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SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Sunday at the Movies (Psanky)
Happy Easter! Here's how to make Ukrainian Easter eggs (psanky).
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Historical oppression of the masses
In England, the education secretary is trying to change the way history is being taught. Instead of the current emphasis on "learning skills" (developing the ability to evaluate sources, for example), Mr. Gove would like students to learn the chronology and facts of their country's history, more
The whole article is of interest, with some cool stuff about John Donne and Easter, and even the comments (410 of them as we go to press) are worth looking at. But what I found most interesting, a new insight, is the concept that when history learning skills are taught instead of actual history, it's mostly the disadvantaged students who suffer. Do you see a trend developing here? Progressive teaching methods are most poisonous to the very population they purport to benefit. Here's a relevant excerpt from the article.
"If all this is denied, what happens is that the well-educated become very privileged and everyone else is cut off. The Evanses and Cannadines and other priests of knowledge can move freely in the world they have created for themselves, but the millions who have never really learned anything important are held down in ignorance."
H/T Chas
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Teaching the Good Book
It's Good Friday, and so I thought a religious blog was indicated. Click here for a marvellous article about teaching Bible literacy. The article points to all kinds of terrific resources, and is a tremendous read all by itself.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Where there’s a will, there’s a way
Back in 1999, I had an article published in "Professionally Speaking", a publication of the Ontario College of Teachers. This article stressed the awesome responsibility of grade 1 teachers in terms of teaching all of their students to read and discussed some good ways to accomplish same.
Now comes a study suggesting that kids who are deficient in number knowledge when they start grade 1 tend to struggle with math forever afterwards.
The article suggests that it's all the parents' fault and that there's nothing grade 1 teachers can do with improperly-prepared kids. But I reject this premise for two reasons.
1. I'm simply not prepared to write off the large cohort of kids whose parents can't or won't teach their preschoolers number fluency. Denunciations of and exhortations to this group of parents may be morally satisfying and make the denouncers and exhorters feel good, but they are highly unlikely to make much of a difference.
2. There are lots of grade 1 teachers who are successfully bringing all of their students to a high level of math achievement. It can be done. Age 5 is not too late. But more teachers need to believe they can do it and learn how.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Differing views of the mission of schools
I once was talking to a parent who matter-of-factly told me that her kids' school had failed to teach them to read, and so she did the job herself. Clearly, she saw nothing wrong with this picture.
To me, it was kind of like - oh well, the dentist failed to deal with my kids' cavities so I fixed them - or - oh well, the grocery store didn't have any food so I got a cow and planted a garden.
However, perhaps I am in the minority in thinking that schools' job number one ought to be teaching kids to be good readers.
My latest Huffington Post blog has attracted a couple of comments along these same lines - in that it's basically up to parents to teach their kids to read. This leads me to wonder what these parents think the mission of schools ought to be.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
The winds of change are blowing in Canada
The Big Shift, by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson, is a provocative new book that argues that the very high numbers of immigrants to Canada (fully 20% of Canadians are foreign-born) is creating a powerful new political coalition based in the West and supported by immigrant voters in Ontario and beyond. According to the dust jacket, "politicians and businesspeople have greatly underestimated how conservative these newcomers are, and how conservative they are making our country. Canada, with its ever-evolving economy and fluid demographic base, has become divorced from the traditions of its past and is moving in an entirely new direction."
The big shift has implications for education. Here's an excerpt from page 239 concerning charter schools.
"We believe that the proscription on charter schools in Canada could be about to shift. Asian immigrant voters have little time for the union-cosseted approach to teaching. The conservative mindset of Westerners favours strong curriculums and standardized testing over the fuzzy and feel-good nostrums still embraced by much of the Central Canadian education establishment."
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Cherchez l’argent and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the power
Tunya poses a number of questions in her comment on yesterday's blog and I will do my best to answer two of them.
1. Why are the teachers' unions opposed to school choice.
Would you expect a hungry tiger to take pity on those cute little gazelle babies and not eat them? Would you expect goutweed not to invade your gorgeous garden with its lush, rich soil? These are rhetorical questions designed to demonstrate that everybody and everything pursues his/her/its own best interest. In the case of the teachers' unions, school choice would result in reduced membership and power. QED, they oppose it.
2. Why do legislators knuckle under to the teachers' unions?
See above. The teachers' unions are very rich and powerful. They have lots of money to contribute to political campaigns, as well as armies of foot soldiers to knock on doors and participate in mail-outs. Politicians who cross the teachers' unions risk not being re-elected.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Sunday at the Movies (Crossing Party Lines)
Watch this to learn why Jamar Shumate, Democratic state rep in Oklahoma, backs school choice measures - along with the state's Democratic former governor and his teacher union rep wife.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Don’t accept a first-year teacher for your child
Imagine if medical school focused mainly on the history and philosophy of medicine, doctor pay and working conditions, tips on cutting toenails, the inadvisability of smoking, and other similarly peripheral matters. Then imagine that newly-graduated doctors were placed in medical practices where they are assigned the heaviest caseload and the most difficult patients and are expected to learn on the job.
Although it sounds ridiculous when applied to medical training, nevertheless this is the reality for most new teachers. Their pre-service training pays virtually no attention to the skills and knowledge they are expected to teach. Most teacher training is of little practice use. Prospective teachers learn how to make leaf collections but not how to teach children to read, this history of education but not how to write report cards. Few are taught effective classroom management skills or strategies to teach hard-to-teach students.
Without their practicums, new teachers would be totally overwhelmed when they are dropped into their first classroom. As it is, they are only almost totally overwhelmed. Here's a column on how new teachers are welcomed.
Luckily, some teachers figure it out by themselves and eventually become good at the job. Unluckily, some don't. And even more unluckily, the latter group can't be fired. The whole thing is just nuts.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Who’s in charge of Ontario?
Here's Governor Christie of New Jersey talking about how the teachers' unions use their vast wealth to control politicians. Just for comparison purposes, the OSSTF (one of three major Ontario teachers' unions) received almost $45,000,000 in union dues alone last year (total revenues $53,211,206). In Ontario, there is no opting out or paying 85% as Mr. Christie explains is the case in New Jersey. If you want to teach in Ontario, you have to belong to one of the teachers' unions and pay dues that average more than $1000 annually (1.3% of gross salary). Furthermore, the unions don't need to spend a penny on collecting dues, as the school boards do it for them.
The OSSTF, by the way, takes credit for denying the Liberal government a majority, forcing the premier to resign, and forcing a Liberal leadership convention (click here). Enough said.