Wednesday 23 April 2014

TEXTBOOKS

Back in the days when we were making steady progress in our schools we had faith in our TEXTBOOKS. Why did we have faith in our TEXTBOOKS? We had faith in our TEXTBOOKS because we understood that the people who wrote these books were PROFESSIONALS THAT SPENT THEIR DAYS DEVELOPING THE BEST WAY TO TEACH CURRICULUM  and that TEXTBOOKS TAUGHT A SUBJECT AT GRADE LEVEL COMPREHENSIVELY AND INCREMENTALLY, AND LOGICALLY BUILT KNOWLEDGE!! Teachers knew that their job was to DELIVER the curriculum, not to write the TEXTBOOK! Lesson planning, where teachers design a LESSON, is entirely different than creating the curriculum everyday.

Teachers worked on committees to write a curriculum and then found the best TEXTBOOKS they could to deliver the best education. They had a scope and sequence as a guide, but THE TEXTBOOK GAVE THE DAY TO DAY STRUCTURE THAT DELIVERED LOGICAL AND COMPREHENSIVE LEARNING. Fast forward to today and you will see superintendents SNEERING at TEXTBOOKS !! Yes, these geniuses have taken up the ultra left Common Core rhetoric of demeaning the use of TEXTBOOKS. The left has been sneering at TEXTBOOKS and trying to get rid of them for as long as I can remember. As I have said on this blog before, their ideas NEVER change. They do not see failure as an obstacle- anymore than the fact that the earth has not gotten warmer in TWENTY YEARS stops the global warming catastrophe crowd. The left just keeps marching on in the same track. The people can stop them with the vote- that's the only thing that will finally stop their failed ideas from marching on and continuing to destroy education in this country.

Teachers at the high schools here are being told they are "isolationists" if they want to teach the comprehensive curriculum. These genius administrators, following Jeb Bush's Common Core, "Just aren't sure the kids need to learn all of that." What do they want the teachers to do instead? They want the Calculus teacher to develop "collaborative units" with the English teacher. This is not a joke. I am dead serious. I heard this first hand. These jokers, who by the way have no research evidence for any of this, are trying to break down 200 years of education in this country. Meanwhile, my daughter who teaches Life Sciences in a college, is finding college students that don't even know what electrons and protons are!! Thirty percent of our Montana graduates have to be remediated in Math!!

Collaborative units are nothing more than little hands on projects, that at best, in a good curriculum, can add reinforcement. Across subject lines they aren't even that. This is the same "whole language" garbage the left has been trying to sell for fifty years. The same whole language idea that NEVER has shown success. And yet, they will take the valuable time of our high school students and spend it experimenting- whiling away days with no real learning progress. Learning is about building a foundation of knowledge in specific curricular areas- whether the left likes it or not. The question is, when will the American people step in and stop this destruction in our public schools?

TEXTBOOKS deliver comprehensive knowledge in a teach, practice, review and test format.TEXTBOOKS build information. TEXTBOOKS require accountability from teachers and students. TEXTBOOKS should be the foundation of classroom learning. They should be sought after competitively so that bad textbook companies, like Common Core's Pearson, are put out of business ,and the best TEXTBOOKS are purchased. There is not enough room here to tell about all the ridiculous wastes of curricular time the left has thought up, and that our even more ridiculous board members are so proud of. It doesn't take a neuroscientist to tell you that kids need on task uninterrupted structured curriculum time to learn, but our school board members, who are so proud of themselves, just can't see it at all. Why, they have programs!! Meanwhile, The Common Core tyrants, get to CHANGE THE TESTS ANY TIME AND IN ANYWAY THEY WANT TO!! How can Common Core fail? They'll just change the test- and voila! the kids can do it now!! What a wonderful world. Make your children's teachers stick to the TEXTBOOKS and make sure they are GOOD TEXTBOOKS!!

Sunday 13 April 2014

I D E A S

For more than fifty years now the left has been telling us that ALL OF THEIR IDEAS ARE GOOD and that they are PROGRESSIVE IDEAS, leaving you to believe that they have a lock on what the future is going to be and what is best for all of us. As an educator I can tell you that the left hasn't had any new ideas for the more than the fifty years that I referenced above. Their shrill and didactic messaging has done a good job of drowning out the REAL new and PROGRESSIVE ideas THAT COME FROM THE RIGHT.

I am so tired of Montessori that I could THROW UP!! There is no evidence what so ever that these free school strategies and ideas work. I remember when Montessori classes were first introduced in Helena. The advocates had the gall to say that students coming out of Montessori would be so far superior to all the other students when they got to middle school that everyone would want to be in Montessori!! Ha- Ha- no such thing ever occurred. But, did the school district get rid of Montessori classes? NO!!  They got more of them because these so called "progressives" wanted them!! These classes continue but the proof of their success is just not there.

I went to college in the 70's. NOTHING in the free school rhetoric has changed. Common Core promotes "collaborative" learning and the teacher being the "guide by the side". What kind of schooling do you think that is? IT'S THE SAME OLD FREE SCHOOL GARBAGE THAT HAS NEVER WORKED!! Meanwhile we could be moving on to making our education and our nation stronger. Let's explore what COULD be happening if our schools weren't being held captive by tired old failed liberal ideas of the past.

First of all- competition works. America has the strongest economy and is the richest nation because competition works- period. The more we follow Marxist ideas the more we move our economy and our country backwards. I was at the Transportation Museum in Reno recently and the guide there told us that after Henry Ford came out with his assembly line IDEA for making cars,the number of car companies went from 220 to 10!! That's how many bad IDEAS were out there. We try many times before we find the RIGHT IDEA THAT WORKS. Through COMPETITION the car manufacturing industry was able to get the BEST IDEAS and produce GOOD CARS THAT PEOPLE COULD AFFORD. In school we have allowed competition to be smothered and old failing IDEAS to go on and on and be repackaged and renamed and continue to fail. Government control and centralized planning kill innovation and real progress. The unions hate charter schools- but maybe charter schools are just the thing we need in order to try out IDEAS and see what is TRULY SUCCESSFUL.

Second of all - many things that we do in traditional structured learning have had trials and been found to be the most successful. Many IDEAS have withstood the tests of time and are enduring. It is absolutely foolish to think that everything from the past was bad and only what we think of in the present day is RIGHT. Good change comes slowly and incrementally, respecting what works from the past and changing and adding with great care.

Finally, we need to get the Federal Government and all centralized planners out of our schools. Common Core was thought up by bureaucrats behind closed doors. I can't think of a worse scenario for destroying education. Education needs the light of day and control by parents and teachers in the local setting. Parents, teachers and local school boards will decide what works and throw out what doesn't. The IDEA of freedom, and of our country, is the belief in the ABILITY OF THE PEOPLE TO DECIDE.

There are so many good IDEAS to try, like improving teacher training in the colleges to prepare experts at every grade level. IDEAS about controlling bad behaviors or questioning techniques or how to meet the needs of different individual learners. Many of them might be found not to work. We can compete and choose on the local level what is working. Bureaucratic control and top down governance breeds special interests and powerful lobbies for money. All of that will go away when Washington D.C.- the Federal Department of Education, goes away. Let freedom and competition ring throughout our education in America- unstrangle our voices and our IDEAS. Let America and our schools go- let us become what we can be- really strong and really successful with people that REALLY  want America to be the greatest country on this earth.

Friday 4 April 2014

THE ENABLED SOCIETY

We all see enabling as dysfunctional. I'm not a psychiatrist by any means, but I think it is obvious to all of us that enabling is dysfunctional- and yet- what do we see in our American society? We see enabling everywhere and all the time.

When I was teaching school I would encounter enabling parents. Their child was never responsible for ANYTHING. One time I had a student who was throwing rocks on the playground and his mother defended him " they were only small rocks" WHAT?!! SMALL ROCKS?!! We didn't allow any rock throwing for obvious reasons. When you encountered situations like this you knew the parents were in for real trouble. We might have to deal with the results of this kind of parenting at school, but the parents would deal with the results of this kind of parenting and ENABLING, for the rest of their lives. The child would deal with the consequences of this ENABLING and excuse making in their lives forever, unfortunately.

But what happens when you enable a society? Behavior begins to deteriorate. Why would you work hard if someone will pay your bills? Why would you pay full cost for your own health insurance if someone is going to pay it for you? Why would you behave in school if you've got the teacher over the barrel and you can do anything you want and get away with it? Why would you be careful to buy property that is out of a flood plane when the Federal Government will bale you out if there is a flood? Why would you try to be strong if you can get paid for being weak?

The list goes on and on and on. Politicians milk this enabling for all it is worth- you really are a victim and they will see that you get PAID. Lawyers want the big bucks and advertise to take EVERY drug company or manufacturer that they can to court. They take the big bucks and the suckers get their $14.89 or $7.00 or whatever. Health care costs skyrocket to pay for everybody's windfall in this litigious society. We all pay more for products and more for taxes- but those of us that still will  and can pay these bills will always be left holding the bag.

Discipline in school and in the society in general is breaking down. The country's debt continues to mount. The politicians win the elections and look for another dysfunctional cause to champion - you are disabled if you say you are and they will get you your rights - to heck with everybody else-  the general population will pay the bill and put up with the inconvenience whatever that may be.

America can break out of this by just saying NO!!! NO, WE WON'T PAY THE TAXES. NO WE WON'T BELIEVE YOU ARE A VICTIM.NO, WE WON'T LET KIDS MISBEHAVE IN SCHOOL. YES, WE WILL MAKE PARENTS MAKE LUNCHES AND REQUIRE KIDS TO FOLLOW SIMPLE DRESS CODE RULES AND SAVE DRINKS UNTIL RECESS.

America can only get healthy again when the ENABLERS are stopped. I've seen it in school. When you have a substitute the kids size him/her up quickly- "what can we get away with here? What will be expected?" Katy bar the door if kids figure out they can run the teacher instead of the other way around. I know of situations where the kids behaved better for the substitute than for their real teacher. I knew one substitute ( guest teacher these days) that changed the furniture arrangement in the room- she was the boss for that day and the kids knew it. America can become the boss again- it is truly amazing how fast things can change when the person in charge just says NO and takes charge. Quit being weak and STOP THE ENABLERS COLD- STOP THEM RIGHT IN THEIR TRACKS- NO MORE ENABLING!!