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Simply enough, most of our schools of education are a total waste of time, they do not teach prospective teachers how to teach. Or, put another way: teachers aren't taught how to create classrooms where students learn what they need to learn. Aren't these startling, incendiary and ridiculous remarks?
Yes they are, and they are almost 100% true. Our schools of education do not teach prospective teachers how to teach reading, writing, listening, speaking, information organization and math. Our schools of education rarely, if ever, mention the three fundamental behaviors associated with academic success, at all levels of instruction:
For all practical purposes, these easily measured behaviors are never mentioned, anywhere (not school, not business, not church, not state, not summer camp, not anywhere). Is it any wonder that so much of our time is eaten up with business rather than productivity?
Our schools of education (and I realize there are exceptions) rarely mention the phrase "positive discipline" or "proximity management." Therefore, when our teachers graduate from their education classes, no matter from which college or university they take their training, very few know how to teach reading, or how to manage a classroom - no matter how many hours of instruction they've attended. No matter what level they teach, kindergarten through post-graduate university or the corporate classroom, most of the courses students experience are an enormous waste of time. Why? Our teachers are rarely taught anything about learning theory and the specifics of how to teach. Doubters of this statement need only reflect upon the majority of their classroom experiences, no matter where, no matter what subject being taught.
STARTLING, INCENDIARY, RIDICULOUS, BUT ABSOLUTELY TRUE!
As startling as the above sounds, a cursory look at what passes
for curriculum at our teacher factories quickly reveals the truth.
Instead of classes with titles like "How to Teach Kindergartners
to Read," "How to Teach Math," "How to Teach
the Fundamental Behaviors," "How to Teach Core Knowledge,"
"Developing a Theory of Instruction," "Positive
Discipline in the Classroom," "What Does the Data Say?"
you will find courses with names something like:
Rarely will you find courses called "How to Teach the Non-reader to Read," "How to Teach Spelling," "How to Teach Cursive Writing," "How to Teach Math," "What the data says?" In fact, the courses that are usually taught, while sounding hip, humane and sensitive, are really the cruelest of all - condemning too many students to a lifetime of poor academic skills - and teachers to a lifetime of frustration, not knowing how to do what teachers really want to do: have students learn.
It is no wonder that our young people end up nearly dead last on international reading and math tests. It is no wonder that one of the most common requests from employers is, "Send me someone who can read and write and speak and do math." It is no wonder that teachers leave the profession in droves and move on to other lines of work.
What about doctors of education (Ph.D.s)? Don't they know about teaching reading, positive discipline and behavior management?
I'm afraid the situation does not improve the more you study education. Doctors of Education, for the most part, know nothing more about the real nuts and bolts of applied instructional theory than the man on the street. What they do know about is "Team building," "School Law," "In-service Training," "The Politics of Being a Principal," and a host of other subjects that qualify them to maintain the status quo of their particular university, school or district. If they really knew how to teach reading and math, don't you think they'd do something about the terrible scores their schools record year after year after year?
This is why I can not support spending more money on schools, or more money on education.
Schools, at all level of instruction (K through post-graduate university) waste an enormous percentage of student time with activities that do not lead to effective learning or retention. Anyone who believes differently should please provide me (roryd@brainsarefun.com) with the name of the exception immediately.
You can throw money, computers and facilities at schools until Florida freezes over, but if the teachers have never been taught how to effectively teach reading or math the money and new facilities will make little difference the results will continue to remain consistently poor. This is the tragedy: all the politicians and educators say they are committed to bettering education, but they have no plan based on what really works. If teachers and administrators were held accountable, something like half of them would be fired or quit tomorrow - crying "unfair" as they packed their bags.
HOW DID THIS TERRIBLE, ILLITERATE, ANTI-INTELLECTUAL STATE ARISE?
Allow me some speculation based on my personal education, reflection and experience.
From approximately 1890 until 1950 American Education was significantly shaped by a progressive movement influenced by personalities such as William James, Jean Piaget, John Dewey, Sigmund Feud, Karl Marx, Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. The work of these men influenced an educational reform movement which nurtured the idea that education should cater to both the emotional and intellectual development of the child. All well and good, except that, as with all pendulums, the movement swung so far to one side that slowly the "intellectual development" part of the equation began to be ignored in favor of the "emotional." After all, the intellect, the father of the atomic bomb, wasn't to be trusted.
Then, in the sixties, the remnants of the"intellectual" met its final blow as it came under fresh attack by a literal explosion of emotional forces: Civil Rights, President Kennedy's assassination, the Vietnam War, the Woman's Movement, psychedelic drugs, the Beatles, Dylan, Hendrix, Students for a Democratic Society, the Port Huron Statement, the Black Panthers, the Black Muslims, hippies, the pill, Be-Ins, the Masters and Johnson Report, Earth Day, deconstruction in the classroom, the Cold War, People's Park, the Democratic National Convention, Berkeley, Watergate, Abbie Hoffman, Nixon, the Weather Underground... just to name some of the most obvious. Everything intellectual became suspect. What was valued was emotion, confrontation, mystical experience, feelings, participation, therapy-groups, yoga, Venceremos Brigades, the transcendental, rebellion, "Sympathy for the Devil," Howl, questioning authority, bioenergetics, meditation, getting high... Teaching kids to actually read? That didn't seem so important at a time when madmen seemed to have their fingers poised on the button and revolution was in the air. Feelings ascended.
The pendulum has continued to swing, and today we have an increasingly illiterate nation with our schools of education largely stuck in some kind of "feel-good" emotional backwater - decrying meaning, condemning far too many of our young people, at all economic levels, to massive academic failure in a world that makes no room for, and has no tolerance for, such failure.
Can't we just wait for the pendulum to reverse its course? Perhaps, but by that time I fear the damage will be so massive, and the wealth so centralized towards the top, that the clock may simply stop as far as true participatory democracy and an informed electorate is concerned.
SOLUTION
I would be remiss if I didn't point the way to some solution and mention one school of education where you can inquire about how to teach children to read. The school is the University of Oregon, the home of Siegfried Engelmann and Direct Instruction . The finger pointing at the moon is my (always free) website Brainsarefun.
So where to begin? Schools of education need to quickly:
As concerned parents and teachers you are going to have to learn to find children and students doing something right four times for every time you find them doing something wrong; learn to reward good behavior and ignore the bad. You are going to have to get your kids on contracts. You are going to have to read aloud to them and turn off the television. You are going to have to scan the Brainsarefun Alphabetical Index and pick and choose those articles and tools that appear valuable to you. You are going to have to swallow a lot of rage when you hear teachers talking about learning disorders and hyperactive learners. You are going to have to forget the majority of professional educators and politicians. You are going to have to base your decisions on research and the facts.
Try the results you find here. See what works, and when you can, share them with a teacher and with your friends.
Together we really can, Save the brains!
Thanks. What you are doing is very important. I look forward to hearing your results.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: WHAT'S WRONG WITH SCHOOLS OF EDUCATION © September, 2002 by Rory Donaldson. All rights reserved. In order to help reverse the tide of academic failure and optimize success, individuals may copy brainsarefun solutions for non-commercial use at no charge. Contents may not be sold or repackaged in any manner without the written permission of Rory Donaldson. Since all material is copyrighted, please ensure that this entire copyright notice and contact information continues to be attached to each article you download. Mr. Donaldson appreciates the feedback. Additional solutions may be viewed and downloaded at no charge by logging on to brainsarefun.com. Titles are being updated, edited and added regularly. To view most recently added titles you may click here.
Suggestions and comments encouraged, email: roryd@brainsarefun.com.
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