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January, 2018

  1. who will help the parents?

    January 27, 2018 by Tunya

    Who Will Help The Parents?

    This discussion of a “social justice perspective” being injected into college-level teaching is perhaps OK on an academic level. This phenomenon of cultural theory at this level is probably not universal yet, and, people are talking about some backlash principally due to Jordan B Peterson’s critiques.

    However, I think this mindset of social justice through the institutions has already been embedded into the public schools, K-12. Social emotional learning (SEL) is a common feature. There are many books geared to this level of teaching with titles such as “Teaching for Social Justice”, “With Literacy and Justice for All”, etc.

    Uri Harris did a great job of digging deeply into the Lindsay Shepherd matter whereby we learn that her supervising professor is very concerned about the tender age of the first year students and whether they should be exposed to such critique as Peterson’s. In his letter of apology he said: “ . . . first year students . . . might not have the tool kit to unpack or process a controversial view such as Dr. Peterson’s . . . such material might be better reserved for upper-year or grad courses.”

    I am concerned that so much of the social justice projects in public schools may be beyond student comprehension and developmental readiness for such topics as “sweatshops”, “indigenous injustice”, etc. In the atmosphere of the Cultural Revolution in China (’66-’76) and in Orwell’s fictional 1984 it was the children that parents often feared, having been prepped by their schools to be informers. If current parents only knew how insidious this social justice imperative could be, they would not stand by and let the schools use their “social license” to prepare children to be avengers.

    KDM (Jan 22), one of the commenters in this thread, is the only one who sees this SocJus “phenomenon” as more of a fait-accompli conspiracy of “the far left infiltrating the schools all the way down to K-12 for the revolutionary paradigm.” I look forward to reading the book he recommends: “The Critical Turn in Education”. Meanwhile, unless there is an outrageous reaction, as only Peterson seems able to generate, I fear that a whole generation is right now being trained for some Brave New World!

    Now that Peterson is a grandfather, might he consider bringing his remarkable insight to critique these postmodern constructivist cultural shifts now being engrained in the schools?

    http://quillette.com/2018/01/17/jordan-b-peterson-critical-theory-new-bourgeoisie/ http://quillette.com/2018/01/17/jordan-b-peterson-critical-theory-new-bourgeoisie/

    Category Obstacles, Opinions in media, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Psychological Warfare – Education Deceptions

    January 26, 2018 by Tunya

    Bruce Deitrick Price does mention the negative effects of Common Core in his new book, Saving K-12 — many times. The book is well worth reading: He uses all kinds of different angles to express the same theme — Ed Establishment deceptions. Some day all these slings and arrows will score a hit. His chapter on malfeasance has this epigram: If Public Schools Were A Business, All of Top Management Would Be Fired. Below is my comment I just sent in to American Thinker where nearly 200 other comments agree with Bruce:

    Psychological Warfare

    Bruce Deitrick Price does a masterful job of bringing forward some of the classic deceptions perpetrated by “The Education Establishment”. What these deceptions really amount to is psychological warfare on a massive scale on the citizens, young and old, under their sway. Alex Newman (co-author with Blumenfeld, Crimes of the Educators) recently wrote “Even if Common Core were ripped out from the roots, the federally controlled government ‘education’ system in America would continue to dumb down and indoctrinate students on an industrial scale—literally threatening the future of the nation.”

    There is no other field of human endeavour that so steadfastly defies research about effective practice as does the education field. The “Education Establishment Lies” as Bruce identifies, in any other field, would be subject to malpractice suits on a gross scale! As Bruce says in the closing paragraphs of his new book, Saving K-12, “the bad ideas so common in our school system are analogous to the viruses that people encounter in computers . . . a technician can easily remove those viruses one by one. Similarly in K-12 education, the academic viruses have been put in play intentionally and they can be removed intentionally . . . The simplest plan for reforming K-12 is to remove as many bad ideas as possible.”

    [comments on American Thinker re BDP on K-12: Deception and posted to ECC]

     

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  3. Phonics resistance persists

    January 20, 2018 by Tunya

    Resistance Persists

    I am not of the teaching profession, just a dismayed grandmother who is very annoyed with the long-standing Reading War. The casualties are numerous. I’ve always stood up for parents who wanted to know if their children were at grade-level in reading but were put off by teachers who dismissed their concerns.

    The best book I’ve read on the topic of the Reading War is “Phonics and the Resistance to Reading” by Mike Lloyd-Jones, 2013. It tells the history of the issue and the current state in the United Kingdom. From my estimation I would say the history regarding the continuing Reading War closely approximates that in Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand. What is not equivalent, however, is the remedy. The UK has by legislation (2014) and financial support made systematic, synthetic phonics the standard for teaching reading in government schools and reinforced that with the Phonics Screening Check to identify, at an early age, students needing help to attain competency.

    The book does infer that pockets of resistance remain in the UK but that was 3 years ago. What is clear, however, is that the commitment to raise literacy is there via both legislation and compliance with overwhelming research on the issue.

    In my opinion, laggard jurisdictions and well-meaning reformers could gain considerable insight from this book about some of the dynamics of the opposition. These are some of the problems: phonicsphobia, opposition by the teaching unions, ideologically motivated teacher training, lazy media, myths & misrepresentations, teachers clinging to mixed methods, word guessing, etc. Even “partial phonics” is a problem as systematic, synthetic phonics is now seen as the settled method.

    It’s a short and quickly paced book. I would recommend it. It also provides neat arguments against those who persist in saying that children can learn to read best without phonics. The resistance is well discussed. What remains for us to find is the strategy used in the UK to bring in the legislation and supports.

    [comment to Filling the Pail blog — topic Phonics is like a vaccine, Jan 20, 2018]

     

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  4. Betraying a whole generation

    January 10, 2018 by Tunya

    Betrayal of a Whole Generation? A professor of Education Policy at the University of Edinburgh says that the decline in Scotland’s education achievement is likely connected to their adoption of “constructivism” as an education method. He says the basis of the new curriculum is “the standard ideology of the academic left”. The method avoids teaching knowledge as it “goes quickly out of date.” This “Curriculum for Excellence is now so deeply embedded that removing it would cause enormous upheaval.” Canadians should be aware that “constructivism” is a dominant shift in much of Canadian education. Simply defined — It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences.

    http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/curriculum-for-excellence/

     

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  5. Pasi Sahlberg to Australia

    January 10, 2018 by Tunya

    From GERM to FERM

    On page 149 of Pasi Sahlberg’s Second Edition of Finnish Lessons 2.0 is a 5-point chart differentiating between GERM and FERM — Global Education Reform Movement and Finnish Education Reform Model.

    Since the Gonski Institute, in its hire of Sahlberg, seems dedicated to education equity then this chart will be a handy road-map to follow if this shift is indeed part of the reason for the hire:

    – From competition between schools to collaboration among schools
    – From standardized learning to personalized learning
    – From focus on literacy and numeracy to focus on the whole child
    – From test-based accountability to trust-based responsibility
    – From school choice to equity of outcomes

    Now, when we talk about equity of outcomes, let’s remember that that is not equality of opportunity. Equity could very well result in reducing levels of accomplishment (the Finnish slides in international test scores) while student achievement gaps are narrowed.

    The book is extremely interesting in that a lot of content deals with the conscious political development of Finland toward a high level welfare state.

    About education we learn how teaching has become a hallowed profession under “pedagogical conservatism . . . learning from the past and teaching for the future”. This does not mean that research and evidence-based knowledge leads education development but rather socialization policies and practices prevail. Thus, we already see Sahlberg downplaying the phonics check, a highly research endorsed move to improve student reading capacity.

    And, let’s not forget, Sahlberg’s visit coincides with New South Wales recent axing of Reading Recovery, a 30-year program now shown to be ineffective and, in the eyes of at least one reading expert, as “harmful” and not holding up to “scientific scrutiny”.

    Will the rising interest of Australia’s educators in evidence-based reform be in collision with Sahlberg/Gonski equity drive? Certainly bears watching. I’m from Canada and am very intrigued with this move.

    Tunya Audain
    January 10, 2018 at 5:34 pm
    Pasi Sahlberg’s Second Edition of his book, Finnish Lessons, is much more instructive, even prescriptive, about their education system and how it builds, supports and embeds the modern welfare state. He is a great fan of John Dewey. In his latest book, 2015, Forewords are by Diane Ravitch and Andy Hargreaves of GELP (Global Education Leaders Partnership) and with an Afterword by Sir Ken Robinson. Robinson emphasizes that Finnish education “is embedded in the numerous economic, social, and cultural changes that are affecting Finland’s overall way of life.”
     

    [sent to Greg Ashman post on Pasi Sahlberg, today 10 Jan, 2018 – site is Filling th Pail ]

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