-- Education IMPROVED --

Blame those in charge

2012-02-10T13:54:00.001-05:00

“The value of teachers,” a column by Nicholas Kristof (Jan. 20), provides an example of an unsatisfying pattern. An expert announces that “our faltering education system may be the most important long-term threat to America’s economy and national well-being,” and then presumes to tell us precisely why we are in this mess. Kristof’s answer is bad teachers.

Other experts focus on other explanations. Parents. Students. Poverty. The culture. The internet. Drugs. Sex. Rock ‘n roll. The usual suspects.

Here is the obvious truth that nobody bothers to speak. If public education were a publicly traded corporation, all of top management would be immediately fired. New leadership would be brought in. This process would be repeated until our schools showed clear improvement.

The more I studied public schools, the more I felt that the system is weighed down by bad theories and failed methods. I blame the Education Establishment (that is, the people at the top) for these misguided decisions.

Bruce Deitrick Price

Improve-Education.org

Virginia Beach

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>letter to VIRGINIAN-PILOT

Why Do We Need A Bill Of Rights For Students??

2012-01-12T19:44:00.001-05:00

Easy! Because in the process of dumbing down the schools, our Education Establishment has cheated children out of their most basic rights: the right to read, to do math, to know history, to learn geography, to study science, to engage in real critical thinking, and in general to become an educated person.

All the things we call basics and fundamental knowledge....our Education Establishment has waged a relentless war of attrition against them. It's time to stop the war, and to save all the essential things that children have a right to expect when they attend public schools.

If you're involved in school reform, please take a look at this handy 10-point agenda for improving public schools: A BILL OF RIGHTS FOR STUDENTS 2012. (On Improve-Education.org. Form can be printed.)

www.improve-education.org/id90.html
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Modern Reading Theory Is The Scandal Of Our Age

2011-12-15T19:23:00.003-05:00

Here is the really astonishing fact about the Reading Wars that everyone should know. Almost without exception the phonics proponents insist they teach 99+ percent of children to read in the first grade.

Some of these experts, with 25+ years in the trenches, actually claim they have no failures. Every--or close to every--kid learns to read by Christmas of the first grade, or for sure by the end of the year.

Please stop and savor this. Apparently humans are wired to read. Given half a chance, they learn it easily enough. Teach them the alphabet, get across the idea that the letters represent sounds, as in B is for Ball. Then it's not a big deal. Some kids pick it up almost automatically. The slower kids need direct instruction for a few months.

The reason we think that learning to read is so difficult is that our Education Establishment, for almost 80 years, has used a method that does not work. In order to protect themselves, these phonies have to pretend that reading is a really exotic skill, like singing opera, and only the rare few can really break through.

If you actually look at this completely illegitimate pedagogy, the puny goal that the Whole Word experts were aiming for was a very limited literacy all through elementary school. This low agenda pretty much destroyed all of the education that had traditionally taken place in the early grades... It seems that about half the children reach a stunted level called functional illiteracy and never move past that point throughout their lives!

To make people confront just how stupid and evil some of these theories are, I just posted an article titled "Fake Reading Theory Is the Slave Trade of Our Era." Please send it to your local school board.

As a simple practical matter, as long as the Education Establishment can get away with using sight-words to teach reading, our entire system of public education will remain at a retarded level.
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Teachers Are Not The Problem. The Top Officials Are

2011-11-24T15:37:00.001-05:00

AN EDUCATION PROFESSOR WROTE YET ANOTHER COLUMN ALLEGING THAT EVERYONE IS PICKING ON TEACHERS, AND PLEASE SAY A FEW KIND WORDS TO YOUR LOCAL TEACHERS. BAH HUMBUG. (Here's the comment I left:)

Columns like this are somewhat disingenuous and not very helpful. The premise is that the whole world is lining up to criticize teachers. This is not true.

I write about education every day, often negatively, and rarely even mention teachers. I never blame our problems on them. In my view, teachers, along with students and parents, are the victims of an often dysfunctional system.

All of my criticism is directed at the so-called experts at the top, what I call the Education Establishment. These people, mostly professors and ideologues, have devised all the bogus methods used in the schools. These people are responsible for the 50,000,000 functional illiterates this country has, and the continuing low scores in math and basic knowledge.

If we are going to improve education, we need clarity. Let's stop using teachers as a propaganda ploy that lets the Education Establishment escape scrutiny.

Let's ask: Who actually makes policy? Who controls the theories and methods used in k-12 education? Who manipulates the system from far-off control centers such as the Harvard Graduate School of Education, not to mention the DOE and NEA?

My own recommendation, often stated, is that we replace the top people. We need education officials (preferably local) who care more about knowledge and the mind than about social engineering. That would be wonderful to see.

Bruce Deitrick Price

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HERE'S WHY THIS ARTICLE IS SO DANGEROUS. A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK THAT IF WE JUST HAD BETTER TEACHERS, EVERYTHING WOULD BE FINE. NOT SO. THE BEST TEACHERS IN THE WORLD CAN'T DO A GOOD JOB IF WEIGHED DOWN BY BOGUS METHODS. WHOLE WORD WILL ALWAYS PRODUCE LOTS OF ILLITERACY. WE NEED TO GET RID OF THE BOGUS METHODS, AND THE PRETENDERS WHO CREATED THEM.

(Longwood College, Department of Education, Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk,

2011-11-10T22:09:00.001-05:00

Letter sent to Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
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Be suspicious of Common Core Standards

I want to say how proud I am that Virginia has not jumped on the Common Core bandwagon. Kudos to Governor Bob McDonnell and Dr. Patricia Wright, Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Suspicion is the only rational reaction. Does this country’s Education Establishment have a history of improving education? Quite the opposite. That’s why critics invented the term “dumbing down.” If you want more of that, you know where to find it.

As for 40+ states signing on, remember that Obama’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncan went around the country with suitcases of cash (nominally grants but better described as bribes) to seduce states into signing on. Most would not have done so otherwise.

Especially scary is the notion that schools will now concentrate on literacy and numeracy, two subjects that our Education Establishment has mangled for many decades.

I suggest letting the other states test this thing. Wait a few years. Then we’ll at least have hard data.

ADDENDUM: it's truly amazing the way our local media pushes for this stuff.

Maybe Somebody Wants Dumb Schools Dumb

2011-08-29T16:44:00.005-04:00

Big article in Las Vegas Sun explains what a mess some schools are. But good news: there's a new superintendent who is going to fix it all.

But he says it will take time, a long time. There are tests to gauge results at end of year...

Here's the comment I left on paper's site::::

Folks, you've got to see the comedy. The school system flails around, carefully pretending to peer at every possible factor that could have caused decades of dumbing down. Except the main one. It's a kind of Inspector Clouseau slapstick.

Our Education Establishment has a deathly fear of facts, knowledge, basics, and mastery. Focus on those. The schools will turn around so fast, people will have whiplash.

As to what to get rid of, that would be all the usual suspects. (Google "56: Top 10 Worst Ideas In Education.")

Bruce Deitrick Price

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Sorry to be so cynical. But more and more, it all seems like a giant charade to me. Go to those schools, you will probably find every bad idea in education, all piled on top of each other. Cooperative Learning; Constructivism; Reform Math; Sight-Words; Learning Styles; No Memorization of Basic Knowledge; and above all, no real desire to create an educated person.

Get rid of the phony gimmicks. Watch education soar.

That's the same advice contained in A REPORT TO BUSINESS LEADERS ABOUT EDUCATION (prepared by Improve-Education.org), just published at this link: http://fastpitchnetworking.com/pressrelease.cfm?PRID=68321

Bottom line: take education away from the Education Establishment or learn to love dumb.

Missouri & the Gang: Still Making Them Illiterate After All These Years

2011-08-15T18:44:00.000-04:00

A reading coach in Missouri told me a revealing story.

A nine-year-old boy, unable to read; showed up for remedial help. Pointing at “bead,” the tutor explained, “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” The puzzled third-grader looked up and asked: “What’s a vowel?”

Which prompts the question: “Has the state of Missouri lost its mind?”

Specifically, the school board members, administrators, superintendents, principals, politicians, civic leaders, and all the other people in charge of public education, all the people who let a smart boy reach the third-grade without being able to read. What process of deliberate non-education allows this?

“What’s a vowel??” Isn’t that like asking what’s a number, what’s a street, what’s an hour?

I blame all these officials, these Hard Hearted Hannahs, who seem not to care that reading is the one essential skill. What are these officials afraid of, that American children might actually become literate? That they might become engineers or skilled workers, people who can build a TV or something else to help us compete against the Chinese. On the other hand, such kids might learn to think for themselves. Perhaps some officials don’t want to take that chance....

For rest of article, see: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2764099/posts

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Complicit Media Spread Incompetent Education's Big Cop-Out

2011-08-01T16:39:00.001-04:00

Des Moines Register ran editorial with this head: "What occurs at home a key in education."

Pull quote: "It is at home where a child’s educational future is largely determined."
I'm seeing this idea everywhere, like kudzu. Sure, there's some truth, but it's finally a dishonest CYA. I left this comment on the Register site:

"The spin in this editorial is the #1 Favorite Excuse For Schools Doing A Bad Job.

Please observe the key ingredient: nothing bad is EVER the fault of the schools or the so-called experts running those schools. All bad outcomes are the fault of the kids, drugs, TV, computers, the internet, 15 other cop-outs, and especially PARENTS. They are just the worst. Uggg, parents!

Forget about it. A century ago many kids arrived in school much less literate and acculturated. The parents just got here. Or the parents were illiterate farmers and workers. It is precisely the task of the public schools to take the kids that show up and transform them into educated citizens. No excuses.

Here's a blue-sky idea. What if the schools stopped messing up young minds with Dolch Words and start teaching the kids to read? What if the schools stopped messing up young minds with Reform Math and taught them to do arithmetic? What if the schools stopped messing up young minds with Constructivism and start teaching facts and knowledge?

Bruce Deitrick Price
Improve-Education.org
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Major Media Tricked By Education Spoof

2011-07-25T19:45:00.003-04:00

July 25th--President Obama met with executives from the nation’s largest corporations and demanded large cash payments for education.

Corporate bosses eagerly agreed to fork over what amounts to additional taxes for a school system that does little to educate future employees.

President Obama agreed to do nothing in return to improve the state of the public schools. He orated: “We’ll tell you what you need. Your job is to feel guilty and sign checks.”

Corporate executives and government officials held hands and sang verses from Gilbert and Sullivan, with an especially rousing rendition of “We are the very model of a modern major educrat” and other ditties....

This joke item somehow made it into the nation’s news cycle. Numerous editors were apparently asleep at the switch. No one could possibly suppose that American businesses would give millions more to education officials who misspent the previous trillion dollars.

At the very least, savvy business executives would point out to the President, in no uncertain terms, that millions of children were not being taught to read or to do basic arithmetic. Our titans of industry would tell the President, right to his face, that the schools must rise to a MUCH higher level. Tough-minded CEO’s would wave a stern finger at the President and say, “Sir, you’ll have to deliver a far better school system if you expect us to take you seriously.”

The CFO of Bank of America or some such place would surely say: “Any practical person knows that schools should emphasize reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography in the first year or two, and then segue into history, science, literature, and the arts. Anything else, Mr. President, is just whistling in the dark. We don’t want all this silly social engineering. We want basics, facts, knowledge, and mastery. We want intellectual engineering, for a change...”

Wait a minute! This just in. It’s not a spoof? WTF. This actually happened??? Major American corporations agreed to give money to an intellectually corrupt Education Establishment. But this time around they expect to get different results? Isn’t that what Einstein called insanity?

Where are we living? The Comedy Channel or SyFy?

Actual Bloomberg news story here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-18/obama-meets-att-time-warner-cable-ceos-on-improving-education.html

(Posted by Bruce Deitrick Price, founder of Improve-Education.org, where the motto is: NOT ONE CENT FOR SIGHT-WORDS.)

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Man-Made Educational Harming???

2011-05-23T22:08:00.003-04:00

Yes, it’s a clever phrase. Unfortunately, it sums up what is going on in too many public schools.

Here is the pattern for more than a half-century: a THIRD of high-school students can't read at the fifth-grade level. That’s what LIFE magazine reported in 1946! We see more or less the same stat today. Every third kid is illiterate (and thinking about dropping out). That’s because the schools insist on using bad methods. It should be a huge scandal.

Schools that can’t teach kids to read probably can’t do anything right. Because they don’t care. Or they’re ideologically motivated to level differences.

Education Establishment should adopt wisdom of Medical Establishment: FIRST, DO NO HARM.

See full version: "Do You Believe in Man-Made Educational Harming?"

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News: Cooperative Learning & "Faces of Learning"

2011-04-12T21:59:00.000-04:00

Big News: new article about Cooperative Learning, on Improve-Education.org, was prompted by casual conversation, thus: "A member of the local school board told me, 'In the 21st century they’ll have to be able to work in groups, so we may as well teach them how to do it.' He was so confident in his pronouncement, and seemed to think there was nothing else to say. His confidence had the opposite effect on me. I heard nothing but sophistry in that little comment; and I realized, with some regret, I had to write an article explaining why Cooperative Learning is just another tawdry gimmick."...See it here.

More Big News: new book consists of statements by 50 teachers, thinkers and community leaders. (I'm #6.) "Faces of Learning" is an excellent gift for teachers. Sam Chaltain, the editor, is crusading from the center. I'm more the contrarian, so I'm pleased he included me. (Facesoflearning,net)

Reading Instruction for Young Children (FREE)

2011-03-05T22:09:00.005-05:00

The biggest battleground in education... it's not where you think.

It's around the ages of 3,4,5. Right in there, a child needs to learn the alphabet, and the most primitive sort of phonics. Letters represent sounds; and all the words that start with the letter B start with the same buh- sound.

Similarly, all the words that start with any given letter start with the sound represented by that letter.

So, maybe you think that's all very obvious. Not at all. For the last 75 years, the Education Establishment in this country has tried to hide the alphabet and the sounds. Children were trained to see the design or configurational aspects of letters, not the sounds that the letters represented.

This was a grand triumph of stupid over smart. The name of this gimmick was Whole Word. The most important thing that parents want to achieve is to keep this nonsense away from their children. If you don't take preventive steps, then the children will go off to pre-K, K, and first grade, and some schools will make them memorize sight-words. At that point you may lose them, or reading may lose them.

For a very simple guide to early reading and literacy, see this new article on hubpages: THEY NEED TO READ. For ages 1-4.

Here's the main conclusion I've been pushing: most children--if you just kept them busy with nursery rhymes, singing, printing letters, in short, all kinds of verbal and literary activities--would probably start reading without a whole lot of specific training. The more verbal kids are going to read just the way the more musical kids can pick up playing an instrument. They make it look easy.

Unexpectedly, it turns out that it's the less verbal kids that need the most systematic instruction. They need to learn the phonics rules so they will feel in control. When they feel in control, they can start to slowly improve their skills. But if you take the kid without a lot of verbal skills and you tell him to memorize 50, 100, then 200 sight-words, he is totally lost. It's a bare beginning for reading purposes, but he can't even master that, not with instant recall. Everywhere he looks, he sees alien unknown words. A few years later they will say he has ADHD, he's dyslexic, he has mental problems...

Yes, he has a huge mental problem. His school made him illiterate. The Education Establishment made him illiterate.

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What Are The Worst Ideas In Education??

2011-02-03T20:53:00.000-05:00

New article on Improve-Education.org lists the ten worst, which includes Sight-Words, Reform Math, Constructivism, Self Esteem, Multiculturalism, No Memorization, Cooperative Learning, Hostility To Content, Hostility To Testing, and Letting Ideologues Run Schools (when what these people really care about is Social Engineering).

Here's the scary part. Any 3 or 4 of these things can completely end serious education. Happens every day.

Want improvement? Just dump the bad ideas. This ain't rocket science. More like what janitors do.

TOP 10 WORST IDEAS IN EDUCATION.

Video makes same points from another direction.

US Military Suffers Artificially-Induced Manpower Crisis

2010-12-04T18:42:00.002-05:00

"75% of young Americans are not able to join the military," that's what my local paper says.

Some of these people are fat and out of shape. But a shockingly large number are simply too ignorant and illiterate to be useful in the military. The Pentagon has tried creating remedial schools within the Army; more recently, a group of retired generals is pushing the new National Standards. Forget about it.

The linked article argues that the real problem is our Education Establishment, the people who control the public schools. They love social engineering. They don't give much of a damn about intellectual engineering. Whether intentionally or by accident, they end up sabotaging remedial schools and the creation of new Standards.

This article urges the military to start thinking outside the education box. Forget what the so-called experts think. You would be better off picking 400 names out of the phone book, Senator Moynihan once argued.

Tell your military friends to read this article: "Memo to: PENTAGON / Subject: EDUCATION / Status: HIGHEST PRIORITY" ( http://bit.ly/hgCidD )

Another good strong statement (addressed to leaders of business and military) is here: http://edfrontier.blogspot.com/ (Ed Frontier is a new blog.)

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"Standards" is Mushy Term, Thus Assuring Low Standards

2010-11-08T16:31:00.003-05:00

All this talk about Core Standards is just more of the confusion and murkiness that our Education Establishment is so fond of. Here's why:
The word "Standards" is used unpredictably to refer to:
goals or levels that students must reach to pass;
goals we dream of reaching some day;
levels that are good enough in our society;
and the means/techniques we'll use to achieve certain goals.
Ergo, we can never be sure what the Education Establishment is talking about.

Take the simple sentence: "Our Standards are too low." No matter what you take that to mean, they can say, no, we were talking about something else.
Mush Test 1. Visit corestandards.org and read some of the math stuff for younger grades. Decide what these educators mean by "core standards."

For deeper discussion of linguistic confusions, see: "Obama's Ed Plan Is Anti-Ed"

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Improve-Education.org is a Teacher's Best Friend

2010-10-26T15:27:00.000-04:00

A teacher wrote an emotional letter to the site asking why I was saying bad things about teachers??? I wrote back saying, I hardly mention teachers at all!

Some critics do try to blame our educational problems on teachers. I am not one of those people. Teachers don't make policy; they don’t have much power. Why talk about teachers if we are trying to figure out what is wrong with the schools??

I blame the people I call the Education Establishment. These elite ideologues (since John Dewey) want to use public schools to change the country. That is a problem for our nation. It’s also a problem for individual teachers because best practice is often not what these ideologues end up promoting.

Unfortunately, many classroom teachers have been bamboozled into thinking they have the same interests as the Education Establishment. That's why the teacher thought she was being criticized when, in fact, the criticism was aimed at elite professors who live in another world.

Improve-Education.org is concerned with explaining how education policy is implemented, the theories behind the common practices, and why teachers should oppose the people at the top.

(Teachers, please see "31: Teacher Liberation Front" on Improve-Education.org.)

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Republicans Must Attack Education

2010-10-07T15:28:00.007-04:00

Does the NEA also control the Republican Party, the same way it controls the Democrat Party??

What other explanation do you find for the curious silence of the Pledge on one of the country's worse problems?? Which is education; which is public schools that don't do much.

The Pledge was pretty good, as linked article argues, but in 20 pages there was no mention of education. Nothing. Nada. Not even a perfunctory little squiggle.

Folks, it's like this: if we don't save the public schools, the rest is toast. Alan Greenspan put it so well. "If you don't solve (the K-12 education problem), nothing else is going to matter all that much." Don't you trust the Chairman of the Federal Reserve?

Come on, Sarah, tell these dumb Republicans what needs to be done. Just some simple little 3-point plan to focus on. How about Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic? Our public schools have a kind of gas-chamber genius at designing curricula that don't teach basic skills. Kids straggle off into adulthood in a kind of stupor. Thank you, Education Establishment. But how long can your luck hold up? You're getting away with child abuse.

See this article for What The Pledge Should Have Said:

http://www.rantrave.com/Rant/What-Republicans-Left-Out-of-The-Pledge.aspx

Listen To Me, You Rich People.

2010-09-30T22:35:00.004-04:00

I know, you don’t want to think about all the bad public schools out there. Nothing to do with you, right?? Wrong. The effects are oozing through the society. You are in danger. If this country gets any dumber, we won't have a country.

Want safety? Here are the threats we have to overcome:

1) THE EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT CAN’T BE TRUSTED. Almost a century ago, they took a wrong turn, and went down a road marked SOCIAL ENGINEERING. The problem for everybody else is that these ideologues hope to wreck the society we’ve got, so they can build the collectivized world they dream about...

2) PRESS AND MAJOR UNIVERSITIES ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE...It's sad/funny to watch the smartest people in the country behave in such an embarrassing, smart-free way.... [Smart-free. That might be an original coinage. It means free of smartness.]

THIS IS A PRETTY GOOD RIFF. AND SCARY. FOR MORE, GO; bit.ly/cDwsGv

Why The War Against Geography??????

2010-09-06T18:42:00.006-04:00

From the earliest grades, all children have to know the basic geographical facts: names of the oceans, continents, main rivers, biggest mountains, main countries, the US states. All of this is essential foundational knowledge. All of this is the stage on which all other subjects occur, for example, history, geology, anthropology, archaeology, military history, world trade, environmental science, etc.

That our nitwit Education Establishment has for almost a century waged war against geographical facts is like the mark of Cain. It's the scarlet letter. It's the itch that says disease. You know these people aren't serious about education. And that's why we have to reverse their policies.

For a good, quick analysis of why our elite educators scorned geography, please see "Four Reasons Why Educators Hate Geography."

COMING SOON: NEW AMERICAN CURRICULUM

Local Media Fail Community

2010-08-05T14:33:00.009-04:00

We hear it all the time: the government is governing against the will of the people. But we've been seeing the same sad phenomenon for decades in every city in America, where the local paper (often enjoying a monopoly) will report and editorialize against the will of the people. I see it every day in my paper in Norfolk.

In particular, I've been astonished at the complacent and complicit way the paper reports on education. They don't report on education. Oh, they'll tell you that a principal has been fired or a new building is under construction. But they won't tell you why a quarter of the class can't read and a quarter of the kids entering school don't graduate. That's the really big news.

Moreover, these kids who can't read won't grow up to be customers of newspapers. So it seems to me many newspapers have a death wish. But then they turn around and say: we need a government handout to survive!

If we're going to improve public schools in the US, we really need the help of local media. They have to engage in a much more energetic kind of investigative journalism. Encourage your paper to do this.

>>>>>>>>Here's more on this topic: "Liberal Media Pimp for Education Establishment".

http://www.rantrave.com/Rant/Liberal-Media-Pimp-For-Education-Establishment.aspx

Conspiracy, Crime, and Comedy

2010-07-12T19:23:00.013-04:00

Okay, here's what funny. The word "conspiracy" makes some people nervous. (Oh, no, they shudder, it can't be true. Our own educators conspiring to dumb down the schools??! That's too horrible to think about.)

Folks, I'm sorry to tell you this. Saying there's no conspiracy is like saying the mob wasn't in Chicago in the 1920s. Dewey, Counts, Rugg, and the rest of these twits ran a conspiracy the size of Texas. You can't miss it. It permeated every corner of every school. "Progressive Education" was the gang's code for Socialist Education. "Social Studies" was the gang's code for Socialism Studies. Crack just those two phrases (i.e., hear them as the speakers heard them) and the rest is elementary.

Ready for more? Go to "The Conspiracy Question" http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/24113

PS: the current push for National Standards and Common Core Standards should be understood as just another chapter in this long-running conspiracy. Aiming low. Less local control, more government control. Do you see anything new??

A "Map" With No Scale Of Miles Is Good Enough For Time Magazine

2010-06-19T17:19:00.004-04:00

20 years ago I noticed a simple index of our educational decline: books and magazines would run maps without a scale of miles. I created a sheet titled “Map Alert,” which made the point that maps without a scale of miles are no longer maps. They are abstract art. Only a fool or an ignoramus would run a map without a scale of miles. (I sent Map Alert to many editors, some of whom even apologized!)

Which brings us to Time magazine, June 21, 2010, and its long article on cleaning up the mess in the Gulf. On pages 56-57, there’s a "map" of the huge area from Texas to Florida showing various oil wells. Very interesting, I thought, as I settled in to see what was what and where. Then I realized there was no way for me to compare distances I know with distances on the map. Many people speak of a Golden Age when Time was respectable and trustworthy. Alas. (I often think the whole magazine should be written by Joel Stein. At least it would be funny.)

Please see “MAP ALERT” here.

Race To The Bottom -- Constructivism Sits in Catbird Seat

2010-06-14T17:42:00.007-04:00

I'm starting to see the caper. Feds want to give lots of money to states if they'll change all their testing. Change as in DEBASE.

Virginia, where I am, is resisting. Good news. The Norfolk paper yesterday ran an editorial, explaining that the feds want to emphasize "strategies and approaches," as opposed to actually knowing answers. The other giveaway is that the feds don't actually have their ideas worked out, so nobody can see how bad they are. All we know is, drug dealers are handing out free money.

Virginia, I predict, will emerge as one of the smartest states in the country if they stay with real testing.

Meanwhile, the most popular gimmick in education now (and it will surely be part of the Race to the Bottom) is call Constructivism. Every parent needs to understand this fad. Please see "Constructivism versus Minorities and the Poor," a short article. Or check out "34: The Con in Constructivism."

Boys, Books: Where's The Class Action Suit??

2010-06-03T15:55:00.005-04:00

I've been tracking this mess for years: boys can't read or they don't read.

The schools use stupid whole-word methods, then compound the problem by telling boys how much they'll enjoy the Diary of Anne Frank and other such deep, literary, boring, or otherwise inappropriate books. Babies are 51% male; but college students are only 43% male. Hmmmmm, it's almost as if some schemers are trying to damage male literacy. Successfully so! For decades!

Parents with boys in school should spend 10 minutes getting up to speed on the boys/books problem. Drastic action may be required. See "50: Leading Boys To Reading" on Improve-Education.org. Article includes a list of books that boys love.

A Letter to Public School Teachers--Come On Home

2010-05-26T17:17:00.002-04:00

The following plea--written 55 years ago and addressed to all the teachers of America--is still solid gold today:

"You are a grade-school teacher. I know that you are doing a conscientious job, that you work overtime for very little pay, that you love children and are proud of your profession. Aren't you getting tired of being attacked and criticized all the time? Every second mother who comes in to talk to you tells you that she is dissatisfied, that her child doesn't seem to learn anything, that you should do your job in a different way, that you don't know your business. Why should you be the scapegoat? The educators in their teachers' colleges and publishing offices think up all these fancy ideas, and you are on the firing line and have to take the consequences. Have another look at the system you are defending with so much effort. I know you are an intelligent young woman. You belong on the other side."

Isn't that great? See rest of article here: www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/158657

American Public Education = Doomsday Machine

2010-05-13T15:54:00.007-04:00

Years ago I wrote a sci-fi story in which disease wiped out the thousands of people living in a huge space station. All the technology continued on autopilot; sensors, missiles, and robots perfectly defended the space station. The station became a type of doomsday machine. All the inhabitants had been killed. New arrivals would be killed.

I certainly wasn’t thinking about our public schools at that time but now I see a creepy similarity between what happened to that space station and what happened to this country’s Education Establishment. Both are running on an unintended autopilot and no longer serve the purposes for which they were constructed. Neither can be reasoned with or even approached....

See this brief and illuminating historical report--"How American Public Education Became A Doomsday Machine"--here: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/23112

Education: Incompetence or Sabotage???

2010-04-26T16:13:00.009-04:00

Could the US really have 50,000,000 functional illiterates (among many other problems) because the top educators were careless and didn't pay attention decade after decade until: Whoops! What happened?? Nobody can read!???

Explaining the decline in the public schools seems to me to come down to a nasty choice: the people in charge are dreadfully incompetent; or they're dreadfully subversive. (In either case, they should be replaced, shouldn't they?)

My new article on CanadaFreePress wrestles with this dilemma. Title is "Could Educators Be That Dumb?--Everyone Wants To Know."

Bottom line: we're almost forced to conclude that our educators were trying to undercut education. Why?? Because nobody's that incompetent. There must have been intent.

A good read. You'll like it. (http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/22395)

How Educators Try To Sabotage Reading...

2010-04-19T18:38:00.004-04:00

When you make a list of all the stupid ideas enshrined in the public schools, there will be many contenders for stupidest idea of all.

It’s tough to pick the absolute worst but let me nominate the common practice in public schools of teaching children to GUESS what words mean. This is the central gimmick in whole-word or sight-word reading.

But here’s the good news. Guessing is a clear signal that a child cannot actually read. It is thus the quickest diagnostic we have. If a child looks at “car” and reads “house,” you see immediately that the meaning is wrong, and the phonetics are wrong. So you know this is just a stab in the dark, a hopeless cry in the wilderness. You don’t need to know anything else. It’s time to stop whatever so-called training the child is getting and teach the child to read using phonics.

The leading experts in the Whole Word movement said that guessing is good. I’d argue that guessing is part of a broader strategy known as dumbing down.

The link is to a four-minute video on YouTube that explains why guessing is a problem. This graphic video is intended for teachers and parents who don’t quite understand the flaws in Whole Word. Please pass this link around:

"Guessing Is Not Reading: How Dumb Theories Make America Dumb"

Facts Are Fun! Knowledge Is Power!

2010-04-06T16:33:00.002-04:00

Here Is the exciting truth: the human brain loves to acquire new information.

Imagine the misery of human brains stuck in public schools where the curriculum is in effect a war on content, and the reigning educational philosophy states that children must be protected from knowledge.

With regard to ignorance, it’s time to go cold turkey. No more ignorance! From this point on, learning is king, and knowledge is the whole point.

A simple one-step recovery program is available free for all public schools. The program is titled “Teach One Fact Each Day.” This thing is easy and fool-proof. It can be started now.

See “47: Teach One Fact Each Day” on Improve-Education.org.

School-Induced Mental Impairment (SIMI): reality or delusion?

2010-03-24T14:50:00.010-04:00

Last week I posted background on FreeRepublic about a column published months earlier titled “Education as Neurotoxin.”

This column tries to explain why the US has 50 million functional illiterates and 1 million dyslexics. Were these people born this way? Or had bad education methods caused the impairments? (In which case, our enemies never needed to put fluoride, etc., in the water as our public schools were already harming the nation’s intelligence.)

Someone left a half-dozen bitter comments insisting I was “delusional,” “illogical,” “irrational,” “nonsensical,” etc. I’m not sure which part offended him most, that sight-words create mental problems; or that the far-left could possibly promote the use of destructive methods.

This commenter embraced the Dolch Dogma that kids must memorize 300 Dolch words in order to start reading. My belief is that it’s precisely the memorizing of the sight-words that causes mental impairment. English words are phonetic objects; and all of them, even the irregular ones, should be learned as such. (Flesch explained all this in his 1955 book “Why Johnny Can’t Read.” I wish everyone could read the first chapter.)

For my attempt at illuminating what happens to children in sight-word classrooms, please see “41: Sight Words--The Big Stupid.”

The other side of the discussion is this question: what prompted our educators in the depths of the Depression (ca. 1932) to discard all the phonics books, and to waste vast sums on Dick and Jane books? My sense is that their actions are irrational or subversive. For an analysis of these questions, please see “Stalinists?? Or They Walked That Way.”

Boys Abused by Education Establishment

2010-03-17T15:16:00.004-04:00

Only 43% of college students are male. This huge shift was achieved by massive social engineering, which starts in the early grades.

Children aren't taught to read properly. Sight-words and Dolch words don't work; indeed, they have been called child abuse. But this pedagogical abuse afflicts boys more than girls, as girls tend to be more verbal.

The abuse continues. For those who can read, the schools recommend books intended for girls, with only a rare mention of the action-and-adventure books that boys actually like. Boys learn that books are for wimps. So long, literacy and all things literary. Thanks, Education Establishment!!!!

"Keeping Boys From Reading" is an important new article that explains these issues and what to do.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/21018

Flesch Update: Public Schools Need Him As much As Ever

2010-03-01T17:50:00.007-05:00

Here's the wacky story. This professor-type writes a bestseller in 1955 that explains why millions of kids can't read. End of story, right? Happy ending?

No, not happy. America's elite Education Establishment dug in like a pack of ferrets in heat. They denounced Flesch. They went on doing all the things he said were killing kids. Results: 50,000,000 functional illiterates and counting.

This story weighs heavily in my calculations that these so-called educators are not all that interested in education. Social engineering? Yeah, definitely.

"Why Johnny Can't Read" turns 55 this month. Forever young. Here's a great piece: "Rudolph Flesch Rules the World of Reading." Spread the word.

PS: I just put a video on YouTube, same exact title, same message, just 4 minutes, and you know.

Immoral: Media in bed with Big Ed

2010-02-19T16:49:00.006-05:00

One of the invisible things I've been searching for around Norfolk is investigative journalism aimed at education, specifically, why the public schools can't teach almost 1/4 of the kids to read properly.

This 1/4 figure, by the way, has been holding steady for many decades, ever since the Education Establishment (a/k/a Big Ed) has been teaching kids to read with sight-words. So stupid. You'd think the press would want to expose this fraud. If people can't read, who buys newspapers???

Anyway, not finding the aggressive journalism I expect has been a frustration. And a red-hot inspiration. Please see the tragicomic, ought-to-be-off-Broadway result: "Media in bed with Big Ed: a love story??" (To be factual, it's an article written in the form of a playlet.)

From what I can figure out, the mainstream media support Big Education reflexively, even thought their interests are really different. Alas...If we had any investigative journalists left, they'd be asking the big editors what's going on?????

21st Century Bull

2010-02-11T17:46:00.007-05:00

Okay, here's the last century of American education summed up in a sentence: the Education Establishment pretends to care about education, knowledge, basics, all that stuff, even as they undercut them at every opportunity.

That's it. A century of disingenuousness. Every single pedagogy and method was a con. New Math and Whole Word, most spectacularly so. The others less blatantly so but just as subversive....It's as if we're dealing with drug addicts here. They say they've reformed; they say they're "clean." Maybe at this point they can't help themselves.

Anyway, the melodrama continues. The big new gimmick is 21st Century Skills. The argument goes like this: our young people are all weighed down with knowledge. The burden is just too horrible....Yes, that's right, they're talking about American kids who can barely find the USA on a map!!! What these kids need instead is skills. Enough with the knowledge. Teach them vital skills, like how to prepare a portfolio, resume or slide show.

This is going to be The Big (Phony) Battle in American education for the next few years. Get your program right here. Please see "21st Century Skills--Same Old, Lame Old."

Teachers Ordered NOT to Teach??????

2010-02-01T18:47:00.006-05:00

A recent letter in the Virginian-Pilot lamented that “some middle school principals direct their teachers not to ‘teach’ their students but to have them learn on their own.” It’s hard to imagine that most people would know what to make of this curious statement.

In fact, this approach is the latest fad sweeping through the public schools. Teachers, recast as “facilitators,” don’t teach. That would be an imposition on their students.

The correct name for this method is Constructivism. Students, according to this philosphy, must construct their own new knowledge.

The arguments for Constructivism are particularly lush and ambitious. Schools must be revamped. Books rewritten. Teachers retrained. It’ll be very expensive. My fear is that most students will learn even less than they do now.

Parents, this thing is coming for your kids. Please see graphic video titled : Constructivism: A Primer for Parents.

We Know What's Good For You....So Shut Up and Do It

2010-01-25T18:53:00.008-05:00

I asked my doctor what he thought of President Obama’s proposals for health insurance.

The doctor quietly remarked: “Obama’s saying, this is what’s good for you -- whether you like it or not.”

Hold that thought! It’s everything you need to know about American education for the past one hundred years.

The far-left likes to devise abstract answers, and then force them on the public. That sensibility is at odds with American democracy. It certainly wasn’t common in American education...until John Dewey and his progressive educators cracked open a nasty can of worms.

I immediately wrote down the doctor's remark (that was all he said), and got a column out of it.

Education or everyday politics, contempt is the killer.

Conspiracy, Guilt, Educators ( plus A Birthday )

2010-01-08T19:03:00.009-05:00

It's actually a very touchy subject. Dare we say that the Education Establishment has, actually, ahem, conspired to teach less and indoctrinate more??

One of the country's most successful executives sent me an email in which he noted that he agreed with much of what I said but couldn't cross the line into thinking our elite educators capable of, ahem, conspiracy. That email has weighed on me. After all, this guy is 100 times richer than I and several times smarter. Alas.

So I read some more Dewey and Counts and Rugg. And you know what, it's not that hard a call. These guys were planning, scheming, organizing, propagandizing, promoting, managing, finagling, prevaricating, and in every way attempting to make their socialist ideas prevail.

Here's a SHORT PRESS RELEASE that makes the case for calling all that effort a conspiracy. There's a link to a bigger version.

HURRAY: IMPROVE-EDUCATION.ORG CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY, ENTERS FIFTH YEAR. READ ALL ABOUT IT.

The Future Of Education Is “Parallel Education”

2009-12-23T17:57:00.013-05:00

Here’s an easy way to know how mediocre the public schools are. Add up all the activities going on OUTSIDE the schools intended to compensate for what’s done badly INSIDE the schools. Reflect on all the tutoring services, remedial centers (Kaplan, Sylvan, LearningRx, etc.), self-help books, educational TV, and frantic involvement by parents.

It’s pathetic that all this activity is needed. On the other hand, it’s very exciting and encouraging that so many parents are fighting back.

In a new article, Improve-Education.org proposes giving all this activity a formal name--Parallel Education--and regarding it as the single best weapon we have for improving public education. Parallel Education, merely by its existence, puts pressure on the Education Establishment to do a better job!

“43: American Basic Curriculum” explains this concept and proposes two major examples--BENCHMARKS to help parents judge the progress made by their children in school; and a CREATIVE SYNDICATE to produce supplemental ed materials.

Educators Created Three Sets Of Victims

2009-12-17T20:14:00.002-05:00

Recently interviewed on Creativity-Portal.com about my education crusade, I was asked what teachers can do to get involved in school reform on a local, state, and national level...

“I believe the Education Establishment has created three sets of victims: students, parents, AND teachers. The first step is for teachers to realize just how profoundly they have been tricked into joining a perverse crusade against the true interests of kids, parents, society, and teachers themselves. It’s sick. Teachers are deliberately trained and encouraged to do a mediocre job.”

Find interview here:

Byron Pitts, Please Jump Into Reading Wars ASAP!!!!!!!!

2009-12-01T19:38:00.005-05:00

CBS reporter Byron Pitts was just interviewed about his new book “Step Out On Nothing.” (See five-minute video on YouTube titled “Overcoming Illiteracy.”)

Pitts says he was 12-years-old and “functionally illiterate.” Tests concluded he was a “picture reader.” All the educational nonsense of the past 70 years is right here in this one little episode.

Here’s my take: nobody knows the idiocy of the public schools any better than Byron Pitts. He was a front-line victim of a completely idiotic way to teach reading called Look-Say, Sight Words, Dolch Words, Whole Word--all of it wholly worthless.

I call on Byron Pitts to lead a campaign against the Education Establishment to make it stop doing to young children of today what happened to him 25 years ago.

Byron, to get your bearings, please see “42: Reading Resources” on Improve-Education.org.

The only reason the Education Establishment can get away with all their shenanigans is that the top people--in business, media, and academia--stand silently by. Am I the only one who finds this disgusting? It's time to make some noise.

New York Times Shows Signs Of Social Responsibility

2009-11-23T17:25:00.004-05:00

Star columnist Nicholas Kristof joins his Times colleagues Paul Krugman and Tom Friedman in lamenting the deplorable state of our public schools. More astonishing, Kristof puts much of the blame on teacher’s unions and Democrats. Here’s the money quote: “Yet, cowed by teachers unions, Democrats have too often resisted reform and stood by as generations of disadvantaged children had been cemented into an underclass by third-rate schools.” Wow!!!!!!

Well, better late than never. But the tragic truth here is that the New York Times, the NEA, and the far-left generally are the combined reason for our bad schools. That’s what I write about on this blog and my main site. John Dewey and his bad boys were never as interested in education as in creating a socialist America. From that point it's all downhill. (See: 38: Saving Public Schools.)

New York Times Spin Machine

2009-10-13T20:02:00.009-04:00

The big mystery is why Paul Krugman (“The Uneducated American,” ca. Oct. 12th) thinks anyone would believe his notion that education is in decline because not enough money is being thrown into this deep dark hole. In particular, Krugman wants to enrich colleges, places which are basically staffed by Obama loyalists. Sounds like pay-back to me.

Still, it’s promising that Krugman has joined Tom Friedman in lamenting the decline and fall of American education. Now we need to see a blinding epiphany wherein both men acknowledge that money is not even remotely the problem. The big problem is that far-left liberals (people very much like Krugman) have systematically dumbed down the public schools. These people think social justice requires mediocrity for all. This belief is killing the kids and killing the country. (For how to resist, see “38: Saving Public Schools.”)

PS: A week or so later, Tom Friedman repeated the same theme: "Time to fix the schools, too." Great. The Times is attacking what their "progressive" friends have done over the years. I would still argue that we can't make progress unless there's clarity about what went wrong. People calling themselves "educators" deliberately debased "education."

A Passion for Teaching....Teaching the Passion

2009-09-22T19:33:00.010-04:00

I got a wonderful note from a teacher in Pennsylvania yesterday:

"I found your Latin word list, and your 'How to teach Latin' on YouTube this week....I have the great good fortune to be a Latin teacher. My students decline and conjugate ad infinitum, we sing our grammar (I make grammar raps); year by year, I find they are turning into grammar nerds. They get excited by new uses of the ablative. It's heavenly."

Hurray for that. This teacher's knowledge + passion is everything we need in the schools. First, teachers should major in, and be masters of, their subjects. Second, they should be given courses (by experienced successful teachers) on how to DRAMATIZE their subjects.

The problem now: schools of education don't care much about facts and think "pedagogical technique" means psychobabble by Piaget. Yuck.

Harvard Invades Virginia Beach (Fights Fiercely For Fluff)

2009-09-08T16:49:00.009-04:00

Virginia still has SOL’s (Standards of Learning). These tests, which progressive educators love to hate, remind people that schools used to focus on facts and knowledge. The Education Establishment works tirelessly to suppress this reactionary nonsense. Who needs facts?

Sunday’s paper hailed the Virginia Beach Schools Initiative, which is said “to preapre students to think critically, solve problems and work as a team.” This yawn is made to seem radical and wonderful. To my ears, it’s just the standard Reform Math/Constructivism/Cooperative Learning/Critical Thinking/No Memorization blather that has done so much to fill schools with fluff. At the end of the day there are fewer facts and less knowledge. For example, Critical Thinking typically means kids who know nothing have deep discussions about said nothing. Biggest alarm bell: teachers will be reduced to "facilitators." A consultant from the Harvard Graduate School of Education dropped down to tell the locals what’s what. Hasn't that place caused enough trouble? The consultant expressed horror that some students could "regurgitate facts." My advice to Virginia Beach: save your money.

(So what's wrong with Constructivism?? Read this....)

Critical Thinking--A Fraud For At Least 60 Years

2009-08-19T15:37:00.014-04:00

Just put new review on Amazon for "And Madly Teach," published 1949, perhaps the earliest expose of public school follies. Wonderful book...And it contained a wonderful anecdote about a boy who got 30 in reading and math. When his mother complained, he answered, "Yes, but I got 100 in Postwar Planning." (See review if only for last paragraph.)

See how it works. Children who know nothing are said to have deep discussions about the aforementioned nothing. Nuclear energy. Roman society versus Han society. Hindu ideas on death...The sky's the limit when you know nothing.

From k to college, "critical thinking" is another gimmick devised by our Education Establishment to disguise the fact that nobody is educated. A beautiful phrase. Poetry! Who could be against it? Compare: Whole Word, Constructivism, Cooperative Learning, Reform Math, Self Esteem, and 50 more. Not one increases education; not one is intended to. They are empty marketing slogans; and "critical thinking" may be the best of the bunch....For a good short article on this topic, click here.

The Good News About Education Spending? It’s Overrated!

2009-08-04T20:01:00.007-04:00

Maybe if enough school districts waste enough billions without enough results, people will finally realize: “Gee, maybe money isn’t everything. Maybe we really ought to make teachers major in what they teach. Maybe we ought to use reading programs that teach children to read in the first grade. Maybe we should use math programs that teach children to do arithmetic. Maybe if the people in charge were actually interested in education.....”

Point is, the Education Establishment always demanded more money; always got more money; but rarely did a better job. Hmmm. Even my local paper, long a fan of giving educators whatever they wanted, ran a Cal Thomas column headlined: “Misplaced faith in education spending.” Analysts concluded that money is not the be-all. I say that knowing this is good news, liberating news. Now we can focus on what is the be-all: schools sincerely try to raise children as high as each one can go.

(Could educators with a trillion dollars get good results?? Not if they use Sight Words.)

The Big Education Story This Week--And Every Week--Is Reading

2009-07-21T19:23:00.006-04:00

Did you know we have 50 million functional illiterates? That should be a clue that our Education Establishment is lost and needs to rethink a lot of dumb ideas. I believe that reading is ground zero in the education wars. If we are to save the public schools, we first have to save reading. That means everybody ought to know why Sight Words, Whole Words, and Dolch Words don’t work. Fortunately, this is easy! Read this short, hard-hitting article: “Let’s Rescue Reading: Here’s The Plan.”

Or visit YouTube where I’ve got eight graphic videos on reading--search “Why Sight Words Don’t Work” (other titles will appear on the right side of the YouTube page). Then spread the word. Parents especially need to be able to defend their kids against dumb reading ideas.

In a hurry? Here's the whole thing explained in less than 3 minutes: "Kindergarten Sight Words: Not A good Idea."

President Obama Insults Nation’s Intelligence, What’s Left Of It

2009-07-14T17:55:00.018-04:00

The Education Establishment has debased the country’s high schools to the point where graduates can hardly be presumed to have a 9th grade education. A recent survey asked Arizona high school students, “What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States?” (29.1% did not know; in addition 12.1% got it wrong). Dare we even presume that high school graduates have a 6th grade education?...Now Obama wants to spend $12 billion to make community colleges do what high schools should be doing. Why not make HIGH SCHOOLS do what high schools should be doing?? And save $12 billion!....Probably the goal is to make ever more professors and administrators ever more dependent on government. The pay-to-play part might be making sure students encounter only PC views... (Cliff Notes: the decline of American education is surreal and fantastical. Any book or article that told the exact truth about this descent would be classed as science fiction--cf. "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers." For a peek into the man-made darkness, see my sci-fi article "36: The Assault On Math.")

Letter to Bill Gates (and You) About Education

2009-07-09T17:23:00.014-04:00

I would like to advise The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on how to improve education in America. When I think of trying to talk my way past people who have been given orders not to let anyone pass, I know it's simpler to send him a letter on AmericanChronicle. Visit this link for a real sweet statement of what's wrong with the Education Establishment. My basic theme is that the first thing we must do to improve education is to deconstruct and discard all the destructive gimmicks that have been introduced over the last 75 years, such as Whole Word, Reform Math, Constructivism, and literally about 100 others. The letter is not, of course, addressed solely to Bill Gates. Please show it to anyone you know who is trying to improve our public schools.

“Quackery in the Public Schools”--published in 1950!!!!!!!

2009-07-08T17:58:00.011-04:00

I just read this important book (by Albert Lynd) and put a review on Amazon.com. Lynd deserves credit for writing the first BIG SALVO in the education wars. He called our Education Establishment what it is--dim-witted and corrupt. I was surprised to learn how candid the elite educators were in 1950. They announced openly that the traditional curriculum should go, never seeming to guess that the public might object, or that smart worldly people like Lynd might laugh at them. Here’s what happened next, in my estimation. The Education Establishment got much more subtle, more tricky. They didn’t try to throw out the traditional subjects so much as to undermine the teaching of them, with gimmicks such as Whole Word, Reform Math, Constructivism, Multiculturalism, Self Esteem, No Memorization, etc., etc. Well, those are the inanities I write about. See, for example, "30: The War Against Reading.”

“CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO"

2009-06-29T17:39:00.005-04:00

Arne Duncan and President Obama have announced that they’re looking for states and school districts “willing to challenge the status quo.” This is tremendously exciting news. These schools, presumably, will start teaching children to read, write and do basic arithmetic!!! Not being able to do these things is unfortunately the status quo in many schools....The problem for 100 years is that when our educators start talking about “reforming public education,” assume your taxes will go up and your kids will get dumber. The public should keep the heat on. We certainly do want improved schools. What we don’t want is the usual slippery sophistries that have so far given us 50 million functional illiterates, falling SAT scores, a less competitive country internationally, and just about everything else you don’t want in your public schools. (My funniest column yet gives some insight into why we have these problems: Professors of Education ADORE Bruce Price’s New Book On Education.)

Math Takes Bath

2009-06-23T17:34:00.008-04:00

Google “math scores” and you will find a pathetic litany of lies and alibis...Scores are DOWN, but not that much, so don’t worry about it!....Scores are UP, but as Newsday reported June 21, 2009: “Higher passing rates for students on state math tests have triggered debate...over the question of whether Albany has pumped up results by lowering cutoff scores.” Did you get that? They move passing from 75, let’s say, to 70 and then announce to the world: “Kids better in math!” ....It’s hard to think of something more corrupt than math instruction in the USA. New Math didn’t teach math circa 1960. Reform Math, also known as New New Math, doesn’t teach math today. As subversives, our math experts are world-class. Anything with a name like MathLand, Connected Math, Constructivist Math, or Everyday Math seems to be a Three-card Monte. Run the other way if you hear these warning signs: algorithms, spiraling, constructivist, cooperative, critical thinking...From what I hear, homeschoolers use only Saxon Math or Singapore Math. (For more on dumbing down in math, see “36: The Assault On Math.”)

Hot news in Edville: Practice makes perfect. Content is king.

2009-06-16T21:30:00.008-04:00

The Week magazine reported on two new books side-by-side: 1) THE TALENT CODE by Daniel Coyle concludes that great talent springs from lots of practice; 2) WHY DON’T STUDENTS LIKE SCHOOL? by Daniel Willingham concludes that content is more important than “learning strategies.”...In education circles these statements of the obvious are shocking news. That’s because our elite educators like to build houses of dust on airy axioms that long experience knows to be untrue....Educators postulate that talented people are born that way, so students should NEVER practice anything or master anything. Just play....Meanwhile, in our ed schools, future teachers are told not to bother learning content. Instead, they must learn strategies, i.e., little gimmicks by which they will educate the next generation. Not! Imagine, strategies to teach, but they don't know anything to teach. Only in Edville.

National High Standards or National Low Standards???

2009-06-10T15:42:00.011-04:00

Newspapers are abuzz about states working together on so-called “national standards.” Here’s my guess: the Educational Establishment loves this idea to the extent that the standards can be kept low, mushy and multicultural. A major theme on this blog is that, for ideological reasons, our elite educators don’t aim high. "National standards” will be harmful because educators will use them to dumb down the overachieving states. Why not let each state be an R&D lab that searches for better ways to do things? SAT scores and other tests can tell us which states and which methods are doing a good job. Then the low-performing states can be encouraged to copy the high-performing states. Sounds like a great system to me! What we have seen for the last 75 years in public schools is that our elite educators can always find many compelling reasons why children needn’t bother to learn X. X being anything! WE ARE MUCH STRONGER WITH DIVERSITY--different states trying different approaches; different students trying different approaches, such as good public schools, vouchers, charter schools, homeschooling, private schools, etc. Excellence, wherever possible, is the best diversity of all. (For notes on how to make education more efficient, see "26: How to Teach History, Etc.)

The Relevance Of Scoundrels and Sophistry

2009-06-05T17:31:00.005-04:00

My local paper reported (late May) that “Second-graders in Virginia study ancient China, Egypt and the American Indians. In third grade, they study Greece, Rome and the west African empire of Mali.” Remember when educators used to talk about “relevance,” and that everything taught in schools must be “relevant” to the child’s life? Let me tell you a little secret. Educators talked about “relevance” only when they wanted to kill off something traditional, such as biology, Latin, history, English literature, etc. Then educators found a better gimmick: multiculturalism. This sophistry cuts from the other direction, and ends up requiring that children be taught the most remote and irrelevant things possible! So you have seven-year-olds who know nothing about their own region and country studying vast empires that are vast distances away and that lasted vast numbers of years. But you see the same goal is reached: children are NOT taught the foundational knowledge they need. And this is in Virginia, once a very sensible state.

Hollywood Loves Creepy New Thriller: “Duh Dewey Code”

2009-06-01T15:41:00.001-04:00

When millions of children are discovered to be illiterate and suffering from VA (virtual amnesia), a titanic police drama erupts. Secret FBI unit--The Illuminati--battles with a secret cult--The Ignorati--funded by Rockefeller billions. (Their motto: Semper Fuzzy.) What vicious virus is crippling kids? Cracking the Duh Dewey Code requires Tom Hanks-esque hero to dodge repeated assaults by berserko profs of education, some tricky time travel in an alternative alphabet that nobody can pronounce, and a final dumb-down where the Spirit of Look-say, embodied in the sociopsycho Willy Scott Gray, seeks to subdue the last reader standing, and cleanse the universe of letters-as-sounds. As Willy warbles in the haunting title track, “Letters Are Shapes You Memorize, And So Your Mind Slowly Dies.” Expect John Malkovic as the satanic ghost of John Dewey, a/k/a The Degenerator. (For background, see 6-minute video "Phonics versus Whole Word” on YouTube.)

Expect To See This Anti-Human Message In Your Local Public School

2009-05-30T19:28:00.002-04:00

Last week, Fox again trotted out its weird little series called "Life After People," this being an alternative look at themes explored in Alan Wiseman’s book "A World Without Us." Am I the only one who thinks both these works are porno for people who hate people? The shocking storyline in both cases is that things left outdoors will be attacked by the elements. Didn’t know that, did you? The bizarre setup in both cases is that all human beings abruptly disappear. The subliminal message is that this is gee-whiz wonderful because Earth has now been returned to its pre-human glory. The weird part, apart from this totally unrealistic scenario, is that the narrator telling the story is perforce dead, and everyone else is dead, and the narrator is HAPPY about this. Why? Because we are evil and dirty; and Earth must be cleansed. One thing that occurs to me is that Jupiter, Mars and Venus have no people, just boiling sulfur nights and airless minus-100-degree days. What’s so swell about that? You’ll have to ask someone who hates people.

First Question: Were The Firemen Taught Math In The First Place?

2009-05-29T14:12:00.004-04:00

So Obama’s Supreme Court pick let the city of New Haven throw out the civil service test for fire chief, the problem being that no black candidates passed. Pundits want to discuss prejudice, etc. We had a parallel situation in Norfolk, Virginia; and here’s what you never heard anybody discuss, especially the local paper: these guys who didn’t pass the test, what math program did they study in school? Would it be one of those so-called Reform Math programs, with names like Connected Math, Everyday Math, MathLand? Could those wannabe fire chiefs have been taught math, or is it something genetically flawed in their heads? Maybe the people with flaws in their heads are the people running schools that don’t teach arithmetic. I keep thinking: suppose public schools found the best math programs and taught children how to do basic arithmetic, which is precisely what Reform Math does not do. I keep thinking: are we sure that none of the candidates could have been brought to the level where they passed? Wouldn’t we like to know that for sure? Why don’t local papers DEMAND better math courses??? (A related article is “The Assault on Math.”)

Republican Party Not Inclusive Enough, Says Colin Powell, Says Tom Teepen

2009-05-27T17:27:00.003-04:00

As a connoisseur of sophistry, I remain in awe of liberal propagandists. You hear almost every day that the Republican Party, alas and woe is us, is not inclusive enough. (Colin Powell said so recently -- that’s my news hook -- but I’m sure it was said on 10,000 previous occasions.) Let’s suppose, just for the fun of it, that this lament is actually ingenious misdirection designed to take our minds off the real problem bedeviling America, which is that the Democrat Party is TOO inclusive. Let’s just imagine, merely as a theoretical exercise, that the Democrats excluded socialists, marxists, collectivists, totalitarians, and hate-America extremists. One has to wonder how much smaller the party would be? Who would be left to lead it? (I mention this because my main interest is education; and I believe the left wing of the Democrat Party is the main culprit when it comes to explaining the low standards in our public schools. For more on this, see "A Short Sad History of American Education.”

How We Lost The Literacy Battle...

2009-05-25T18:58:00.007-04:00

One: Public schools, in effect, worked hard at not teaching reading. They used a bogus method called Whole Word and created 50 million functional illiterates and 1 million dyslexics. Probably the non-teaching of reading was the largest factor leading to the homeschooling movement. The best introduction to the Reading Wars remains Chapter One, about 23 pages, of Why Johnny Can’t Read, published 1955 by Rudolf Flesch. For a shorter but more broadly historical introduction, please see “30: The War Against Reading.” Two: Public schools were left alone to use faulty methods because the people whose duty it is to uphold standards did not uphold much; in particular the mainstream media and elite universities went into cultural comas. J’accuse! For a quick look at what newspapers must do better in the future, see “Saving The American Newspaper (S.T.A.N.).”

The Education Enigma <> A Lively New Book

2009-05-23T18:06:00.007-04:00

What is that enigma exactly???? Simple. What the heck went wrong in American education??? Know what's funny. The answer is clear-cut. John Dewey and his pals were more interested in social engineering than in intellectual engineering. The rest is obvious. You get good grades for cooking a meal together; not for sitting by yourself reading a book. Dewey just hated kids sitting alone with a book. Sounds psycho to me. But I spent a lot of time reading books. (Click for info about THE EDUCATION ENIGMA--What Happened To American Education.) Bruce Deitrick Price

Ministry of Truth Reports No Records Of George Orwell

2009-05-21T19:08:00.004-04:00

George Orwell has been declared a non-person by the top government agency concerned with historical accuracy. It has been further determined that Orwell did not write a novel titled 1984, that he did not explain better than anyone else the workings of totalitarian states, in particular, by his three slogans War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength, and that in January 2010 we will not be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the alleged death of this exceptionally untalented non-person. Public schools will celebrate January as Owell...Who? Month. It has also been determined that the dumbing down in the public schools is double-plus-not an example of Ignorance Is Strength. (Related article "15: 1984--The Cover-Up" muses on how certain people always argue that 1984 means anything but what it means.)

Activist Educator Comes Out Four-Square Against Education

2009-05-20T14:04:00.003-04:00

Jonathan Kozol pleaded with soon-to-be-graduated teachers at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia: “Don’t be drill sergeants for the state.” Kozol thus appeared to echo a refrain from Paolo Freire that the education of the poor and minorities should be minimal, lest these poor wretches become cogs in the capitalist-military-industrial complex. The solution, said Kozol, is that teachers must help children retain their “innocence.” Too much in the way of facts and knowledge could cause irreparable harm. Virginian-Pilot headline says, apparently without irony, "Buck system, Put kids first." Kozol appears to believe those nasty public schools are teaching way too much. Note: Antonio Gramsci, a real Communist, doubtless thought Freire a light-weight dilettante for opinions that will only hurt the children he says he cares about. Gramsci said the best thing is to give kids a really solid education. Me, too. Kozol agitates for "innocence." Isn't that code for dumbing down?

Democrats Should Be Blamed For Dumbing Down Education

2009-05-19T15:27:00.003-04:00

Please, somebody WAKE UP the Republicans and tell them the good news: Democrats are guilty of educational malfeasance, and most people know it. Who else but liberal Democrats have created the dumbed-down public schools that now waste so much money and damage the country at every level? Liberal educators believe in collectivism; so they emphasize group activities at the expense of academic progress. In short, the party of “defining deviance down” is also the party of defining dumbness down...If by “education” you mean what virtually all Americans mean--that is, reading, writing, arithmetic, etc.--then no one is more anti-education than liberal Democrats. This should be shouted from the rooftops...Please see important political analysis on American Chronicle.

Educators and President Kill D.C. Vouchers

2009-05-14T16:13:00.009-04:00

My take is that our Top Educators, no matter what they say, love mediocrity. Anything that threatens their pursuit of a collectivized muddle will be resisted. If vouchers in D.C. can provide more opportunity at less cost, making the NEA look bad in the process, well, you know what the NEA will ask the president to do. His decision to phase out the very successful voucher program is shameful. Instead, he should be encouraging all possible DIVERSITY IN EDUCATION--private schools, charter schools, homeschooling and, of course, vouchers. (Andrew Coulson at the Cato Institute says: "The president has sacrificed a program he knows to be efficient and successful in order to appease the public school employee unions. If he will do this for the NEA, he will do anything.")

Stunting Our Idea Of The Possible

2009-05-13T15:25:00.009-04:00

Here's what John Dewey and his social engineers have done to us....The striking thing about American education is that we are under-achievers, seeming to feel that a C is all a person could hope for. We dream small because, for many years, our educators have made the country dazed and stupid. Here's the scam: schools don't teach; and then bureaucrats wring their hands and say it must be drugs, parents, the internet, etc. Let me sum it up this way. If somebody binds the feet of little girls, that somebody doesn't want girls to run...You’ve seen "Jaywalking." You’ve seen all the statistics and surveys. Perhaps you’ve heard that the US has 50 million functional illiterates. This is crazy, tragic stuff. We have to learn to think big again. Let children rise as far as they are able. Let them run. Here's the pretty part: I think such a policy would benefit the slower students most of all--because schools would actually be trying to teach them something.

Can You Answer This Scary Education Riddle???

2009-05-12T17:26:00.010-04:00

What do Whole Word, Reform Math, Cooperative Learning, Self Esteem, Multiculturalism, Bilingual Education, Constructivism, and a dozen other popular educational methods have in common???
These are the best, most lavishly promoted ideas that our Education Establishment has. Each is said to transform education in our lifetime!! If you study the actual effectiveness of these ideas, you find that the promised results never seem to occur. What happens is that the decline of American education continues. Hmmmm.
Maybe, as this cynic suspects, each is an elaborate hoax. They don't work--that's the common feature. So there's no chance of improving public schools until we first get rid of the trash. That's the theme of "38: Saving Public Schools--A New Paradigm."