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In my perfect school all teachers would be master reading and math teachers. All would master how to teach Reading Mastery One and Two to mastery.
All teachers and parents would know how to flood their kids and students with success by using Direct Instruction.
As a former school director my experience speaks for itself: Almost without exception teachers do not know how to flood students with success.To repeat again: teach teachers how to
create classrooms where students achieve massive academic success and
master how to READ and succeed with math. The answer lies in training all teachers in Direct
Instruction and Brainsarefun
American schools of education are not flooding our children with enough academic success. And it's not that hard.
Aren't these startling, incendiary and ridiculous remarks?
Yes they are, and they are defensible with the facts and my own personal experience as a school-of-education graduate and long-time teacher. Why do so many children fail in school? Why? Because too many adults are committed to criticism and failure instead of working together and success. Teachers must be taught how to experience the classroom in terms of "success." The program that is available to succeed with this lofty goal is right in front of your nose -- no charge -- Brainsarefun.
At Brainsarefun the emphasis is on skill snad 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 at home, not anywhere). Is it any wonder that so much of our time is eaten up with noise rather than productivity?
Teacher and parent training rarely mentions the phrases "positive
discipline" and "proximity
management." Therefore, too many classrooms end up poorly managed - no
matter how many hours of training teachers have completed. Individual
teachers can make significant strides in their own classrooms, but when
entire school choose to go Brainsarefun and Positive Discipline, stand
back -- you are about to see kids succeed.
Doubters of these statements need only reflect upon the majority of their personal classroom experiences, no matter where, no matter what subject was being taught. In short, Show me the curriculum.
STARTLING, INCENDIARY, RIDICULOUS, BUT ABSOLUTELY TRUE!
As startling as all this 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 Provide 10,000 Hours of
Success" or "How to Teach Reading to Mastery" or "How to Become A
Master Teacher,"
you will find courses with mumbo-jumbo names like:
Rarely will you find a course called "How to Teach All Kids to Read," "How to Teach Spelling," "How
to Teach 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 academic failure - and teachers to a lifetime
of frustration, not knowing how to do what teachers really want
to do: help kids succeed.
It is no wonder that our young people end up near the bottom 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 communicate (read and write and speak and do math)." It is no wonder that teachers leave the profession in droves and move on to more rewarding and satisfying 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 little more
about the real nuts and bolts of applied instructional theory
than the man on the street. What they do know about is research, "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 half our kids get every year.
This is why I can not support spending more money on schools, or more money on education.
I think we would all be better off if we stopped using the word "education." The whole idea of "education" is too hard. It results in us feeling bogged down and heavy. I think we should use words that have a chance of providing personal success. Words like "academic achievement" and "teach all kids to read."
New Schools, Old Schools, 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, math or effective classroom management, it won't help much. This is the tragedy: all the politicians and educators amnd parents say they are committed to bettering education, but they have no plan based on what really works. This is not a problem for the faint of heart.
HOW DID THIS POST-LITERATE 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 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 that fathered World
War II and the atomic bomb couldn't be trusted. Thinking was suspect. Feelings were ascendant.
Then, in the sixties, the remnants of the"intellectual"
met its Waterloo by a literal
explosion of emotional forces: Civil Rights, assassination, the Vietnam
War, the Woman's Movement and the Pill, psychedelic
drugs, rock-and-roll, Students for a Democratic
Society, Cuba, The Port Huron Statement, the Black Panthers, the Black
Muslims, hippies, the pill, Be-Ins, The Masters and Johnson Report,
The Mothers of Invention, Earth Day, Deconstruction, the Cold War,
People's
Park, the Democratic National Convention, Berkeley, Watergate, Steal
the Book, Nixon, the Weather Underground... the night we levitated
the Pentagon -- 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,
Outward Bound, the transcendental, rebellion, "Sympathy for the Devil,"
Howl, becoming a person, jogging, questioning authority,
bioenergetics, meditation,
getting high... Teaching kids to actually read? That didn't seem
so important at a time when madmen had their fingers
poised over the nuclear button. Feelings triumphed, and the blowback from this triumph control us to this very day.
The pendulum has swung, and today we have a functionally illiterate nation with an education system 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 it already appears too late. There are only a handful of
voices in American education that are saying anything at all. Most are
speaking in platitudes and cliches for stipends. The wealth is
becoming so centralized at the top that the clock
may simply stop as far as true participatory democracy and an
informed electorate is concerned. History has the potential of grinding
to an end. It wouldn't be the first time. The future looks very
frightening and the general reaction is, "Don't look. It's
too depressing." The discussion has largely stalled. But I am here to tell you, there are better days ahead. Let's begin by teaching kids to read.
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? Every prospective teacher must master how to:
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 blaming students for having "learning
disorders"
and "hyperactive behavior." 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. In short, we're all going to have to stand up and become Master Teachers and Parents.
Try the results you find here. See what works, and when you can, share them with a teacher and with your friends. Send me an email.
Together we really can, Save the brains!
Thanks. What you are doing saves kids' lives. 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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