Re: FoxTrot 8/10

Detox wrote:


I know I'm going to kick myself for this in the morning....but I think
that's the wrong word for the situation.

We've had close to 30 years [or more] of declining education performance
in the US. �Part of the reason for it is society in general and can't be
fixed by changing the schools.

Part of it is idiotic educational theories that are coming out of our
universities these days. �Things like putting calculators in the hands of
third graders. �Things like the "whole languange" method of teaching kids
to read.

And then there is the whole "social promotion" nonsense.

One obvious way to see if things are turning around is to test the little
urchins to figure out what they have learned.

Tests that don't measure the right things are much more valuable when,
as in the case of the "Texas Miracle," you fiddle the results to get
the answers you are looking for. Bush's entire educational testing
program is based on widespread fraud.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/06/60II/main591676.shtml


At the very least, if schools are teaching to the test, and the test
accurately measures skills*, then the urchins ought to pick up something
along the way.

That works in subject area specific tests -- the NYS Regents Exams are
the best example. Because the tests measure the most important facts
and principles, "teaching to the test" simply means covering the
curriculum.

For the more amorphous tests of NCLB, that's not the case.


When he entered school and wound up in a class for advanced students
(obviously)--some of whom were already reading and some who were not
(though they were advanced in other ways)--another parent asked what
reading method she was using. Her answer: "Some phonics, some whole
language, some of everything. We really don't KNOW how children learn
to read; it's best to try everything."

I've been fed that line a time or four. I don't buy it.

Yes, why would "doing what works" work? Combining theories to come up
with things that actually function in the real world?

No, I don't buy it. Clinging to ideological dogma is much more
effective. The idea that people who actually do something for a living
have some kind of so-called "expertise" is idiotic and I don't buy it,
either.

By the way, I hope you apply this to, say, military issues as well. If
the commanders in the field know so much, how come they weren't
greeted with flowers? Why haven't they won the war and come home yet?
I hope THOSE phonies don't try to say that doing what works means
thinking on your feet! We all know that a single theory is the only
way to go!


There are 40 some odd sounds in the English language. There are
several hundred thousand words. Logically and based on my
experiences, having a sound understanding for the 40 some odd sounds
makes learning the several hundred thousand words much easier.

That's nonsense. You know the old "ghoti" joke.

Maybe there are 40 odd sounds, but there are one helluva lot of normal
sounds and, because English is a mongrel languages, a whole lot of
different ways to spell the same sound.

Look, maybe Rush doesn't like "whole language" but you're allowed to
think for yourself. Clinging to pure phonics is pure nonsense. I know
you're smart enough to know better than this.




If knowledge were all there were to education, then what used to be
called "idiot savants" who remember virtually everything and can
regurgitate it with ease would be the geniuses of our world. But
education is really about "learning how to learn"...skills like
information gathering, reasoning, rhetoric, etc.

Those things cannot be judged by having the student fill in little
bubbles on a *** of paper.

I agree. But until we start churning out creative and productive
geniuses that cannot be adequately evaluated by "fill in the bubble"
exercises, and while we continue to have a excess of illiterate and
innumerate "graduates", such exercises will continue to be moderately
productive.


And as long as we argue by citing anecdotal, ideological "evidence,"
there will be no progress at all. Are our schools perfect? Hell no.

But come on -- the idea that they are total failures is rightwing
bull*** and beneath your dignity and intellect.

Mike Peterson
http://nellieblogs.blogspot.com
.

Loading