interesting reading, especially when it comes to how the government used its schools to brainwash German children. Here's what Hitler had to say about his program to indoctrinate the country's youth into rabid nationalism, anti-semitism, and Naziism. "'When an opponent declares, 'I will not come over to your side', he said in a speech on November 6, 1933, I calmly say, 'Your child belongs to us already'." And of course he was right, for the most part.
In addition to using the schools to control the German people, Hitler also used the press. Here is an interesting passage from The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich that illustrates how powerful these tools can be.
"I myself was to experience how easily one is taken in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state. Though like most Germans I had daily access to foreign newspapers, espcially those of London, Paris, and Zurich, which arrived the day after publication, and though I listened regularly to the BBC and other foreign broadcasts, my job necessitated the spending of many hours a day in combing the German press, checking the German radio, conferring with Nazi officials and going to party meetings. It was surprising and sometimes consternating to find that notwithstanding the opportunities I had to learn the facts and despite one's inherent distrust of what one learned from Nazi sources, a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain impression on one's mind and often misled it. No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dread consequences of a regime's calculated and incessant propaganda. Often in a German home or office or sometimes in a casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a café, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. It was obvious that they parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for truth, said they were."
Canadians are very lucky to be living in a free country, and we must be ever on guard against the possibility of losing our freedom to a government that is tempted to use the tools of totalitarianism to advance its own agenda.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Sex-Ed Controversy
As a result of backlash from several parent communities, this afternoon the Premier of Ontario backed down on implementing that controversial new health curriculum. According to Premier McGuinty, parents in Ontario just didn't know what the ministry of education was working on and they should have consulted more. Well duh. Since you never ask us Mr. Premier, no wonder.
I'll be on CBC late this afternoon to discuss this issue.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
The “Secret” Principles of Direct Instruction
Siegfried Engelmann is a former preschool teacher who developed one of the most powerful teaching programs known to mankind - Direct Instruction. Dr. Engelmann writes in his book War Against the Schools' Academic Child Abuse, "I have never seen a kid with an IQ over 80 that could not be taught to read in a timely manner (one school year), and I have worked directly or indirectly (as a trainer) with thousands of them." He famously once offered $1,000 to anyone who could produce an exception to this boast - but his money was safe. In the video, Dr. Engelmann reveals the "secret" principles of Direct Instruction.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
A Reasonable Compromise to the Sex-Ed Controversy
Parents who don't want their 12-year-olds learning about oral and anal sex may wish to participate in a May 10 protest mentioned in this Ottawa Citizen article. Likewise the parents of 8-year-olds who object to lessons on gender identity, sexual orientation and same-sex marriage, and the parents of 11-year-olds who would rather their kids didn't learn about masturbation and vaginal lubrication just yet.
The Ontario Minister of Education is suggesting that these parents have the option of having their children sit out the class. But this is a delicate issue, since most parents hesitate to make a big fuss and force their children to be different from the rest of the kids, and of course it also assumes that the parents have been fully informed of what is going to be taught - and how it is to be presented.
A better solution would be to treat the new sex-education curriculum as an opt-in program. Under this arrangement, parents would be shown the whole curriculum well in advance and asked whether or not they wish to sign their kids up for each of the questionable units. It is telling that this option does not appear to even be under consideration - perhaps because educators are aware that a great many parents would choose not to opt in if given the choice.
Subsequent note from Doretta: As a result of backlash from several parent communities, on April 22nd the Premier of Ontario backed down on implementing this curriculum. According to Premier McGuinty parents in Ontario just didn't know what the ministry of education was working on and they should have consulted more. Well, duh! Since you never ask us Mr. Premier, no wonder.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Money Talks
Following on with yesterday's posting, it's worth asking why the Ontario faculties of education continue to churn out many more graduates than can expect to find employment. A related question is why the faculties of education continue to survive at all in the face of the withering criticism of the service they are providing. Indeed, the faculties of education are held in very low regard by the professors in the other faculties, occupying the lowest rung of the educational hierarchy at most universities.
The main reason for their survival is that the faculties of education are cash cows. They have large enrollments (the larger, the better!) but, unlike the sciences and other professional faculties, they don't require elaborate or expensive equipment. In fact, their students are frequently not even on campus, being off on their practice teaching gigs. And the professors at the faculties of education are among the lowest-paid professors at the university.
As a result, the faculties of education are very profitable. No university president would even contemplate abolishing such a good money-maker.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
More Than a Band-Aid Called For
Big headlines in The Globe and Mail this morning scream "Ontario School Boards Squander $16.7 Million By Hanging on to Retirees". The problem is that Ontario school boards are tending to give their supply jobs to retired teachers who, when it comes to the long-term assignments (for example, maternity leave), get paid up to twice as much as new teachers. A related problem is that this practice makes it very hard for recent graduates to get their toes in the door.
However, it seems to us that the article is outraged about symptoms, as opposed to root causes. After all, the money amounts are miniscule as a percentage of total education spending (almost $19 billion last year), and the number of displaced recent job seekers is a tiny percentage of the number of recent graduates pounding the pavement.
Rather than huffing and puffing about school board cronyism and selfish retired teachers, why not zero in on the pay scales and pension rules that make it so lucrative for retired teachers to accept long-term substitute teaching positions? What about asking the faculties of education why they continue to graduate roughly two newly-certified teachers each year for every teaching position that opens up?
It's an awful lot easier to change the rules than it is to change human behaviour.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Laughing Alot
After reading this, no one will ever again be tempted to misspell the phrase "a lot'.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
The Power of Music and the Internet
Just the thing to get us all mellow---185 people who individually recorded a part of the chorus and sent it to the composer, who then composited them into a virtual Youtube choir. Lovely. Now chill out!
H/T my son who sent this my way.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
The Lady Doth Protest Too Much
Ontario teachers' unions are always going on about how important it is to offer competitive wages and benefits in order to attract and keep excellent teachers. The truth is, however, that the teaching profession is plenty attractive at the moment - so much so that it's just about impossible for most newly-minted teachers to find a job. These two postings (1) and (2) from The Education Reporter blog have some interesting stuff about Ontario's teacher glut. Particularly thought-provoking is the first comment (by RetDir) to the second posting. RetDir prophesies imminent layoffs of secondary teachers - because declining enrollment is about to hit Ontario high schools - and the possibility that some of these teachers will seek early childhood education qualifications so they can get jobs in the growing all-day kindergarten sector.
With tens of thousands of prospective teachers seeking jobs already, and newly laid-off teachers desperate to find another teaching position, clearly there is no need to hike teacher salaries even more.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
We Must Be Cruel Only to be Kind
Social promotion (promoting kids to the next grade regardless of their academic preparation) has come under attack in the US in recent years. Supporters of social promotion frequently refer to research showing that retained students on average show no long-term academic benefits and tend to drop out in greater numbers. But the arguments against social promotion are even more compelling. Opponents of social promotion point out that social promotion sets up struggling students for even worse failure, increases the academic variability within classes, misleads parents about their children's progress, and sends the message that students don't have to work hard in order to pass.
As a result, several educational jurisdictions in the US have tried to end social promotion - with mixed results. It seems that it's not very effective to hold kids back and just give them the same programming that failed them in the first place. However, it appears that when retained students receive different programming the second time through, they do better than their socially-promoted peers. Click here for a report on what happened in New York City when retained students received massive academic intervention, including out-of-school support services.
The issue is quite relevant for Ontario, as this article from The Niagara Falls Review shows. In 2007/2008, only about 1 in 428 Ontario elementary students was enrolled in the same grade as he or she had been the previous year, and the decision to repeat a year may in many cases have been the result of a prolonged absence from school due to illness or some other non-academic reason.
Given that the EQAO test results suggest that 35%-40% of the province's students are not ready for the work of the next grade, yet are being promoted anyway, perhaps we could learn from New York City's success.