Zombie, at Pajamas Media, has a series of articles about the battle between left-wing and right-wing Schooling.
He certainly gives the best reason I've seen for the change from Bush's 'No child left behind' to Obama's 'Race to the top'.
Thank God my kids are out of school.
I haven't read the whole thing, but I can say this: textbooks are shit.
ReplyDeleteI VERY rarely used the prescribed textbooks when I was teaching (I never taught math), I developed my own. I didn't use the canned tests, etc, I came up with my own. And it's really not that hard to do when you know what the educational standards are for each grade level (as a teacher is expected to do).
It doesn't take a tremendous amount of extra work, either. Textbooks are so boring and bland a good teacher will bring in many outside resources, it's always been that way.
Of course, this method is widely open to abuse as well, as the teacher tends to incorporate their own ideology into the reading/study selections. But if you have to stick to the educational standards, you have a bit less leeway for that.
This is one reason why I actually favor testing in each grade. I don't agree with teachers who go over the same thing ad infinitum and never move on for the basis of test scores,but that problem is often caused more on the level of the administration who views percentile placement as the be all end all (percentiles are idiotic. No matter how good or bad an education is, someone will always be in the top and someone will always be on the bottom. That rating system is ridiculous).
But tests are designed to show basic skill mastery - and basic skill mastery is a real problem now. Followed closely by the problem of doing nothing about low scores, since it's "harmful" for children to be held back and actually LEARN that skill.
I could go on and on, but the truth is that as parents it is our responsibility to figure out how to get our children the best education it is possible for them to have. That may mean, due to work schedules and so on, that they go to public school during the day and work with Mom and Dad at night. It may mean becoming a one income family that homeschools. It may mean finding a way to make additional budget cuts to allow private schooling to be financially possible.
That's the biggest factor missing for the equation here - somewhere along the line parents abrogated their responsibility in the educational process in favor of all day babysitting.
The article says the dispute is about what students are taught. I suggest, not even slightly humbly, that it is about what students are NOT taught. Neither "side" has a clue.
ReplyDeleteAn aqaintance just enrolled he son in high school and the first issue that came up is the counselor's opinion that she'd enrolled him for too many "core courses"...e.g., math, science, English, & history, etc. Counselor said this was bad for student self esteem...claiming two years of science and two years of math was more than enough, thus no need for four core courses in any one year.
No doubt in my mind that the majority of today's HS graduates could not pass the final exams of my high school days, let alone the original college board exams, or the New York State's Regent's Exams of 1960.
I couldn't agree more with AFW's last paragraph.
I have no problem with the culture war. Really.
ReplyDeleteBut if you want to fight a culture war, then fight a culture war. Don't wage a political campaign to require the government to fight it for you.
My problem is with those who try to capture the government in order to enforce the culture they want. I've never supported that approach at any point on my personal political trajectory.
It's bad way to try to "win" the culture wars. Not least because government eventually crushes out whatever virtue exists in the faction that captures it.
You also legitimize your opponents attempts to fight you by capturing the government in turn.
I wish Texas luck in driving out the Gramscian left, but no luck in establishing their views with government sanction.
I see in the comments at PJM that zombie may have overstated his case in places with regard to Texas.
Notwithstanding this, I think he is right to question their approach.
Lewy..."My problem is with those who try to capture the government in order to enforce the culture they want. I've never supported that approach at any point on my personal political trajectory."
ReplyDeleteDitto. Using "government" to establish (enforce?) culture is a defeat waiting to happen in its own right. It is tactic admission that "your culture" has material weaknesses and thus requires enforcement.
Can't say I have advocated that, seriously, in my life either. If I can't lead by example in my community, then I might need to examine my example.
Wheres my card florrie :-P
ReplyDeleteWhat?? Can't you see it there???
ReplyDeleteParts III & IV are up now - complete the reading to find out who your children/grandchildren are being taught are ten representative American heroes:
ReplyDeleteAbigail Adams
Crispus Attucks
Andrew Jackson
Queen Liluokalanai
Abraham Lincoln
Juan Seguin
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
George Washington
Ida B. Wells
Zitkala-Sa
Yeah, really.