K–12: Ten Lies Teachers
Tell You
American Thinker,
by
Bruce Deitrick Price
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
5/4/2020 6:54:15 AM
Hopefully, no one will forget our debt to Rudolf Flesch. He was a great man with a great mind. Almost forty years ago, Flesch published Why Johnny STILL Can't Read, wherein he continued his crusade against Whole Word (AKA Whole Language, Sight-Words, and other aliases). In this book, Flesch attacked the Education Establishment and its counterfeit merchandise in a unique way. He pointed out that all the things the professors assert most loudly and proudly are nothing but alibis — a polite way of saying lies.Has there ever been a field, in all of human history, that could be best defined by its alibis and lies?
Reply 1 - Posted by:
stablemoney 5/4/2020 7:34:02 AM (No. 400097)
Education begins after the student leaves school.
13 people like this.
This article seems directed at K-3 teachers. Many students aren't learning to read and many more don't seem to read well or with any comprehension. One gripe the author has is with the "lie" that since we are teaching all children now, general surveys of reading abilities averages are brought down by low scores of those who would not have even been taught before, which he considers to be racist.
But, is that a lie?
Who's being measured? Newly-arrived "wretched-refuse" immigrant children from 160 different-speaking countries with no educational background at all. Mainstreamed special-ed kids who would have had their own special class--and separate scores--before. Broken kids of any race from broken families torn by divorce, abuse, custody-drama, drugs, and poverty. All in the same class at the same time.
And the teachers and schools are measured/graded/evaluated by the percent of improvement of their LOWEST PERFORMING STUDENTS. That means that if every other kid has to be ignored so the teacher can focus on the few who are....problematic?....unlikely to succeed anyway?....then that's how the system is now set up. There's just no time to help improve middle and high ability students' skills in reading or anything else.
The situation was created and exacerbated by No Child Left Behind and its new replacement ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act), which by the way was passed by a Republican senate. So, want to change education LAW? Then, vote for super majorities of politicians who understand that equality or outcome is impossible.
And perhaps more importantly, believe it yourself and be prepared to accept the consequences.
15 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Muguy 5/4/2020 9:09:16 AM (No. 400208)
I remember hearing him talk about his book years ago on the Marlin Maddoux show--
So many kids come to school NOT knowing basic information they should have learned from their parents, especially simple sequencing and especially the correct pronunciation of basic words with good diction.
Sometimes, there just is nothing better than doing things the "old way" with phonics.
We are no longer "hooked on phonics", but still trying the lazy "look-say" method in most cases
8 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Sanguine 5/4/2020 9:15:23 AM (No. 400218)
#2, you are spot on. Our family has generations of teachers. Three of our kids are public school teachers; elementary, middle, and high school. Your insightful words should be printed and sent to every legislator who wields their power from faraway desks.
When government tied dollars to test scores...The Test overshadowed classroom education. The uneven scoring metrics were the last straw. Good teachers are tired of this heavy-handed and unfair means of evaluation. They are starting to leave the classroom.
15 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Strike3 5/4/2020 9:23:31 AM (No. 400235)
The serious problems of public education have been exposed to the light many times and some very smart people like Dr. Thomas Sowell and John Taylor Gatto have suggested simple fixes in a number of books but we are still finding ourselves sliding downhill. The main obstacle is money and how easy and legal it is to put ignorant do-gooders on school boards to keep the system propped up. Somewhere along the line, somebody decided that it was better for society to throw the biggest slice of the pie at the bottom ten percent of students and we reap the benefits of that idiocy every time we interact with our own younger generation. Incidentally, the bottom ten percent of the work force is the main focus of labor unions so one is led to believe that the same failed philosophy is practiced across the board. Now that I think about it, we have the same situation in government. Every dumbass decision, policy, law and edict comes from some inept idiot. It's time to put our resources where they will do the most good, not to be satisfied with bringing our average intellect up from moron to barely functioning adult.
13 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Chuzzles 5/4/2020 9:33:23 AM (No. 400253)
The only profession I know of that actually brags about their failures. Any other profession did this, the person would be fired. But unfortunately, tenure protects these incompetents from that. And like the Florida union official says, 'who cares about the kids, they don't pay dues'. He forgets that the kids might not, but every fanny not warming a chair in the classroom cuts the Federal dollars down. And that cuts down on his gravy.
So maybe the Unions might want to re-think their position on teachers who fail. Clean up your act teachers, or parents will wind up doing it for you. I was kind of hoping Trump would do that finally.
8 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
fayebeck 5/4/2020 10:00:59 AM (No. 400296)
If your kid can read this. Thank a teacher. If your kid can't read this. BLAME THE PARENTS.
4 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
HotRod 5/4/2020 10:07:47 AM (No. 400307)
A related problem is spelling. 20 years ago the company I worked for was hiring college graduates that couldn't spell! Grammar, too, was a problem.
I am sad to see that cursive writing seems to have disappeared. Teachers in my day (early '50s) were very strict about that. It was also a good way to teach attention to detail.
14 people like this.
Teaching to the test is bad...another "lie", assuming that teachers are imparting the key knowledge associated with the so-called test. Strikes me as a fair "curriculum guide". So, rather than have any form of metrics to measure performance gains, let's not because it exposes a flaw in classroom outcomes and affects money. It's always about the money in education, which is never enough.
Recently one Texas state legislator tried to claim he had the answer to all this...Pop Quizzes!! I kid you not. And then teachers GRADING kids on these pop quizzes...thus holding them responsible for knowing something. Sounds like a teacher teaching to a test, isn't it?
Why are professionals subjected to exams for licenses to practice? Why shouldn't students (and, by extension, the school) be tested for their subject knowledge and academic progress after the public invests thousands in them each year? Otherwise, let's simply eliminate any evaluation. What's the point? Just teach away! Here's the money!!
5 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
lakerman1 5/4/2020 1:36:36 PM (No. 400572)
latin should be a required subject in middle school. if you understand Latin, even a little bit, you can figure out English words.
6 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
DVC 5/4/2020 5:07:31 PM (No. 400770)
My mother taught me and my siblings to read with phonics flash cards. I read the newspaper every morning with breakfast from age 5. I still have clear memories of the teacher putting up the months of the year on a large class wall-size bulletin board, and of course, I could read all the months, and days, etc. the day I showed up for first grade.
Phonics is the ONLY thing that really works. Not teaching with real, pure phonics is why kids can't read well these days.
7 people like this.
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