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Improve Education

Started 9 months ago by brucedeitrickprice

  1. brucedeitrickprice
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    Posted 9 months ago #

    My thesis is that the Education Establishment causes or at least enables the dumbing down of the public schools. Part of a collectivist dream since Dewey. My solution is to end-run these people as much as possible. We need business leaders to get more involved. We need parents to learn more about what is really going on inside the schools, where fads such as Constructivism, Dolch Words, Balanced Literacy and many more continue to cause damage. Please provide suggestions for how individual citizens can make a difference.


  2. pulliam
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    Posted 8 months ago #

    There are several things which parents/guardians can do:

    1. Put books in the home
    2. require school attendance
    3. Pay some attention to how the kid(s) are doing

    School staff can"

    1. Pay attention to each kid
    2. Enforce truancy rules
    3. Dismiss incompetents


  3. brucedeitrickprice
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    Posted 7 months ago #

    Excellent suggestions but if the schools aren't aiming high, we'll still just muddle along.

    Come on, people. I would suggest a more full-bodied revolution, where we ignore almost everything coming from the NEA, the Dept. of Ed, Teachers College--you know, all the respectable places that have tended to dumb-down the country. Want some more ideas along this line? Please Google "38: Saving Public Schools."


  4. heywren
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    Posted 7 months ago #

    I think it's narrow-minded to blame the Educational Establishment for failing to uphold high standards when we, as an entire culture, have lowered our standards regarding intellectual achievement.

    Too many parents let the television raise their children instead of reading to them, talking to them, and teaching them values and wisdom at home. What are (overworked, underpaid) teachers to do when they are given 30 illiterate children with the attention spans of gnats and told to give them a world-class education?

    If the quality of classroom education has declined over the last 50 years, it is nothing compared to the precipitous drop in education, care and attention from parents at home. Teachers are not parents, and should not be expected to fulfill both roles in a child's life. It's a wonder kids manage to learn anything at all, really, when they're all hopped up on Nickelodeon and Adderall.

    And Bruce, I would consider taking your thesis seriously if you were capable of constructing a complete sentence. If you won't hold yourself to high standards, why should I listen to you about how our teachers are failing? The English teachers who taught me (both at home and in public schools) would never dream of constructing anything as shabby as your fragment, "Part of a collectivist dream since Dewey."

    Change starts with you, sir.


  5. brucedeitrickprice
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    Posted 7 months ago #

    Many of our smartest people expend their reformist energies lamenting the split infinitive, even as millions of children never learn what an infinitive is!

    My modest proposal is that we stay focused on the central narrative: our elite educators deliberately dumb down the schools. (If you have any doubts, Google my “41: Educators, O. J. Simpson, and Guilt.”)

    Almost as reprehensible, the elite universities and major media stand silently aside. Is there a newspaper in Virginia that reports on education in any but the most superficial manner? Put the name here so we can congratulate the editor. What I see in my local paper is a weird indifference to the sophistries that sustain the decline.


  6. brucedeitrickprice
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    Posted 6 months ago #

    March, 2010, is the 55th anniversary of "Why Johnny Can't Read." Still a hot book after all these years because our elite educators wouldn't listen. If reading theory is one of your interests, please Google "Rudolph Flesch Rules the World of Reading."


  7. brucedeitrickprice
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    Posted 5 months ago #

    Obama's new proposals say schools should be able to use subjects besides reading and math to prove success. Sounds crazy to me. Reading is the most important thing. Math is next most important. The third and fourth most important things are reading.

    Boys NOT reading is a big problem. My sarcastic take is that the schools purposefully do everything wrong. (See rambunctious piece: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/21018 )


  8. brucedeitrickprice
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    Posted 3 months ago #

    VirginiaTalks seems to be smart and well-designed, but few use it. Why is that? The far-left has had quite a lot of dark fun metastasing through the school system, but few seem to object. I find that curious. What, you may wonder, can we do?? Here's a column that spells it out, and says public school teachers can lead the way:

    http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/158657 (An Urgent Plea to Public School Teachers)



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