You`ve put us in a difficult place…
There are thousands of teachers like Stephen who innocently follow the boss`s curriculum-Boss is Ministry of Ed.

In my filing cabinet(shows my age)I am in the cloud on a lot of stuff though:))I have a letter from the Superintendent of Special Education of the TDSB-2007.
“Please do not market to our school board as your program is not aligned to Ministry requirements,we are not allowed to teach with sounds.”
Or phonics…I`d have to go into the darn thing and I hate that but it`s there somewhere:).

Thanks Malkin for taking the time to frame this conversation in a clear and meaningful way.

I would just like to clarify one aspect of my thinking around mathematics education. There are few things in education that I see as either/or. I think that, quite possibly, I used to, but not anymore. Much of the shift for me has come from listening carefully to what other people are saying—parents, other educators, administrators, etc.

I have come to believe that students benefit the most from educators who have a number of strategies at their fingertips, and the confidence to use those in intelligent, if not artistic, ways.

I believe that number facts are important. I also believe that conceptual exploration is important along with procedural knowledge. The most powerful classrooms that I have been in have been those that have been able to achieve a very elegant balance between all three.

But that balance takes a great deal of work, reflection and a willingness to “go back to the drawing board” when things don’t work in the anticipated way.

I think that, very likely, the discovery “camp” AND the direct instruction “camp” have been misrepresented over the years. That is too bad because both perspectives have the same goal in mind—people who can function confidently in a world where mathematical thinking is so important and valuable.

I would add to the functional purpose of mathematics by saying that there is an aesthetic quality to the study of numbers, patterns and relationships that is inspiring and, in many ways, breathtaking. Some people will experience the beauty of mathematics by taking a deep dive into algorithms and formula (One of my favourite movies is still “A Beautiful Mind”.) For others, it might be the accidental discovery of the Golden Ratio when studying the mathematics of art.

In short, for a whole bunch of different reasons, I believe that there are as many educators who struggle with the newer approaches to math instruction than happily embrace them. But I do know that a great deal of time and energy has been put into these conversations at school and district level. These conversations need to continue.

In our local elementary school, the topic that ALWAYS gets parents out for evening AND daytime sessions is Mathematics. It’s not an uncontentious topic. And it shouldn’t be—I don’t think.

I do honestly appreciate the opportunity to understand the variety of perspectives that emerge here. I’m not saying that just because Malkin has drawn attention to the fact. It is the way that I keep moving forward.

Ironically, one has to go back 500 and some years to find a similar situation to the one that we have today with the dichotomy of views on what constitutes effective and meaningful mathematics education.  During the period that Columbus choose to venture to try and discover another continent, the prevailing thought in Europe was that the earth was flat. Clearly, we know otherwise today.

In getting financed by Queen Isabella to defy the reason of the day, Columbus was not unlike the charter school initiators. Charter School founders have sparked alternative forms of public education in response to the failure of our current crop of flat earth educational brothers to pass due diligence under careful scrutiny. When shunning and ostracism replace reasoned, cogent argument, we know there is trouble in the edu-kitchen.

Mathematics is the foundation of the evolution of human culture particularly over the past 700 years.  Read this MIT Tech Journal article:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601179/data-mining-algorithm-reveals-the-stormy-evolution-of-mathematics-over-700-years/#/set/id/601184/

Failure over the past few decadesto arrive at the most effective and efficient manner of teaching mathematics has brought us to a point where the majority of people today are effectively mathematically illiterate.  If this is the goal, it is being achieved. Add a full void in the history category as well, and we have a recipe for a protoplasmic, home sapiens population responding promptly without much consideration and a lot of hysteria to the social media stimuli of the moment.

If it weren’t for the price tag on our society for producing inept young people in both math and literacy skills, and worse still, the price children themselves will have to pay (who are society’s most vulnerable) this whole mess would be hilarious!

Our educrats want children to discover math, but want teachers to use direct instruction and teach 13-yr-olds about oral and anal sex.  Backasswards, wouldn’t you say?

Funny, most of our generation ‘discovered’ the joy of sex and love, but were ‘taught’ (through direct instruction) our math, science, reading, writing, music, and art.

Educrats are a bunch of uncaring, self-serving people in comfy jobs demonstrating sociopathic behaviour.  Because of them, our children are suffering, and taxpayers are forced to pay large amounts of $$ for a feckless educational system.

Bev,you made my day! Ha Ha Ha

Steve,I hope you are going to run for office,you`re perfect!

“Child Abuse” And Schooling Is An Urgent Matter

When I was in Teachers College (Ottawa), ’70-’71, practically the first thing we were cautioned about was not to exploit the students.  This was equivalent to the dictum for doctors to “At least do no harm”.

Though I never taught in a classroom I have ever since been struck by the humbling experience it is to be a teacher.

Our current division in approaches to teaching arises mainly from the monopoly nature and compulsory attendance feature of current public schools.  People generally act as if there should be one-best-way and it’s THEIR way or the Highway!

Unfortunately, the biggest split is between those who favor pedagogically supported methods and those who have an ideological worldview.  The “basics” or teacher-centered approach does differ significantly from the child-centered approach, which in the literature is sometimes dubbed as working for “emancipatory social change.”

At this moment (as I have to run over asap and lengthen trousers for growing grand teens) I will provide only quotes on this topic (BTW, I’m on the teacher-centered side) from “The Conspiracy of Ignorance”, Gross, 1999.  The quotes are about Reading, which along with Math, is a hotly contested education issue:

Ken Goodman, a prominent leader in a new reading program in the 80s says:
“Whole language classrooms liberate pupils to try new things, to invent spellings, to experiment with a new genre, to guess at meanings in their spellings, or to read and write imperfectly. In whole language classrooms risk-taking is not simply tolerated, it is celebrated.”

William Honig, superintendent in California says:
“Whole language swept the nation . . . it pushed out phonics and substituted the new system . . . It became the gospel in education colleges . . . many school districts . .  . The results as shown by the NAEP reading results . . . were catastrophic.  The whole language experiment was interesting, but as we found out, the theory is dead wrong.” (pg 78-79)

Pedagogic research finds whole language wanting, yet to this day it persists across education systems in the Western world.  Similar concerns are now being expressed concerning Math.

Why does the education establishment favor and cling to discredited methods?  How can this malpractice be allowed to continue?  Is this not “child abuse” of the highest order?

“To say there is a chasm between the two sides would be an understatement. Neither can really even see the other’s point of view.”

Not true. 

We have seen the view of the progressives for years, and have tried to accept their strategies…all the while watching it fail our kids, and destroy their motive for learning, and their self esteem.  When we raise our concerns to our School Administrators, and District Staff, they’re quickly dismissed, and we have been told to leave the learning to the “experts”.  Does this sound like a reasonable solution to accept?  Whereas the progressives are on their one way street to reinventing the proverbial educational wheel, and take offence if anyone questions their motives.

So what to do to bring both sides together?  Pay attention to the evidence, and focus on what works. 

There has been plenty of that given to this blog, specifically in the past 2 entries regarding math, yet none of it has been acknowledged.  So until the day comes, when evidence based instruction is acknowledged, along with the quantitative, empirical studies which correlate with effective math instruction, there is simply no point in having further discussion, until what we have to say, is actually heard…AND acknowledged.

Government is not a store and taxes are paid towards common good, not for personal choice. Stores are for personal purchases, not governments.  Stick with what works, and the rest will figure itself out.

If education was medicine, we’d be talking about class action malpractice lawsuits.

Math Miscalculations;Globe and Mail page A 12-April 8th 2016..

A private tutor teacher who works with families to prepare students for entrance to private school comments,it`s hopefully something that would precipitate a change in instruction.She talks about how she can`t improve their math until she goes back and teaches them the basics.She calls for a change to the curriculum NOW.
However,seeing as nothing has moved the government to support “effective practice and instruction” and spell out what that would look like,we will continue to see a deluge of funds going to improve math who as Paul Bennett noted last year was going to the publishers.
He stated that Pearson got a large contact in Atlantic Canada and they were sending out their consultants to improve math.cough cough..I wonder what curriculum the provinces were using in the first place.

When, oh when, will we start GOING BY RESULTS rather than ARGUING ABOUT METHODS? 
It’s very simple!
Math:  Can Johnny do long division quickly and efficiently and get the right answer?
Writing:  Can Johnny write a coherent sentence, and does he know how a paragraph should be constructed?  Does he know what a subject and predicate are and how to use them?  Can he spell?
Reading:  Can Johnny read at a decent speed, with comprehension, and without guessing? 

If he can do these things while being given a sense of accomplishment and pleasure, and a zillion other things that prove he is literate and numerate, I don’t care if he was trained in Sanskrit by monks.

That said, there are teaching paradigms that have been successful, some for thousands of years, so for goodness sake why reinvent them into some bastardized, un-researched, proven ineffective, untested form?  Why stand on the toenails of pygmies when we can “stand on the shoulders of giants”, as Einstein said?

Ego and corporate profits…
Ego,the thoughts of one professor’s opinion that will be injected into hundreds of teachers during their licensing courses.
Corporate profits,publishers.
The publishing of new books annually,put together in back rooms,untested,disseminated across wide fields.
The effects become known a few years later,new materials put together in the back room,disseminated and marketed across countries,more profit.
Never tested to see if it works…
Integrity and proof of effectiveness have nothing to do with it,that’s called logic.
Think subprime mortgages…

When my grandchildren began to struggle with reading, I conducted some research of my own. I read dozens of papers and studies on Whole Language, Balance Literacy and Systematic Phonics. I could find no evidence to support the first two. (Would you feel safe if your airline pilot said she learned to fly via a series of “mini-lessons”?) But I found many, many studies that support Systematic Phonics; from Australia, Canada, Scotland, the U.K. and the U.S.A. And does it not seems strange that most private schools teach phonics - because it works.
So why is it that our Departments of Education do not use evidenced-based teaching methods - particularly when their current methods are not working?
This is the sad part. Middle class families will find a way to compensate for inadequate education (a family member tutor, a paid tutor, or private school). Yet many disadvantaged families may not have these options (low education levels, immigrants, low income). So their children suffer, simply because they did not win the “birthplace lottery”.

I have also examined the reason our children cannot add, subtract or calculate ratios - without their iPhone. The same problems appear to exist: the lack of direct, explicit, evidenced-based instruction.