Professor Plum's Relentless Rants on Eduquackery

educationation.org

http://educationation.org  is up and running.

Almost all posts from THIS blog have been copied to educationation, at The Rant Archive.

New rants, diatribes, and posts  are added to the Blog at educationation--which makes sense when you think about it.

It's UP!

Boy those new drugs!!

Anyway, Dear Patient Readers, the point is...

The Blog over at    www.educationation.org is working.  If interested, hit the link that says "blog."  Makes sense in a strange way.

After 4 hours I gave up and called the help desk.  A good fellow who called himself "Tom" (who was humming merry little punk rock tunes to himself as we worked) got it going in under 30 seconds.

Good Ol' Tom.  I owe him a six pack.

The next post at educatioNation BLOG will be entitled,

"I have the smartest ed students!"  [Wherein Professor Plum shows that with a bit of help, these young persons are creating a reading program right down to the scripts.  Their kids WILL learn to read, and I don't mean mebbe, boy Howdy.]

Later,

Thanks!

Thanks, Dear Readers, for checking out the website

http://www.educationation.org

I hope y'all find it useful.

I've not dropped the frail attempts at humor or the moderately demented word salad style.

A blog or chat room will be up soon.

Till then, I'll post as much new piffle at educationation as I can, in the time alloted.

I GOT A MORAL question for you....

As you know, my ed school is 100 % whole language, and resists ANY gesture even towards a LITTLE explicit reading instruction.

We will soon be evaluated by the depwrtment of public instruction.  Meanwhile, I am sure that the reading pefessers are cooking the books--making it look like they reach reading the way the state requires (scientifically).

Should I blow the whistle?  If so, to whom?  When?

Is it my biz, anyway?

Should I just teach MY students how to teach reading and let the rest of the faculty suck eggs?

Okay, that's it.  I have to get back to educatioNation.  There's a big party going on.

New site up

Dear Readers,

Professor Plum has been working day and night, night and day, and also around the clock to make a website that may be of some use to youse.  Turns out that once you get really hammered it's not too ard to do.

I'll do some every day.

For now, I have some old and NEW stuff on reading.  Feel free to download or copy whatever you want.

Also lemme know if you WANT certain stuff.

http://www.educationation.org

Also, any suggestions are welcome.

For ex, you know how to remove grease stains from silk?

Vagina Monologues

Howz THAT for an attention grabber?

Professor Plum is learning--real quick--that this website creating biz is a lot HARDer than the webhost ads indicated.  What the hey is php, ftp, etc.?  Not very good instructional design, I'd say.  How can you follow instructions that involve words whose meanings are a big fat mystery?  What does it mean to "paste this html (a whole lot of squiggles) on your page"?  Just slap it anywhere?

Anyway, back to blogging HERE for the nonce (we have a serious blogging jones--even chills and fever) while Angie (one of the "women in the office" who--in marked contrast to "the perfessers" milling around and making silly asses of themselves--actually has a brain and a cupboard full of skills) helps me make a website.   She'd do it for nothing , but I insist on monetary remuneration and the occasional jelly donut.

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As Professor Plum was taking his annual stroll around the campus, he sautnered, or it could have been that he meandered, through the building that warehouses the perfessers of anguish and the perfessers of hypestery.  Then, stepping lightly over students strewn hither and also thither on the lawn, pondering questions of world-historical import ("Is my butt fat?" "Are we at war or something?"), Professor Plum reconnoitered the behavioral sciences building.

And this brings us to the subj at hand, or the point--not that there actually IS one.

Every 20 yards of wall in these two buildings displayed a sign advertising "The Vagina Monologues."  Professor Plum was bemused--not to say baffled.  He was unaware that vaginas--as a rule--had much to say.  At least he's never come across one that was vocal.  But perhaps his sample is biased.  Perhaps there are vaginas running around that are quite loquacious--offering opinions on local news, cracking jokes, and possibly humming catchy tunes in a soft voice. 

Anyway, Professor Plum figgered that if this month's campus motif was Talking Organs, perhaps certain MALE portions should be given a voice.  And so, hauling out his Trusty Mr. Magic Marker Professor Plum adorned the advertisements with additional Coming Attractions, such as "Test...."  [Well, I think a little of that goes a long way.  I had some REAL funny material, but this--and follow me closely here--is a family-oriented blog.]

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Following is a chilling narrative on middle schools and, I think, the transformation of schools in general...

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America's children search for meaning

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Posted: February 25, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com  

 

It felt more like a juvenile detention center during lockdown than lunchtime in my neighborhood public middle school. Teachers were strategically stationed throughout the cafeteria about 20 feet apart. One of the vice principals had taken her customary place at the microphone. Every few seconds the noisy room was punctuated with her constant commands: "You, in the green shirt, sit down." "Students standing at the back table, find a seat quickly." "Young man at the soda machine, move to a table."

Parents who had attended this upper-class suburban institution 20 years ago touted it as "a wonderful school." Other parents had told me how terrible it was. At the time, my son was nearing graduation from fifth grade, so I decided to find out for myself what our middle school was really like.

But I didn't want to get the typical parental tour, given by smiling staff who would tell me just how progressive or fantastic everyone and everything is. I wanted the real deal. So, I signed up with the county to be a substitute teacher.

Within a couple of days of being fingerprinted and filling out the paperwork, the electronic phone voice that beckons substitutes informed me of an opportunity at that school. I grabbed it.

The lunch experience was depressing, stifling and insulting to both teachers and students alike. How did things get so bad that what used to be a welcome break in the middle of the day for both faculty and kids is now a necessary evil?

I talked with other teachers when I got the chance. Stepping out into the hallway with one teacher to monitor the changing of classes (yes, Virginia, the police state is real – it's the easiest solution to disorder), the 20-year veteran of the school bemoaned the disrespect for authority, the lazy attitudes, the violent outbreaks and the general unpleasantness. "The kids used to be so good." She once enjoyed teaching, but not any more.

On this particular day, I subbed for English class, following the normal lesson plans for the day, which called for the students to take turns reading aloud. As kids droned on, stumbling over even the most basic words, I glanced around the room. There were kids sleeping in the back, and others just staring into space. Disinterest abounded. Taped to the walls were book reports, each with its own handmade cover. As I leafed through the pages between classes, it was obvious the students' time was spent more on their "creative covers" than on the actual exercise of analyzing or writing about books. And this was 8th grade.

A couple of days later, I was again beckoned to the school by the impersonal, electronic voice. This time the offer was for PE.

The depressing atmosphere I had experienced the first day resumed the minute I arrived in the locker room. The PE coach warned me, "Make sure you keep an eye on the stalls while the girls are changing. We have to keep close watch. No one is to take a shower. There are two girls who need to take a make-up test. Be sure and seat them to the side while the other kids are playing volleyball – keep an eye out because the girls will try to cheat." She was right. Three times I had to move the girls away from each other and their friends.

The class was coed, as are most PE classes these days. While younger boys still waiting to develop failed miserably in their struggle to show their great athletic ability in front of the physically mature girls, it was obvious the girls knew how to use their well-developed female bodies to intimidate and belittle. I was shocked at how aggressive they were.

Taller than most of the boys, several of them shoved their breasts into the necks of the boys as they teased and laughed at their mistakes. Many of the girls had their gym shorts rolled up so far, their buttocks showed. "Unroll your waistband," I said. A flat voice responded, "But everyone wears them this way all the time."

It seems my sad experience is pretty typical of most schools these days.

In a Feb. 28, 2005, article titled, "LEFT BEHIND, Kids have too little to respect" for the American Conservative, substitute teacher Marian Kester Coombs shares her own observations and gives insightful reasons for the dismal scene in so many of our schools:

 

The balance of power and the dominant institutional culture within the public schools have changed profoundly. No more subordinated hierarchy of youths competing to be patted on the head by adult authority figures. Power is now in the hands of the inmates, and their preoccupation is with RESPECT – and of course its opposite, "dissing." An obsession imported from the mean streets, this demand, backed up by physical force and psychological intimidation, stands in stark contrast to the almost complete lack of deference shown to authorities.

The inversion of respect – its redefinition as idle malice and heartlessness instead of achievement and sublimation – is not simply a matter of individual parents misbehaving. The entire society, now led by Baby Boomers, is viewed with derision. The young feel a sense not just of personal desertion but of general, universal desertion. Their elders have somehow lost them the whole world and what would have been their place in it.

That is why they are so angry. That is why they do not respect us – not just because some of us lie, cheat, fornicate, and cannot be relied on. They are rebelling against having nothing to rebel against.

Could it be that our kids are searching for meaning? Could it be that they are so numbed by the anything-goes society that they are pushing the envelope just to feel alive? Take cutting. It's a phenomenon now prevalent in even the best schools, and it's exactly what you're hoping it isn't: self-mutilation. Kids casually cut themselves with knives, safety pins and razor blades – just because. In Michelle Malkin's column of Feb. 23, she refers to a school counselor telling the parent of a middle-school student, "70 percent of the kids here cut or know someone who does. It's cool, a trend, and acceptable."

Malkin goes on to say, "While many public schools deny the problem exists, public health advocacy groups are warning medical professionals of the cutting craze – and have even declared March 1 "Self Injury Awareness Day."

Coombs observes, "Those who give speeches about higher standards and more teachers typically lunch in places like the Senate dining room. They would do well to spend a noon hour in the cafeteria of a public school. Kids in super-tight or droopy jeans and T-shirts reading "Yes – but not with you" or "You forgot to ask if I care" shuffle through food lines that feature tater tots, fries, chips, pizza, Pepsi, and Little Debbie dessert squares. Ritalin offsets the sugar high."

As Coombs says, "But bad fashion and worse nutrition are not these children's only common denominators. Their more defining trait is the forlorn look they share."

Sounds like it's time for more parents – and even legislators – to do a little substitute teaching.

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Professor Plum is not exactly a geezer--though he hopes to live long enough to be one.  Ms.  Hagelin's depiction of middle schools as houses of incarceration controlling blase', angry, egocentric, and generally moronic inmates is quite accurate.  In fact, Professor Plum is about one more "incident" away from yanking his kid from middle school and letting him stay home and surf the web.  The kid would learn a heck of a lot more and not feel that every day is a combination of  running the gauntlet (halls full of sullen nutcases) and classroom degradation ceremony.

It surely wasn't like that when Professor Plum was a lad.  The worst a "tough guy" ever did was steal a hubcap and say "Oh, yeah?" to a teacher.   And everyone knew how to read. If you said something to another kid, you were not given "in-school detention."  Instead, the teacher (for example, Mr. Maxwell) would simply say, "Marty, shut up!" and Marty would.

It seems that teachers have become big fat humorless panty-heads who can't command respect and can't control the goofy behavior of adolescents with "a look" or a joke. "You going to blab ALL day, Debbie?"  Instead, they shift control to draconian policies.  The school comes to resemble the psycho-basement in "Midnight Express" (about a Turkish prison) where inmates with dead eyes walk round and round a pillar.

How did teachers become weinies? That will be the subject of another post...

How did schools become quasi-mental hospitals?  Were the changes so small and so far spaced that no one noticed?  Were the changes in policy and practice (e.g., full inclusion, watering down the curriculum) lauded (and shall we say pimped?) by the ed professoriate and so no one realized that the changes were insane and sure to be destructive?

You can tell when things won't get better.  You know when a relationship is OVER. You know when you are DONE with a job. You know when Petey the family pet is NOT going to get well.  Are we THERE yet?

 

Latest on the Rockfod Rockheads

Here's the history and current events in Rockford, which battle is pretty much emblematic of good and evil in edland.

http://www.illinoisloop.org/rockford.html

New site coming soon.

Something New

Dear Readers,

You may recall an earlier post in which I said, and I quote...

There must be a message in seven years of fruitlessly beating my head against the walls INside my edschool.  But maybe the message is not, "These people cannot or will not change. They are simply hopeless."  Maybe the message is for....Professor Plum! 

"Hey, Stupid!  Let it GO!  This is not about YOU and your WILL. It's about the KIDS.  I'm trying to tell you to TALK TO SOMEONE ELSE!  Do I have to smite your sorry ass?"

In other words, Professor Plum has been as intransigent in fighting ("I'll hound them 'till they change.") and therefore just as wasteful of resources and kids' lives as his collards.  And for much the same reason--ego.

Okay, message received.  I've been given the chance to do more useful things. Henceforth, I'll do them, and nothing but them, like writing for folks who might benefit from my guff.

I try (occasionally with success) to be a man of my word.  Therefore, I have decided to create a regulation website where I can post powerpoints, word documents, and video and audio (if I can figure out how) that might be of use to teachers, administrators, ed students, the public in general, critics of diseducation, and of course you.  Stuff on how to teach (esp. reading, history, logic, and text comprehension in general), how to design and evaluate instruction, how to distinguish fads and other nonsense from sound ideas and methods, how to educate kids with disabilities.

To be honest, guys, I have run out of rants.  I've said it all.  I am beginning to repeat myself.  The last thing I want (aside from a sharp stick in the eye or a fridge devoid of beer) is to bore youse.   We have, figuratively, kicked the living $#@T out of the eduhacks.  Perhaps it's time to offer solid alternatives--something that removes their reason for living--which I hope to do.

Regarding reports on day to day matters in edland, there are far better commentators than I--many on my bog roll.  It makes no sense for me to read them and then report on what THEY say.  [How stupid is that!]

I will get a webhost that offers all sorts of stuff including a blog.

I hope we continue to communicate.  In fact, I would like to have a website where likeminded folks work together, asking questions and generating solutions.

It would be neat to develop an EFFECTIVE and SANE alternative to ed schools right here on the internet, much as Rory Donaldson has done...

http://brainsarefun.com/

The new site will be up in a day or so.  I'll let you know.  Till then, check this guy if you've a mind to.  He's almost as demented as I am...

http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/

As the Worms Turn

In our last portion of merriment, Professor Plum presented evidence suggesting why he has so few friends among the many-headed of Edland. Tell them they are a herd of self-serving ghouls masquerading as educators and they take umbrage--whatever umbrage may be, if anything.   Result?   For the seventh year in a row, Professor Plum has NOT been invited to the prom.   [All those wasted hairdos!]

Some collards, however, are not so much insulted by what Professor Plum writes as they are simply stupid.  Take this next case--which we shall call "The Mystery of the Empty Head."  Our story opens at a faculty meeting....

The Dean asked faculty to have new pictures taken of our shining faces. We were to stop by the young woman (in an alcove around the corner) who had a digital camera on a tripod.  We were to stand against the wall, smile, and get our pitcher took. As I left to get mine took, I said to the assembled, “Gee, and I forgot my Speedo.”

“Ha Ha.”

"Such a comedian."

Well, later that day I figgered I’d send a silly email around--a spoof, if you will--to bring a bit of cheer to the collective faculty soul. And here is that mirth-laden email…

Dear Colleagues,

It has come to our attention that the faculty photo camera has broken three (3, trois) times due to the destructive impact of frightful images loaded into it.  Apparently, some colleagues are appearing in haberdashery that will not only stop a clock, start a buffalo stampede, and break a mirror, but destroy a perfectly fine camera as well.

Please note that our budget does NOT have funds for an infinite number of cameras.  Therefore, in future, ALL faculty are requested to wear TOAST (The Official Approved Smock and Tarpaulin) of the Waddlerump School of Education (your choice of a soothing teal or a perky--but tasteful--periwinkle) when having their pictures taken.

Faculty are asked NO LONGER to adorn themselves with faux funny items such as

** Multi-colored fright wigs.

** British Admiral Nelson uniforms.

** Fake backwoods teeth.

** Groucho glasses and nose.

** Carmen Miranda hats.

** Fake Axe in the Head

Thank you,

The Management

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This message has been approved by the Fish and Game Commission; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; and Mel and Ned's Nail Salon and Bait Emporium.

This message was written with recycled electrons.

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Modestly amusing, I thought.  However...

In a few hours, Professor Plum received the following email from a collard who has published little of value in 35 years, who has the biggest mouth in the county, who is dumber than a sack of hammers, and whose life's mission is collecting as many male “portions” as possible in the time allotted. [Sorry, but that’s exactly what it is.] She wrote…

Somehow I'm back on your distribution list.  Please remove.  I do not find this attempt at humor humorous.  I see it as more harmful that (sic) helpful. In my opinion, humor should make the reader or hearer laugh, not cringe or wince.

Unmann de Guys, Ph.D.

[What kind of ass signs something “Ph.D.”? Like who cares?  Note that she implies in the last line that humor has made the reader cringe or wince.  You think that's what she meant?]

Being an empathetic fellow, I figgered that Perfesser de Guy's cringing and/or wincing was induced by tight wadding of her voluminous knickers giving her a painful hinderbinder (or self-inflicting wedgie) and a frightening reminder of her mortality.  Therefore, I promptly and politely replied…

Oh, go boil your head, you skanky old bat. If you don’t want to read my stuff, just hit “delete.” Be thankful I didn’t post something REALLY funny--such as you trying to sound intelligent. Now crawl back into your funnel web, stick your odious head into a file drawer, and slam it repeatedly.

Actually, that’s not quite what I wrote. Here’s what I wrote…

i thought it was pretty funny. so did 12 others.  no accounting for humor.  Oh, wait.   I think I hear your husband calling.  There's an ounce of life left in his dessicated frame that you've yet to suck out of him.

[Actually, the last three sentences didn't quite make it to final copy.  Okay, it wasn't as satisfying as the first (One must pick one’s battles, if one can) but at least I denied her the abject apology she--a noted harpy and foul blister--has come to expect.]
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Here's a consolation for our Dear Readers.   It may assist you to teach kids logic. 

Rules for Reasoning, or Logical Fallacies Made Easy [Some of these are found in  Corrective Reading.] 

Big Ideas

1. Don’t take the validity of statements at face value.

2. Examine the evidence, the words, and the generality of the statements.

Specific rules.

1. Just because two things happen around the same time doesn’t mean one causes the other thing to happen.   Someone turns up the volume on the stereo and a lamp burns out.

2. Just because one thing happened (or usually happens) before another thing doesn't mean that the first thing causes the second thing.

3. Just because you know about a part doesn’t mean you know about the whole thing.   The parts of a sewing machine are light, but the whole thing is heavy.

4. Just because you know about a part doesn’t mean that you know about another part.  One class in a school learns very little.  That does not mean that the class next door learns very little.

5. Just because you know about a whole thing doesn’t mean you know about a part.   A  school has low achievement overall.  That does not mean all classes have low achievement.

6. Just because words are the same doesn’t mean they have the same meaning.   

7. Just because a writer presents some choices doesn’t mean there aren’t other choices.

8. Just because events have happened in the past doesn’t mean they’ll always happen.

9. Just because something happened (or a statement is valid) here doesn't mean it will happen (or a statement is valid) there.

10. Just because something happened (or a statement is valid) there doesn't mean it will happen (or a statement is valid) here.

11. Just because it sounds nice doesn't mean (it's credible, you should believe it, it's valid).

12. Just because it sounds (scary, unpleasant, threatening) doesn't mean it's wrong.

13. Just because a person (is a jerk, has some interest in being believed, has to say or believe what she's saying) doesn't mean she is wrong.

14. Just because there's no (credible) evidence that a statement is right does not mean it's wrong.

15. Just because there's no (credible) evidence that a statement is wrong does not mean it's right.

16. Restating a proposition in a different way, and using the restatement as proof of the proposition, is no proof at all.

17. Just because something happens as predicted by an hypothesis doesn't mean the causal variables in the hypothesis had anything to do with it.

18. Just because the causal variables in an hypothesis did not happen does not mean that the effect will not happen.

19. Just because you are coerced into saying something doesn't mean the coercer is right.

20. Just because a lot of people believe a proposition doesn't mean it is true.

21. Just because a big shot in some field says something about another field doesn't mean you should believe it.
___________________________________________________

Uh, oh....

Professor Plum has just had an epiphany.  Dang, I hate when that happens.  We thought it was a flashback, but, no, just an epiphany.

There must be a message in seven years of fruitlessly beating my head against the walls INside my edschool.  But maybe the message is not, "These people cannot or will not change.  They are simply hopeless."  Maybe the message is for....Professor Plum! 

"Hey, Stupid!  Let it GO!  This is not about YOU and your WILL. It's about the KIDS.  I'm trying to tell you to TALK TO SOMEONE ELSE!  Do I have to smite your sorry ass?"

In other words, Professor Plum has been as intransigent in fighting ("I'll hound them 'till they change.") and therefore just as wasteful of resources and kids' lives as his collards.  And for much the same reason--ego.

Okay, message received.  I've been given the chance to do more useful things.  Henceforth, I'll do them, and nothing but them, like writing for folks who might benefit from my guff.

Also, there's so much beer.

Potpourri de Piffle

Some of Professor Plum's colleagues--(1) the self-inflating progressives, and (2) the doing-nothing-but-always-looking-busy-drone-hacks--don't much appreciate Professor Plum's inestimable value.

"ImPOSSible!"
"Say it isn't so!"
"Surely, you are mistaken."

In know. I know!  It IS hard to believe.  Moreover...

Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd;
(King criticizing Hamlet's continued mourning,
in Hamlet, I: II)

O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resove itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!
Oh, God! O, God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! O, fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
(Hamlet, in Hamlet, I, II, 129)

Apparently, they are unjollied (if that's the word I want) by Professor Plum’s speaking and writing…

You cram these words into mine ears against
The stomach of my sense.
(Alonzo, in The Tempest, II: I)

What cracker is this same that deafs our ears
With this abundance of superfluous breath?
(Duke of Austria, in King John, II: I)

Here's a stay
That shakes the rotten carcass of old Death
Out of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed,
That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas,
Talks as familiarly of roaring lions
As maids of thirteen do of puppy dogs!
What cannoneer begot this lusty blood?
He speaks plain cannon fire, and smoke and bounce;
He gives the bastinado with his tongue:
Our ears are cudgell'd; not a word of his
But buffets better than a fist of France:
Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words
Since I first call'd my brother's father dad.
(Philip the Bastard, in King John, II: I)

Indeed, some view Professor Plum’s personality to be less than human. 

A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;
And as, with age, his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers. (Prospero, in The Tempest, IV: I)

And their little hearts go pit-a-pat (assuming that pit-a-patting is among the things that little hearts go) when they envision the moment Professor Plum opens the big doors to the New Ed School Building, tips his hat, or fedora--whichever comes first--turns, and saunters into the sunset--or to the parking lot down the street.

Bitter sweet.  Also pathetic.

Professor Plum is happy they have pleasing images to stimulate their sluggish glands and to enrich their otherwise dreary lives.  However, Professor Plum is not going anywhere soon--well, maybe to Harris Teeter to get a six-pack of Samuel Adams Black Lager.

Following are two recent writings (or maybe just one--we shall see) that some colleagues found objectionable.  VERY objectionable.  Also, they didn't like them much.

Dear Colleagues, or Collards if You Prefer,

The dates of the the recent whole language convention in Baltimore should be marked and marked well. Speeches made at the convention provide what must be the clearest revelation of the soul of the whole language cult movement. According to Howard Libit of the Baltimore Sun one speaker compared "the whole language movement's fall from favor over recent years to September's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center." This same speaker said, "We, too, have to rise from the rubble of education. We must not be paralyzed, defeated, demoralized."

With these lines, the whole language cult movement has at last removed the mask of scholarship, abandoned its pseudo-humanistic posturing about concern for the wellbeing of children, and displayed nothing but gruesome self-interest. Many of us have long felt this was the case. Whole language is a money making operation for gurus, book writers, publishers, conference and workshop organizers. It provides sellers of remedial reading programs (such as Reading Recovery) with a river of "reading disabled" children. It is a source of tenure, status, and privilege in schools of education dominated by whole language education professors.

The fundamental whole language salespitch has always been liberation and child advocacy. They have no credible data showing that whole language works. And until now they haven't needed any. Whole language gurus and professors well understood that if they used treacly terms often enough--"whole child," "authentic," "literature rich"--the public would be so beguiled that it would not ask for data.

Proclaiming themselves stewards of America's children, whole language advocates came to positions of power by attacking traditional teaching (in which teachers use well-tested materials, lead the instructional process, and strive for mastery) as authoritarian, as hampering children's development, and (pandering to teachers) as stifling teachers' creativity.

In a country weary of the Vietnam War and suspicious of its government, science, and reason, the whole language salespitch was bought by boards of education, principals, and teachers. But the convention in Baltimore changed all this. To understand why, it is well to examine recent criticisms of whole language.

The whole language cult movement is the subject of increasing criticism.

Linguists have shown that its foundational proposition (Learning to read is as natural as learning to speak) is the invention of persons who have no idea what they are talking about. At the same time, scores of experimental studies have shown that the so-called "child-centered" methods of whole language reading instruction--in which teachers do not teach reading skills directly, but instead provide "creative" activities in which children are thought to "discover" or "contruct" knowledge of how to read on their own--often do not work, leaving many children nearly illiterate and unprepared to learn all other subjects that require skill at reading.

State legislatures, state departments of public instruction, and now departments of the federal government are responding to the research evidence showing that whole language (mis)instruction is a disaster for almost 50 percent of children--and especially for disadvantaged children. They have begun to enact legislation mandating that elementary schools teach basic reading skills (e.g., "phonics" and comprehension) in a systematic and explicit fashion. They have established guidelines that public schools can use to evaluate and adopt reading curricula. They have published enormous literature reviews that identify the main features of effective reading instruction. At the same time, many school districts and even states have moved away from whole language and towards reading curricula that are field tested, that are consistent with experimental research on how children best learn to read, and that involve more direct, logically progressive instruction from well-trained teachers. This is essentially no different from what happened in medicine in the early 1900's.

When a social institition that affects the well-being of millions of citizens is shown to do damage, and in the face of this evidence does little to improve itself, the government must do something to protect citizens.

All of the above provides a context for the speeches in Baltimore. Faced with clear threats to their power over the field of education--and therefore threats to their privileged positions and incomes--spokespersons for the whole language cult did NOT say, "If we truly are in this for the children, and if we really are guided by research, we must take these criticisms seriously." They did NOT say, "Perhaps there is something deficient in our beliefs and methods." They did NOT conclude, "We must do better." No, instead, speakers wrapped the beleagured whole language cult in the shroud of the thousands of persons who died in the Twin Towers--falling to their deaths amidst the flaming rubble of buildings disintegrating beneath their feet.

They--whole language professors, writers, book sellers, trainers--are the victims of criticism--criticism that to them ranks with mass murder. They--whole language professors, writers, book sellers, trainers--are the innocents. They have done nothing.

On the surface, these speeches merely suffer from logical fallacies--appeals to pity, false analogies, appeals to emotion. On a deeper level, however, they reveal the soul of the whole language cult. Nothing too sacred to abuse. Self-love so all-enwrapping and enrapturing that obscene speech is considered catchy and crowd pleasing. A juxtaposing of horrifying mass death with Chablis imbibing conference goers strolling hotel lobbies, sharing tales of vicious "attack" by advocates of systematic phonics instruction. Remember the date.

****************************************************************************

Following is a sample of well-reasoned comments Professor Plum received via email.

1.  "You are creating a hostile environment."  [Nnnnnooooo!]

2.  "Direct Instruction is not the ONLY way to teach reading!"  [Now THAT makes sense--if you are insane.]

3.  "Why do you bother.  No one is listening."  [Because my conscience is listening, moron.]

Professor Plum was even called to the Dean's office.  She said something to the effect, "You are creating divisions among the faculty."

Is it REAL hard to make the distinction between CREATING divisions (out of what?) and merely EXPRESSING divisions that are already there?

Divisions among WHAT faculty?  There's all of THEM and, in marked contrast (follow me closely), ME. 

Stay tuned for our next installment of "As the Worms Turn."

February 17

Professor Plum has decided that he will begin doing what other folks do--namely, (1) have some entries that are an assortment of resources and news, with the occasional snide remark; and (2) the usual effervescent essays that are the cause of so many painful groin pulls in Valiant Readers.

This just in from Faithful Reader Adrian...

I was wondering if you all could help me get some exposure for this post (http://quincy2001.blogspot.com/2005/02/what-is-teacher.html) asking readers to answer “What is a teacher?” I want to get as many answers as possible, since the intent is to compare them with the stated goals of various education schools and other ed. establishments. I see a big disconnect between the two, and want to see if other people’s definitions of a teacher are equally far off the establishment’s. Anyway, thanks in advance for the help. ~Quincy~

___________________________________________

Here are some math resources...

www.schoolhousetech.com

Terrific articles at Education Next.

Also

www.teachyourchildrenwell.com  Check the math CD my Mike Maloney.

Check the Gadfly.  See esp the article by Rick Hess, who makes a distinction between hard science when selecting curricula and methods but good judgment when it comes to organizational decisions (which can't be tested the same wqay as a teaching methd).

___________________________________________

Here's as bit of news from Canada...

Barbara Kay
National Post (Canada)
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
[Emphasis mine. PP]

A sensational news item out of Toronto this month reports a "rising tide of parental rage." Parents are swearing at teachers in front of children, mouthing off at the school secretary or even launching (unspecified) physical assaults over marks and discipline issues. "A generation ago," says Sharon O'Halloran of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, "teachers and other authority figures were held in high regard. Now the pendulum has shifted."

Setting aside O'Halloran's failed metaphor -- pendulums don't shift, they swing -- her indignation leaves me curiously unmoved. Of course, one never condones uncivil or violent behaviour against pubic servants. And yet somewhere inside me a little imp is smiling. The little imp remembers that after 9/11, the Toronto branch of Ontario's biggest secondary school teachers union joined the anti-American "root causes" chorus, disseminating an article entitled Why America is Hated, and encouraging teachers to use it in the classroom. Although I normally abhor blame-the-victim games, since today's scapegoats represent that arrogant juggernaut, the public education empire, I'll make an exception.

What are the root causes of parents' anger? Perhaps they feel their kids are getting a second-rate education, and they're powerless to challenge the system. Or more specifically, perhaps it's because they have kids in Grade 3 who feel dumb because they can't read, spell or do simple math, with nobody in the educational hierarchy taking responsibility for their failure.

I recently corresponded at length with a Vancouver mother, "Alice," who e-mailed me after reading a column I'd written about political correctness in universities. Alice's experience convinced her that the public school system is about union interests first, and teaching children last. Her son "Brian" is dyslexic. He was failing to learn to read through his school's "whole language" approach, whereby a child follows his "feelings" about what a word or story signifies, rather than its plain meaning.

Through her own research, Alice fell upon a program that worked in home trials, a variant of "Direct Instruction"(DI), which is a rigorous, old-fashioned methodology based on phoneme recognition, structure, memorization and drills. The school district finally agreed to provide a teaching aide for Brian, but hired one with seniority -- union rules -- and no expertise in dyslexia or DI. This compromised his entire year, Alice reports. Brian never learned to read well, and dropped out of high school.

Direct Instruction has been called the dirty little secret of the educational establishment. Its superiority as a teaching tool, for all students, not just those with special needs, is chronicled in the largest educational study ever done in the world. Project Follow Through ran under the auspices of the U.S.Department of Education from 1967 to 1995, and covered 79,000 children in 180 communities. Its results unequivocally demonstrate that compared to modish program types like "student-centered learning," "learning to learn," "guided reading" and "balanced literacy," students under DI fared better in mastering the three Rs. DI even improved "higher order thinking" and "self-esteem" -- exactly the warm and fuzzy outcomes Canada's Whole Language approach aims to boost.

So why the stubborn resistance to this inexpensive, easily-implemented and highly standardized model?

The problem starts with the teachers colleges. Vancouver mother Karin Litzcke, an MBA and freelance journalist on the public education beat, is writing a book on public education and democracy. According to her research, DI isn't taught, even as an alternate methodology, in a single Canadian education faculty.

DI gets results quickly, even with learning-challenged students like Brian. It has also proven effective with large classes -- and thus fewer teachers -- which might explain why the union-dominated teaching industry views it with skepticism

Like Alice, Litzcke complains that the education system stifles citizen input: Parents who oppose the status quo are stonewalled or marginalized as troublemakers. Out of frustration, some 15 parents, including Alice, have tried to sue educators for malpractice, so far without success. Unlike their counterparts in law and medicine, teachers aren't held to any legally binding professional benchmarks -- except the ones the unions negotiate with provinces.

If your child can't read, spell or do math, Google "Project Follow Through" and read a story that will enrage you. But don't swear at the teachers. They're only failing to teach what they themselves weren't taught.

© National Post 2005

Y'all can read more about the effectivness of DI and how the ed establishment suppresses its use here. 

Aside from teachers and principals who eventually use DI curricula out of a sense of moral responsibility ("Fifty percent of our kids can't do math.  We had to do SOMEthing.") others use it only because their state accountability system will nail them if they don't get more kids passing end of grade tests.  [What a field!] In time, many teachers and principals who were reluctant to use DI ("It's not my style."--as if THAT ought to weigh real heavily in the decision) begin to like DI--"Hey, this really works!!"--and become diehard advocates.  I'll tell you about that some other time.

Marathon or Thermopylae?

         

 
Imagine having this Goddess on your side!

The young lady (a student at the University) behind the checkout counter at Dick's Sporting Goods was the spitting image of Athena (on the right, above).  I went home, printed the jpg and raced back to Dick's.  I said to her--respectfully, you understand--you don't want to take liberties with a Goddess--"Ever seen her?"  She said, "You saying I look like a MAN?!"

"Nooooo.  This is Athena.  She looks NOthing like a man.  Besides, look at your nose.  Exactly like hers.  The eyes, hair, neck, teeth.  Athena."

Her co-workers looked closely at the picture and back at their friend...

"You DO look just like her!  You're a goddess!"

She smiled.

Having spread a generous helping of sweetness and light, as is my policy, I departed.   Who knows, the young lady's ancestral aunt may have been a model for the Greek sculptor so long ago.  No less probable than flowers.

The British historian, Arnold Toynbee, spent a good chunk of his life studying civilizations living and gone.  He summarized what he found with three rules.

First rule.  Civilizations sooner or later are in crisis.  Their major institutions don't work very well anymore, and therefore lose legitimacy.

Second rule.  Civilizations fail when leaders don't notice a crisis; when leaders deny a crisis exists; or when leaders' responses worsen a crisis.

Third rule.  Civilizations that don't adapt to crisis don't just disappear.  They are taken over, and transformed--more gradually or more suddenly--either by outsiders (barbarians in the hills), by disaffected insiders, or an by alliance of outsiders and insiders.

The field of education, or Edland, is in or is fast approaching a crisis.  It can't sustain itself with its unsatisfactory outcomes, its fanciful theories of learning and instruction, its inept teaching practices, and its programs of teacher indoctrination and ill-preparation. And it's certain that the leaders of Edland--who are at the root of the crisis--and who enjoy power and prestige--will not admit their culpability and will not make needed changes that would lower their social positions.

Therefore, by rule 3, I conclude that Edland is ready to be transformed--either by outsiders (that is, the political state);  by disaffected insiders (that is, by traditional "instructivists" and our allies--the foundations, consumer groups, and others who advocate elements-first, logically organized, research-based, focused, teacher-directed instruction), or best yet, transformed by an alliance of the political state with us and our allies.

Edland Is In a State of Crisis
Edland is an enormous and astonishingly expensive arrangement of schools of education, publishers, and organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Educaton.  Edland provides curricula to public schools--curricula which reveal their creators' superficial understanding of logical design. New teachers are trained to deliver these curricula in public schools via "progressive" forms of instruction--which increasingly resemble group therapy.  Edland justifies its curricula and instruction with a so-called research base on "best" and "developmentally appropriate practices"--a research base consisting largely of anecdotes, authors' opinions, and pre-experimental research designs.  And Edland maintains an apparatus of conferences and publications that disseminate always innovative--but seldom effective--models of school reform, classroom instruction, and teacher training--an apparatus whose function is to legitimize Edland's existence and activities, and to hide the failures in Edland's outcomes and the ineptitude of its leaders.

The manifest function of public schools for society, the reason for their existence, and what families and teachers by and large want public schools to do, is prepare children for adulthood by transmitting culture--that is, disseminating and inculcating the conceptual knowledge, practical skills, and moral principles accumulated by a society and needed for competent participation--or citizenship--in society. Edland's most obvious malady is failure to serve its manifest functions. With slight differences from state to state, about forty percent of high school students are poor readers.  Thirty percent of high school students can't solve everyday math problems or write coherent essays.  We find the same figures on reading and math in elementary schools where the gaps in achievement begin between minority/disadvantaged and white/advantaged children.  These early gaps in reading and math spread to writing, science, and all subjects that depend on reading and math. 

The early disparities in achievement, and later, low self-expectations and weak effort as well, solidify very different life courses for children from different socioeconomic, cultural, and so-called "racial" backgrounds.  We know from 30 years of work with Direct Instruction and other, traditional methods that aim at mastery using systematic, focused, teacher-directed instruction, that these inequalities in learning and in life course are unnecessary.  And therefore we feel morally obligated to deem immoral the malinstruction of new teachers and their public school students, and (with Thomas Jefferson) we question whether a republic has long to live when so many of its young citizens are being turned into a culturally illiterate mass easily indoctrinated into politically correct thinking and feeling that fails even to recognize mortal enemies.

In large part, a societal crisis is a crisis because it is seen as such by folks who matter.  Political coercion, for example, doesn't put a society in crisis unless sufficient numbers of the population find coercion intolerable, and believe a different form of politics is possible.  Therefore, the question is, Do important groups find the outcomes and the operation of Edland intolerable?  And do they see a better way?  The answer is a loud Yes.

It's becoming clear to school superintendents and school boards; to academics in fields with serious knowledge bases (such as mathematics, history, and business); to wealthy think tanks and foundations; to consumer groups of families who give their children to the care of public schools; and to folks who receive direct consequences for rational vs. irrational thinking (namely, farmers and business persons in state legislatures), that Edland isn't working.

Observers of the education scene, such as J. Martin Rochester (Class Warfare) E.D. Hirsch, Jr. (in The schools we need and why we don't have them), Sandra Stotsky (in Losing our language), Rita Kramer (in Ed school follies), Richard Mitchell (in The graves of academe), Diane Ravitch (in Left back: A century of failed school reform), Jean Chall (in The academic achievement challenge), Charles Sykes (in Dumbing down our kids), and Arthur Bestor (in Education wasteland)--all point to the intellectual frivolity, the doctrinal theologicality, and almost compulsive attention to everything but what is important to instruction, that characterize ed school thinking and curricula.  Here are a few lines from H.L. Mencken, written in 1928.

...(T)he great majority of American colleges (of education) are so incompetent and vicious that, in any really civilized country, they would be closed by the police... In the typical American State they are staffed by quacks and hag-ridden by fanatics.  Everywhere they tend to become, not centers of enlightenment, but simply reservoirs of idiocy.  Not one professional pedagogue out of twenty is a man of any genuine intelligence.  The profession mainly attracts...flabby, feeble fellows who yearn for easy jobs.  The childish mumbo-jumbo that passes for technique among them scarcely goes beyond the capacities of a moron.  To take a Ph.D. in education, at most American seminaries, is an enterprise that requires no more real acumen or information than taking a degree in window dressing...The schools reek with this puerile nonsense.  Their programs of study sound like the fantastic inventions of comedians gone insane.  The teaching of the elements is abandoned for a dreadful mass of fol-de-rols, by quack psychology out of the uplift...They are perfectly willing, on the one hand, to teach the nonsense prescribed for them by frauds, and they are immensely fertile, on the other hand, in inventing nonsense of their own.  Anything that will make their jobs secure seems good enough to inflict upon their pupils... (E)xamine a dozen or two of the dissertations, chosen at random, turned out by candidates for the doctorate at any penitentiary for pedagogues... What you will find is a state of mind that will shock you.  It is so feeble that it is scarcely a state of mind at all.  (H.L. Mencken.  "The war upon intelligence." Baltimore Evening Sun, December 31, 1928.)

Here's a more recent contribution, by Richard Mitchell, from The Underground Grammarian.

Fortunately for American educationists, there is never any dearth of trashy and popular fads, the raw material of  curricular novelty. The half-life of most bold innovative thrusts is less than that of the pet rock or the nude encounter group, and pedagogical gimmicks have to be cooked up more often than situation comedies.  But, thanks to the fertile inventiveness always inspired by exuberant greed, the master schlockmongers will always provide the educationists with full measures of readily adaptable inanities. It’s not surprising, therefore, that educationists respond to public discontent not by trying to improve what they do, but by trying to "educate" the public into some other "perception" of what they do.  In education, as in the fast-food business, it’s called "image enhancement," and, like all flackery, it’s done with slogans and buzz words.  When the public finally noticed, for instance, that fewer and fewer children were learning to read, the educationists quickly discovered that "learning disabilities" were far more common than anyone had ever suspected. Therefore, we ought in fact to praise the schools for doing such a great job with swarms of undernourished, disaffected imbeciles, many of whom were also myopic, hard of hearing, hyperactive (if not lethargic), or even lacking in self-esteem. There will never be good, universal, public education in America until we learn, from their own words, that the people in charge of it are badly in need of an education.  Educated people will not be deceived by such nonsense.  Some knowledge of the history of thought and some skill in logical language can be expected of the educated, but they are not required for a degree in "education."

In addition to criticism on college campuses, there is stingent accountablity legislation in at least a score of states. Legislation with regulations, with financing, with enormous data bases on student achievement, and with teeth.  Legislation that mandates higher achievement; that mandates closing the gap between minority and white students; that demands research-based curricula; that rewards schools that do the right thing and punishes schools that won't. 

Do the leaders of the ed establishment (e.g., ed schools) see state accountability legislation and mandated forms of research-based instruction as signs of crisis in their effectiveness, their legitimacy, and their social position--as public schools now clearly do?  No, this legislation is seen as an unwarranted intrusion.  They say, "We don't need the state to mandate how or what we teach.  We can decide for ourselves.  We're professionals." Legislatures are more than a little tired of this defensive posturing.  They know that the electorate wants its kids to read better, to do math better, and to know something of American history.

There is also the voucher and charter school movements--which clearly say that large numbers of the public no longer judge the ed establishment as having much legitimacy, much credibility, or much hope of improving in their children's school lifetimes.  Do the leaders of Edland read the signs this way?  No, again.  Instead, they try to invalidate the message by branding it a right wing effort to gain political control.

There are alternative routes to teacher certification--lateral entry for folks who have degrees in other fields, and even crash programs only six weeks long in some states. The research says that these teachers do just as well or better than four year school of ed teachers.  And these alternative forms of certification are funded and certified by state legislatures.  This clear hand-writing on the wall is lost on the education professoriat, who can't imagine that anyone can teach new teachers better, for less money, and in one fourth the time.

And schools of education are beginning to be evaluated (e.g., in Louisiana) along the same lines and by the same legislative groups holding public schools accountable.  Ed schools that don't stack up may be decommissioned. For decades, they hid weird curricula and lack of effectiveness behind well-crafted end-of-year reports, and by providing frequent feasts for friendly politicians.  But when kids' scores still don't rise, politicians under pressure from publics will want to know what evidence justifies the existence of expensive ed schools.  And it's no problem finding out where teachers whose students can't read were ill-trained, or to determine if ed schools are complying with laws mandating systematic phonics instruction. But again, just as Balshezzar wouldn't believe Daniel's reading of the handwriting on the wall of the banquet hall--a message which said, Your kingdom has been weighed; it has been found wanting; and is being taken from you--so the leaders of Edland don't believe what the signs are saying.

Niccolo Machiavelli read a lot of history to learn how humans can achieve and sustain a just and viable republic.  He wrote in The Prince and in The Discourses, that you must wait in readiness for the Goddess Fortune to align the right circumstances.  And then you must move with rapidity, with audacity, and when necessary with ferocity--because the Goddess has no respect for the timid.  The circumstances are aligned and the signs are favorable.  Edland has little legitimacy to major groups that fund it and depend on it.  And the pedagogic elite of Edland cannot and will not make things better for teachers and children.  Nor can the job be left to politicians alone, who after all may not act wisely or in concert for long.

Lessons From Ancient Greece
So, the job is ours.   But who exactly is the we that can and must do the job? And what battle plan is likely to be effective? The Greek historian, Herodotus, gives clear rules on this when we juxtapose his account of two battles--the battle at Marathon fought in 491 BC  and the battle at Thermopylae fought in 480 BC.

1.  There were the same adversaries--the Greeks vs. the Persians.

2.  There were the same weapons.  The Greeks used long spears, iron swords, and bronze shields.  The Persians used spears, archers, swords, and cavalry.

3. There were the same overwhelming odds.  At Marathon, there were 200,000 Persians and 20,000 Greeks.  At Thermopylae, there were 310,000 Persians and allies, and 4000 Greeks.

4. But there were different outcomes.  The Greeks won at Marathon.  6,400 Persians were killed and 192 Greeks were killed.  The Persians fled.  At Thermopylae, 20,000 Persians were killed and all the Greeks were killed.

What differences made the difference?  Here, according to Herodotus, is how the Greeks organized for battle and fought at Marathon, where they won.

...The Athenians formed their ranks for battle.  The right wing was commanded by the polemarch, Callimachus...Under his leadership the tribes followed in succession.  Finally, the last in order were the Plataeans, holding the left wing... (T)he middle of the Greek side was only a few ranks deep...but each of the two wings was very strong.  [The formation is called a phalanx.  Eight or so rows of soldiers are lined up behind the man in front.  Shield on the left arm; spear held by the right.  And they move together in a running, screaming square with tremendous mass.]

The lines were drawn up, and the sacrifices were favorable; so the Athenians were permitted to charge, and they advanced on the Persians at a run.  [I might add that when they began their forward advance, the Greeks would sing , "Zeus the Deliverer and Victory" and scream their cry to the War God.]... The Persians, seeing them coming at a run,, made ready to receive them, but they believed that the Athenians were possessed by some very desperate madness, seeing their small numbers and their running to meet their enemy without the support of cavalry or archers... but the Athenians, when it came to hand to hand fighting, fought right worthily.  They were the first Greeks we know of to charge their enemy at a run... The fight at Marathon went on for a long time, and in the center the barbarians won...and broke the Greeks, and pursued them inland.  But on each wing the Athenians and the Plataeans were victorious... As the Persians fled, the Greeks followed them, hacking at them, until they came to the sea.  Then the Greeks called for fire and laid hold of the ships.

In contrast, Thermopylae, Hot Gates, was a mountain pass in northern Greece. The Persian King, Xerxes, was bringing an enormous army south to take the Greek city states along the east coast of mainland Greece. The Greeks sent contingents from these city states to Thermopylae. However, many cities sent no troops.  And here's what happened.

But on the fifth day...he (Xerxes) sent against them the Medes and Cissians... The Medes charged the Greeks full tilt and had many of their own men killed.  Others replaced them, and their attack did not cease, although they were sorely mauled; but they made it quite clear to everyone, and especially to the King himself, that though they [the Persians] had many men, there were few men.

After more days of repelling wave after wave of Persians, the Greek contingents from most of the remaining city states, realizing the desperately bad odds, left Thermopylae to return to their cities and defend them for when the Persians came through the pass. This left the Greek commander Leonidas and 300 Spartans to defend all of mainland Greece against 310,000 Persians and their allies.

At sunrise, Xerxes made his libations and..made his attack.... (T)he Greeks, knowing that their own death was coming to them from the men who had circled the mountain, put forth their utmost strength against the barbarians; they fought in a frenzy, with no regard to their lives...Most of them had already lost their spears by now, and they were butchering Persians with their swords... (T)he Greeks retreated into the narrow part of the road, and...defended themselves with daggers--those who had any of them left--yes, and with their hands and teeth, and the barbarians buried them in missles, some attacking them in front...while those who had come round the mountain completed the circle of their attackers.

The inscription over their graves read, "Go, stranger, and tell the Spartans that we lie here in obedience to their laws." 

Of course, the Spartan sacrifice gave the rest of Greece time to organize for battle with the Persians as they moved south.  The Persians were pounded at Salamis and Plataea, and went home for good.

Perhaps we can extract a few generalizations from Marathon and Thermopylae.

First.  The Greeks won when they fought in a highly aggressive and well-armed formation, not when they fought in a cornered band with hands and teeth.

Second.  The Greeks won when they attacked, and lost when they defended.  Rule:  By attacking,  you control the battle sequence and make the enemy react to you.

Third.  The Greeks won when they advanced at speed (their chosen speed), rather than at a slow pace set by or matching the enemy's pace.  Rule:  A rapid pace overwhelms the enemy--preventing a proficient enemy attack or defense.

Fourth.  The Greeks won when they assembled an army from all parts of
Greece, and fought together as one.  They were slaughtered when the battle was left to a small group of veterans from one city state, who could not win against such heavy odds even though their enemies feared them. Rule:  By fighting as one large army you can sustain a battle until you win.

Here's the conclusion as I see it.  We will make the crisis in education a
Marathon or a Thermopylae. If we leave the fight to the few and most vocal opponents of Edland, the massive army of the education establishment will bury us with another wave of fad pedagogies that will sustain their position as instructional leaders of the nation.  By staying home to make the fight local, rather than also coordinating and focusing force where it matters most--namely, the state departments of public instruction and state legislatures--where accountability laws and phonics laws and math laws are passed, and where textbooks are approved--we eventually may lose battles at the local level as well. Educationists don't care about data on what works--unless they are forced by higher powers. 

Therefore, we must provide the politicians, the think tanks, the foundations, and the consumer groups with well-designed packets of research data on what works and on what is bunk. 

We must deliver to legislatures, newspapers, and PTAs rational critiques of Edland and its folly--critiques that stress the irresponsibility and therefore immorality of unresearched faddish pedagogies and curricula.  We must provide principals, PTA's, boards of education, departments of public instruction, and even churches clear descriptions of effective instruction--with videotapes, model classrooms, and data on achievement  "Can your children read like this, Preacher?" And we must become speakers with the guts to go against the ed establishment at school board meetings, at state conferences, and at department of public instruction and legislative panels.  These are our weapons.

ITHAKA

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that one on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfumes of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
[Cavafy]

1968

Hey, turn up the stereo!

Ev’rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy
’cause summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy
But what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock ’n’ roll band
’cause in sleepy London town
There’s just no place for a street fighting man
No

Hey! think the time is right for a palace revolution
But where I live the game to play is compromise solution
Well, then what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock ’n’ roll band
’cause in sleepy London town
There’s no place for a street fighting man
No

Hey! said my name is called disturbance
I’ll shout and scream, I’ll kill the king, I’ll rail at all his servants
Well, what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock ’n’ roll band
’cause in sleepy London town
There’s no place for a street fighting man
No

[Rolling Stones. Beggars Banquet]

 A basement in the sociology department at a midwestern university.

“Look at me.”… “Good boy, Justin!”

35 kids with autism. Five classrooms. Grad students, a few undergrads (Susie, Ira, Peggy), and a few certified teachers working on eye contact, small motor play skills, motor and verbal imitation, functional speech, and classroom skills (group lessons, games, reading--“Oh, no, not REAding?”).

The program--begun with four kids--is now a real school. Observers watch every “individual session” and “class” through one-way mirrors, taking data on a dozen variables describing teacher-kid interaction so we can figure out which methods work best. Reinforce kids for good tries, or only when they get it exactly right? If it took upward of 500 tries for a kid to get his first word, how many to get the next and the next and the next? Which is best: work on motor imitation and then verbal imitation, or both at the same time?

Parents bring their kids each day. Some drive 90 miles from small farm towns. We teach the parents to teach their own kids. Mothers and fathers wear headphones and we (behind the one-way mirror) coach them. “Ask again…What color?…Red… Now. Reinforce him NOW!”

[Professor Plum drove the 90 miles back and forth every Sunday for a year and a half to help a family handle and teach their boy at home. 1953 Plymouth. Built like a Patton tank. Wish I still had it.]

Some kids were “self-destructive” and we had to hold them to keep them from banging their brains out on the table. We would reinforce them for longer intervals of not head banging. Other kids would bite. Michael used to nail me with his big front teeth right on the forearm. He was deadly accurate even when I wore a long-sleeve shirt. After a good solid chomp he would look up and me, grin, and make a goofy noise---Duuuuhhhheeeee.

“Michael, if you weren’t so nuts I’d wop you upside your melon head.”

“Duuuuhhheeee.”

“Right. Duuuuhhheeee. Pretty much sums it up. Chew on my left arm for awhile, will ya?”

We was a nut but I liked him--chomps and all. How can you not like a kid who says Duuuuhhhheeee and grins!

After the first week observing and trying different things with kids, we would place them in either one-to-one sessions; two-child classes so they could imitate each other; or intermediate and advanced (preparing for regular school) groups. We experimented with different reinforcers. Some kids were so detached that praise, hugs, rides on a “Big Wheel” and toys meant nothing--didn’t exit. We used food reinforcers with these kids--at first. Later, tokens. Later still, they earned activities they now enjoyed. Whatever they liked most. Michael was a mustard freak. I would give him the tiniest taste, right out of the jar, when he talked or took turns playing. Luke was into breakfast food. I fed him bits of bacon and cold fried eggs. He would look up at me, grin real big, and clap his hands. He tried to feed ME the eggs. I would graciously accept a few chunks to be polite. I also drove to his house every week. He drove his parents crazy. One of his favorite activities was waiting until no one was looking and then loading the toilet with shoes. Very funny. Duuuuhhheeee. Me and his Mom were a great team. We taught him to talk and play. Neat kid.

We were one of the first schools using applied behavior analysis--a few years behind the master--Ivar Lovaas. We conceptualized education a bit differently--we were teaching the kids to participate in social interaction organized as exchanges. Your turn/my turn.

No physical punishment. At most, we put a kid in a time out room for a few minutes for hitting another kid or for throwing a tantrum.

About one-fourth of the kids finally went to regular school. A few were so impaired that we could do nothing. One little girl would just stand there drooling, rocking, and doing some weird thing with her hands. It was as if she heard, saw, and understood nothing. I’d put a bite of oatmeal in her mouth and it would sit there digesting.

Upstairs in the soc department our radical leftist peers were making demands.

“We don’t want to take written doctoral exams here. We want to take them at home.”

“Okie dokie.”

“Well, then, we don’t want to take them cold. We want the questions ahead of time.”

“Okay.”

“Uh, now that you're being reasonable, we don’t want to learn a foreign language. It’s not relevant.”

“Okay. No foreign language.”

“And drop the requirement that we give a professional paper to the whole department.”

“Consider it gone.”

“Cowards.”

“Indeed.”

I remember my mentor, Robert L. “Doc” Hamblin. One of the few faculty who still had his nuts. [Oooops!] He ran the school for the autistic kids. He was also the chair of the department. One day in a meeting (the grad students demanded “representation”), Doc showed how he felt. He said, “This room is crowded.” He picked up a desk and threw it out the second floor window. You could hear it splinter on the ground below. “There. That’s better.” He wasn’t chair for long after that.

I bet he’s pretty old now, Doc. He would take us grad students to the indoor handball court at the gym. [Which was a good place for it.] A real gamester. He’d serve the ball from the front and then stand in the middle of the court, daring us to hit the ball and risk hitting him. We decided to teach him a lesson. We would return his serve, aiming at the back of his head. I think it was Craig who finally landed one right above the fringe on Doc’s bald head. The ball shot ceilingward. I didn’t know Mormons used that kind of language. Doc dropped that scheme.

Out on the quadrangle, more of our radical left collitch peers were taking time out from their back-breaking labors to protest the war in Viet Nam or racism or capitalism or poverty or bureaucracy or The Man or banks or corporations or imperialism. They were so busy with these enemies that I guess they had no time to protest “enemies of the People” getting their lips sewn shut in Cuba or Che Guevara shooting bound prisoners in the head or millions dying in the soviet gulags or East Germans shot in the back trying to escape or a billion Chinese starving under “scientific socialism.”

Oh, and did they ever hate us! Even soc professors who, I thought, liked me.

“You are controlling those children.” [As we saw it, we were merely arranging an environment that would enable the kids to learn desirable behaviors so they could have a life.]

“Desirable behavior! Who decides what’s desirable? You are a ruling elite and the kids are the proletariat!” [Are these kids in any shape to make choices for themselves? How does Duuuuhhheeee constitute “voice”? Since these kids can’t talk and if left unattended would kill themselves, the question is whether we are making choices that are good for THEM.”]

“You are exploiting them for YOUR advancement.” [We’re keeping them out of the back wards of mental hospitals.]

“Pure oppression, the way you withhold food until they do what YOU want. Who gives YOU the right?” [We already know what happens if you DON’T arrange their environment like this. They get more impaired and more violent until they are put away, have all their teeth pulled, and are kept on major doses of Thorazine.]

We heard that stuff every  day in class. 

And at parties.

"Fascists."

"Oligarchs."

"Hey, whyn't YOU come down to the basement and show us how to do it, huh?"

No takers.  Not one in three years.  I guess they were too busy what with burning the ROTC building and harrassing the chancellor.

Now my grad student peers are older and they are collitch perfessers and they teach in schools of ed and other departments that allow and even honor assininity.

Yes, they may share some of the social criticisms found in Romanticism, as E.D. Hirsh, Jr. argues in “The roots of the education wars.”

And they may be partial to Dewey and Piaget as John Stone shows in “Developmentalism: An obscure but pervasive restriction on educational improvement.”

But I think these are pedagogical choices that are the consequences of pre-existing attitudes--if that’s the right word. Romantic ideas are merely a way of giving voice to older sentiments. They don’t cause the sentiments. What attitudes? What sentiments?

The species of ed progressive who hotly embraces multi-culturalism and fancies himself a champion of social justice, who is wildly anti-direct and anti-systematic instruction by a teacher rather than guide on the side, who pushes for learning styles and multiple intelligences, who insists on open classrooms and learning centers with kids roaming hither, thither, and yon--is a petulant arrogant duplicitous spoiled pinch-faced sanctimonious intellectual and moral cipher who is still fighting The Man because he has not matured one day since he was five years old and is terrified of anything that represents The Man--hard data, logic, scientific reasoning, teaching protocols, the concepts of Right, Wrong, Truth, Falsehood, receiving consequences for screwing up. 

Maybe The Man is really dear old Dad who was hard to please, or a religion that demands a level of self-control that the aging egoist can’t meet. Or a country, America, that is so big he can’t make it dance to his tune, and is filled with people who don’t listen to the whiney little boil and couldn’t care less what he wants.

As for the knee-jerk progressives, on the other hand, they’re just imbeciles whose glandular secretions are set off by words like "discover" (Ooooo, discover), "Vygotsky" (Ooooo, exotic), "construct" (Duuuhheeeee, construct), "child-centered" (gah gah).

Talking Heads

For the past seven years--that’s SEVEN years--Professor Plum has been suggesting to his colleagues that we hire at least one--that’s ONE--perfesser (out of about eight “Language and Literacy" perfessers) who can teach our ed students how to teach beginning reading in a systematic, explicit, direct, and comprehensive way, as REQUIRED by our state’s very own laws and standard course of study. Here, for example, is a segment of state law, passed around 1998…

The State Board of Education shall critically evaluate and revise the standard course of study so as to provide school units with guidance in the implementation of balanced, integrated, and effective programs of reading instruction. The General Assembly believes that the first, essential step in the complex process of learning to read is the accurate pronunciation of written words and that phonics, which is the knowledge of relationships of the symbols of the written language and the sounds of the spoken language, is the most reliable approach to arriving at the accurate pronunciation of a printed word. Therefore, these programs shall include early and systematic phonics instruction.

As hinted in the law, above, the state standard course of study was revised, thus…

The curriculum for young children in (our state’s)  schools is based on the research as presented in Appendix A. Research has shown that children learn the foundation skills that enable them to become independent readers through direct instruction of decoding and comprehension skills and...

Way back when, Professor Plum tried to make the case, in a calm and friendly way, in emails to the whole faculty, to department chairs, and to the higher administrators.

“I have been told by our own students that they do not know how to teach reading.” [No response. Nothing]

[The next year.]
“I have been told by teachers, principals, and even district directors of elementary ed that they are VERY unhappy that our graduates do not know how to teach reading.”   [More of the nothing motif]

[The next year]
“I have been told by teachers, principals, and the same district directors of elementary ed that they are sick and tired that they have to teach our graduates how to teach reading. They say it is OUR job to do that.” [No response]

[The next year.]
“I hate to say this, but our 100% whole language teacher training curriculum is not in line with the preponderance of research, with the reform of reading instruction at the federal and state level, and even with the way reading is taught in the districts where our graduates get jobs. The schools around here almost all use direct instruction curricula, and no one uses Reading Recovery. One superintendent said, “Why should we spend 500,000 dollars on Reading Recovery each year, when it doesn’t work?” I told her, “I don’t know.” [Whole language colleagues publicly blamed ME for districts dropping Reading Recovery. Ha! Also Ha Ha. They also started rumors that I was “making teachers use direct instruction.” Ha, again. Schools came to ME (well, not the actual schools) asking for help introducing DI.]

[The next year.]
I prepared and handed out packets of materials (what else, packets of IDEAS?) describing DI, presenting data from the surrounding districts showing increased student achievement, and articles on recent reading research discussing systematic and explicit instruction. I prepared reading syllabi that we could use in revising courses. [No response. Not even acknowledgement that I sent the stuff.]

[The next year.]
We had three openings for reading perfessers. I almost pleaded with the faculty to hire ONE di person. Result? They hired two more whole language perfessers. When they were about to hire a third, I wrote a letter to the faculty saying that the situation was analogous to having a loaded .357 magnum in our collective mouth.  [Nice revolver, huh?  My first.  Barrel's a bit long for concealed carry.  People say, "You got a gat in your pants or are you happy to see me?"  I say, "It could be one thing or it could be another.  Who can tell in these postmodern times?"]

“Hire another whole language professor at a time when the state is advocating direct instruction of reading, and it would be like pulling the trigger. Are we really THAT suicidal?” [No response except criticism for “an offensive letter.” Of course, organizational suicide and mistraining our graduates is NOT offensive.]

[The next year.]
And then I reported that I had been told TWICE by administrators in one nearby county that “principals say they would not hire our graduates if they had a choice, because our graduates can’t teach reading.”  [Cool graphics, huh?  Childish AND stupid.] I also passed on the info that even the feds think we have the worst reading program in the state. And I reported that the head of Reading First for the state told me that our ed school had “very little role to play in professional development in the state” because we were 100% whole language. [No response.]

*********************************************************

The ONLY change in our reading program over the years is the DESCRIPTION. It says we teach our ed students how to teach all of the main reading skills in a way that is consistent with the research. This is how we USED to pass inspections. It’s called lying. 

Recently the dean had a meeting with perfessers who teach reading. I was there as the token person with a brain. She said that we have to “increase our web presence in reading” and “our program has to reflect changes in the state.” I thought, “Oh boy, maybe things will change!” [What an ass!] One perfesser, who is so opposed to explicit phonics instruction that it is pathological (perhaps someone took away his all day sucker when he was a child and he has not gotten over it), said, “It shouldn’t be hard to change the language of our description and put that on our website.” [I believe this is called fraud.] The rest of the reading perfessers saw NOTHING odd about this, as if they were thinking, “Well, of course! Just change the words. Say ‘explicit’ a lot.” 

Just yesterday, the reading faculty sent around a message advertising a candidate for yet another reading position. Here’s what it said.

Dr. Tinkertytonk [not the real name] received her doctorate at Bongwater University [not the real name] and was able to work with and learn from some notable authorities [Not just ANY old authorities, you understand.  NOTABLE ones--no doubt for their loathsome haberdashery and complete absence of cerebral cortex.] in the field of Language and Literacy.  She has four years of highly successful teaching experience at the University of Higherbunk and Marine Salvage [not the real name], where she is recognized by students and faculty as being an outstanding teacher.  [Which means students like her because she's easy.] Dr. Tinkertytonk [still not the real name] has good preparation [Good preparation, but can she actually TEACH!] in the teaching of writing at the elementary education level [REAding.  READING, idiots! What about READING?] and the relationship between developing reading and writing competence.  [How about READING? Just good old REAding!] She is also highly capable [CAPABLE? Yeah, but is she any GOOD?]  in the integration of drama and other arts in the teaching of the language arts and the entire elementary curriculum.  [Oh, that’s just what our graduates need to know. They’ll put on school plays--about kids who can’t read. “Billy, now YOU play the part of an emotionally disturbed kid who still can’t read after ten years. Okay?”…“Huh?”]

So, I wrote an email to the whole faculty…being careful not to suggest that the search committee were idiots for selecting a person with no qualifications whatever. 

Dr. Tinkertytonk’s vita suggests that she knows absolutely nothing about the five main reading skills; how to teach each one systematically, explicitly and directly (as required by our very own standard course of study which goes into effect in August); how to use screening, diagnostic, progress, and outcome assessments that are quantitative and standardized; how to select well-designed core, supplementary, and intervention programs (as will be required of reading teachers beginning in August).

But that's okay.  The schools are happy to teach our graduates how to teach reading.  Just ask them. [No response.]

But that may be because everyone was hustling and bustling preparing for our huge gala open house that was to start in a few hours. The whole language perfessers were busy adjusting their multi-colored fright wigs to get that “just right” psychotic look. The multi-culti educators were gluing tacos and yams to their pants, to suggest celebrating diversity. The early childhood educators were practicing saying “goo goo gah gah ha ha” to demonstrate the importance of speaking to toddlers in a “developmentally appropriate” way.

And I was saying to myself…

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself-Well...How did I get here?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right?...Am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
MY GOD!...WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...

[Talking Heads. Once in a Lifetime, 1984]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

Professor Plum has had An Insight. At first he thought it was a touch of gastroenteritis, brought on by eating two pounds of boiled shrimp (on sale at Harris Teeter--that’s right, Teeter--for 3.99/lb). But no. An Insight.

“What the heck are you talking about, if anything?” demands the Inquisitive Reader.

Well, it’s like this…

Professor Plum has been trying vainly to figure out what’s the story with Edland. Consider some puzzling features that require figuring out.

1. The core words in the argot of Edland (Edubabble), by which Edlanders conduct business (of transforming their words into countless materials, programs, and activities), are meaningless. They have no empirical referent; you look but nothing is there.

Learning styles.  [No such thing.]

Multiple intelligences.  [Another word for talents.]

Holistic.  [Whatever you want it to mean.]

Naturalistic.  [Like bark or mud.]

Authentic.  ["Goodnight Moon" not Moby Dick.]

Child-centered.  [Yadda yadda.]

Knowledge construction.  [Stupidity construction.]

Engaged.  [Married.]

Meaningful.  [Piffle.]

Standard.  [A big mystery.]

Criterion.  [An enigma.]

Objective.  [See benchmark.]

Benchmark   [See objective.]

Integrated.  [Means nothing.]

Seamless.  [Like a tubesock.]

Demonstrate.  [Ain't it great.]

Research.  [Scribbling.]

Innovation.  [100 years old.]

Initiative.  [See innovation.]

Rubric.  [Rubarb.]

Evidence.  [Anything at all will do.]

Brain-based.  [Liver-based.]

All flapdoodle. Egregious piffle.  Higher-order bilge.

Arthur Hu has compiled a nice glossary of Edubabble.

2. Words that DO have objective meaning--that is, something IS there that two or more observers can see and agree upon--are shunned in Edland.

Systematic instruction.

Explicit instruction.

Distributed practice.

Skill elements.

Integration of elements into routines.

Mastery.

Error correction.

Forms of knowledge (e.g., concepts and rules are defined by their logical structure).

Communication formats (routine sequences for communicating/teaching concepts, rules, and strategies).

3. Curricula (e.g., whole language, fuzzy math, multicultural social studies), instructional methods (heterogeneous grouping, sustained silent reading, cooperative math groups), assessment methods (portfolios), teacher training programs, etc., are put forward (e.g., by education schools and state agencies) and are adopted by schools, without any field testing. These are maintained in the absence of any hard data that they work. They are even sustained in the presence of hard data that they do NOT work.

4. Curricula (e.g., direct instruction reading, math, and science), instructional methods (direct, focused teaching; temporary homogeneous skill groups), and assessment methods (mastery tests) are either not adopted or are abandoned in the presence of hard data showing that they ARE effective AND DO move children in the direction of school, district, or state mission statements.

5. Incessant activity at state, district, and local levels, and in schools of education (e.g., planning new programs; “aligning” every aspect of a program with “standards”; writing reports; hosting conferences, workshops and all manner of “professional development”) has absolutely NO effect on the quality of teacher preparation or student achievement.

6. Enormous amounts of money are spent (e.g., by schools of education) to boost and celebrate Edland's "significant contributions to society," but nary a penny is spent actually to improve the skills of persons in impoverished areas, single parents, or persons forced to change careers.

7. After more than a century, Edland still has not defined in a clear way what beneficent outcomes it will provide (e.g., exactly what teachers will be able to do and exactly what students will learn) in exchange for billions of bucks given to it every year.

Puzzling? You bet! 

"Puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others we known not of.." [Hamlet.]

Professor Plum thought he had a handle on it when he proposed that Edlanders are simply the laziest people on earth.

Or were prating asses who needed to get slapped hard and often.

Or that Edland was best understood as a political phenomenon--a powerful establishment controlling everything from ideas to classroom actions.

Or that Edland could be seen as an enormous pageant of fleeting images.

Or that Edlanders are idiots.  Indeed.

But something happened in class tonight that shocked Professor Plum from his stylish black rayon shirt (14.99 at T.J. Maxx) down to his midnight blue socks. [I know. They don’t match. But I got boots on.]

“Oh, what was it? What WAS it?” implores the Excitement-Deprived Reader.

Well, it was a class in Reading in Secondary Schools. A colleague (a very smart and excellent man in all respects) and I have spent almost a month showing students how to use Corrective Reading.

In addition, we are gradually working up a set of procedures these future teachers can use to improve reading skills when they don't have a whole remedial program such as Corrective Reading.

Now, I know that many kids in middle and high school place into Corrective Reading Decoding level A--the lowest level--which is about at a FIRST grade level. So, I began to write on the board the specific early reading skills the class would have to know how to teach--phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence, sounding out words. All stuff I’ve blabbed about here before to the dismay and heartache of many Valiant Readers.

If students in the class do not have Corrective Reading materials, they will need SCRIPTS for teaching the basic skills. So, my colleague and I were planning to teach the class to design the scripts. And then IT HIT ME! The book "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" would do the job.

So, I ran (or, to be more precise, I sauntered to my office in a decorous fashion, as is my wont) and grabbed (or picked up) one of my many copies of “100 easy lessons.” Lo, and also behold, our students could use this book to TEACH (and follow the insanity closely here) THE BASIC READING SKILLS TO MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS.

Yes, it would work perfectly! A book MEANT to teach FIVE year old kids would be JUST the ticket for students 12 to 18! After from 11 to 17 years of “schooling” many kids NEED a book designed for tykes who can't button their pants. Needed by kids who drive cars, get pregnant, buy beer, VOTE!

Just what kind of thing IS this? You have to work really hard to keep kids THAT ignorant.

You know those dreams where you are trying to run and it is soooo hard and you are pulling yourself along the ground by your fingernails? And you wake up soaking wet--from sweat I mean? No? Well I have them fairly often.  I must be working like a dog in the dream, and I’m getting nowhere.

And that’s the answer.

Edland is a waking dream. A “matrix” reality where everyone is dreaming they are awake and all the dreamers are co-producing the collective dream.

Yes, the materials and activities and endless “conversations” in Edland are real enough. But dreams need a material foundation--dreamers and beds and blankets to trap your legs. Just as dreamers in “the matrix” needed a material world to sustain their dream state.

The dreamy imagery of life-long learners, the airy talk of seamless curricula and authentic experiences, the empty standards and rubrics and mission statements--all these are kept alive and are communicated and are continually reified at the conferences, during the endless meetings, in the yearly reports, in the syllabi, and in the journals.

The dreamers are not always asleep. As soon as they leave the building and start their car, the OTHER reality--everyday life--is operative. Where you don’t want your physician to construct knowledge--but just plain KNOW what ails you. Where you buy a car only AFTER you look it up in Consumer Reports. Where turning the steering wheel to the right makes the car turn to the right--in a lawlike fashion.

But next day, when they see that familiar building (bed) and hear the continuous soothing sonorous lullaby (“We are initiating a new program to foster a closer alignment of our rubric with the standards…”) they immediately fall asleep and contribute to the collective dreaming.

And the dreamers will never wake up.  Nothing (so far) can shake them from images and dream-communities that are so comforting and so protecting.

I think the best thing to do is steal their pants and chain the doors shut so they can't get out.

Rockford. Here's Your Chance

The Rockford story just keeps going on.  But now, from Chuck Muth's website, we'uns have a chance to add our voices to what appears to be a moderately angry horde...

Samuel G. Freedman of the New York Times, among others, has recently reported on a heart-breaking turn of events in Rockford, IL. That this story was published in the hard-left New York Times* gives you an indication of just how tragic it is. To make a long story short, Rockford is an under-performing school district with more than half of its schools falling in the state’s “warning,” “watch” or “corrective action” categories. “One of the only bright spots appeared to be the Lewis Lemon elementary school,” Freedman writes. Despite having a student body that’s “80 percent non-white and 85 percent poor, the school recorded some of the highest scores in Rockford on statewide tests.” In fact, when if came to reading “Lemon’s third graders trailed only those from a school for the gifted.” Wow.  How was such a feat accomplished? Well, according to Freedman and others, the school principal, Tiffany Parker, embraced and pushed what is referred to in education circles as “direct instruction,” the old-fashioned approach to reading which is “heavy on drilling and repetition” and emphasizes phonics - “that is, learning words by sounding them out.” Go figure, huh? So far so good.  Now...enter "Darth Vader". Dr. Dennis Thompson took over the Rockford school district last May as its new superintendent. Dr. Thompson decided that Principal Parker’s focus on direct instruction was an impediment to progress and demanded she drop the method. Principal Parker disagreed and refused. Dr. Thompson is a retired Army colonel who isn’t used to having his orders questioned by an underling. Dr. Thompson, therefore, transferred Ms. Parker out of Lewis Lemon “and has begun phasing out direct instruction in favor of an approach known as balanced literacy.” You might remember that approach by another name: "whole language". Robin Paschal is the new reading coordinator at Lewis Lemon who was brought in to replace Principal Parker. She rejects the direct instruction approach. Instead, Paschal implementing the balanced literacy approach. Freedman describes the essence of this method as carried out in another Rockford elementary school, where students were found discussing a chapter in a children’s novel. The Conklin Elementary School teacher asked the kids "about the traits and actions of the main characters, and reminded them to write in their ’Reader’s Journal’ notebook about ’someone you know well and what qualities that person has.’” Well, isn’t that special?  Makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over, doesn’t it?    Except, feeling warm and fuzzy isn’t going to help these kids rise above their current circumstances, which is why Principal Parker refused to drop direct instruction for balanced literacy. “Basically, what you’re going to do is sentence a child to a life of poverty,” she said, “because you’re never going to give some of the most vulnerable kids the tools to become self-reliant.” Lewis Lemon parents appear to agree with their former principal and aren’t very happy about losing her or adopting the new teaching scheme. “I’m shocked,” one parent told Freedman. “It’s like now all these kids are going to be lost. I can’t understand why they would take a program that was working and get rid of it. Why fix something if it ain’t broke?” Why, indeed?  Perhaps we should ask Dr. Thompson’s boss. BRUSHFIRE ALERT: The president of the Rockford Board of Education is Ms. Nancy Kalchbrenner. Please sign our petition below urging the school board to intervene, return Principal Parker to Lewis Lemon Elementary and allow the school to continue teaching kids how to read using the “direct instruction” method which has proved so successful. To sign the petition, please go to: http://www.chuckmuth.com/petition/

More Resources on the Web

Here's another consignment of web resources just shipped by our pal from Australia, Kerry Hempenstall, who can be contacted here...  In addition to a part time job as shepherd, Kerry is a TRUE scholar and Educator.   See his article on whole language takes on golf.

Dr Kerry Hempenstall
Senior Lecturer,
Division of Psychology
School of Health Sciences
RMIT University
Plenty Rd., Bundoora, Victoria, Australia. 3083.
Ph work (61) 9925 7522 Fax (63) 9925 7303
Fax from overseas 0015 613 9925 7303
Webpage - http://www.rmit.edu.au/staff/kerry_hempenstal

email-- [email protected]
[Sorry for some of the screwed up links.  I can't fix 'em.  Just copy and paste into the address bar, I guess.]

Children of the Code. Great interviews with eminent researchers about the scientific approach to reading at http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/index.htm

A Model of Teacher Effectiveness.

A report by Hay McBer to the Department for Education and Employment - June 2000 http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=1487

Centre for Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice in Education.

The EPPI-Centre was established in 1993 to address the need for a systematic approach to the organisation and review of evidence-based work on social interventions. See articles at http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk

National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy.

NRDC is the national centre dedicated to research and development on adult literacy, language and numeracy. It was established as part of Skills for Life, the national strategy for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills. Articles at
http://www.nrdc.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=424

Institute for Human and Machine Cognition

Bibliography on concept maps and concept mapping at http://www.ihmc.us

Neurodiversity

Many articles on autism, dyslexia etc. at http://www.neurodiversity.com/main.html

Three randomization plan generators at http://www.randomization.com/

Jim Wright’s page

There are numerous resources at Jim Wright’s page:

Kids as Reading Helpers: A Peer Tutor Training Manual at www.jimwrightonline.com/pdfdocs/prtutor/peerTutorManual.pdf

Launching & Monitoring the Peer Tutoring Program www.jimwrightonline.com/pdfdocs/prtutor/prtutor_chap3.pdf

Curriculum-Based Measurement: A Manual for Teachers at www.jimwrightonline.com/pdfdocs/cbaManual.pdf

Curriculum-Based Measurement Workshop Participant Packet www.jimwrightonline.com/pdfdocs/brouge/cbaWkshpPacket.PDF

The Savvy Teacher’s Guide: Reading Interventions That Work

http://www.jimwrightonline.com/pdfdocs/brouge/rdngManual.PDF

Intervention Central

This site offers free tools and resources to help school staff and parents to promote positive classroom behaviours and foster effective learning for children and youth.

http://www.interventioncentral.org/

Research and Training Center (RTC) on Early Childhood Development

The major aim of the Research and Training Center (RTC) on Early Childhood Development is to implement a coordinated and advanced program of applied research on knowledge and practice that improves interventions associated with the healthy mental, behavioral, communication, preliteracy, social-emotional, and interpersonal development of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with or at risk for developmental disabilities. Carl Dunst provides easy to read summaries of the evidence behind different nontraditional approaches such as, dolphin therapy, hippotherapy, melonic intonation therapy, and so forth. There are also several very useful documents that define "evidence-based practices." See at

http://www.researchtopractice.info/products.php#bridges

 

Progressive Chumps and Fourth Grade Slumps

There's a ton of solid data showing that systematic (planned, logically progressive), explicit (clear models, definitions, and rules), focused instruction is highly effective.  In fact, Professor Plum has clogged this blog (note the clever approximation to a rhyme) with sprightly verbiage on that very subj, here.

In addish, as you may know, there are many field-tested commerical programs in reading, math, writing, spelling, science, logic, and history based on principles of systematic, explicit, focused instruction.  These go by the name Direct Instruction, as discussed here and here.  Programs very close to DI are by Saxon Math (at least it used to be the case), Singapore Math, and many programs sold by Sopris West and Curriculum Associates.

Natcherly, "little" di (systematic, explicit, focused instruction in general) and commercial DI programs are despised by the majority of pedagogues and decision-making eduhacks--possibly because these nitwits know that effective, efficient programs will put them out of business. Witness the evil nonsense going on in Rockford, IL.  The idiocy in the remarks of Ms. Hayes as she defends her decision to get rid of DI and replace it with whole language (which edufrauds call  "balanced literacy") is so blatant you'd think she'd have noticed--or perhaps not.

As principal, Parker used teacher-led direct reading instruction with a heavy dose of phonics. Chief Instructional Officer Martha Hayes, who arrived with Superintendent Dennis Thompson in May, wants more student-centered reading called "balanced literacy."

Hayes said Lewis Lemon's success did not translate to higher fifth-grade reading scores. Parker said direct reading instruction was new to the upper elementary grades and was not given time to show results.

You can read the latest here. 

Whole languagists and other intellectually impaired inhabitants of Edland are clever reptiles.  OF COURSE DI is not going to raise fifth grade reading scores YET; the school started using it in the LOWER grades.  This is akin to arguing that a medicine does not work even though no patients have taken it yet.  How people this stupid are able to put on their pants without strangling themselves or setting the house on fire is a great mystery.  I wonder if they THINK of these lines ahead of time, or if their madness just leaks out.

Having watched whole languagists, pseudo-child-centrists, and progressives since 1967, we know them to be unrepentant liars, cowards, and mentally negiligible hysterical harpies.

MacBeth
Act IV.
A Cavern. In the middle, a boiling Cauldron
Thunder. Enter the three Witches.

First Witch.  Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.    

Sec. Witch.  Thrice and once the hedge-pig whin’d.

Third Witch.  Harper cries: ’Tis time, ’tis time.    

First Witch.  Round about the cauldron go; 
In the poison’d entrails throw. 
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights hast thirty-one
Swelter’d venom sleeping got, 
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.    

All.  Double, double toil and trouble; 
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.   

Sec. Witch.  Fillet of a fenny snake, 
In the cauldron boil and bake; 
Eye of newt, and toe of frog, 
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, 
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting, 
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing, 
For a charm of powerful trouble, 
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.    

All.  Double, double toil and trouble; 
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Instead of examining in a sane way the reasons for "the big fourth grade slump" in disadvantaged kids' achievement, the typical eduquack Custodians of Curricular Psychosis drop programs that in all likelihood would have accelerated kids' progress, and instead install merry little fruitcake programs (that are all about ACTIVITIES and not about MASTERING SKILLS) that will sustain the achievement gap.

Notice the demented talk in an article kindly forwarded by Intrepid Reader Instructivst.  The duo of New York EduBoss Klein and his Deputy in Charge of Piffle Farina have ventured way beyond mere drivelling about teachers becoming "guides on the side"; they have mandated it.  Readers will no doubt be impressed by the hard data provided by Farina...

Farina used the workshop method in her classes at PS 29 in Brooklyn [Can you get a SMALLER sample?] and found her students' scores went up [How many?  How much?] while others [Who?  How many?] in the school and district went down. "It's all about active, student engagement," said Farina, who says the system has won many fans.  [Fans?  That's how you justify sweeping deform?]  "What we're finding [WEASEL WORDS!!!!  LET'S SEE THE DATA!!] is the more kids talk in class, the more they learn. For too long, students have been silent, and teachers have been talking." 

Now THAT's evidence!  An anecdote backed up by a treacly line about poor kids having to listen to a teacher.  One wonders if Farina listens to the TEACHERS?  Just when you need a couple of railroad ties and a bucket of roofing tar, Ace Hardware closes for the day.

There are two sets of reasons for the slump--no matter how good early instruction is.

1. Fourth grade teachers don’t teach reading as systematically and explicitly as lower grade teachers might have done, and so kids' progress slows down.

2. Vocabulary and comprehension skills of disadvantaged kids are way behind, and fourth grade makes a BIG jump in vocabulary and comprehension. There’s no way to catch them up in the first few years.

Here are some great reads on the reasons for and ways to close the gap, provided by Kerry Hempenstall, whose website and work are real treasures.

http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/spring2003/index.html

The Fourth-Grade Plunge: The Cause. The Cure by Jeanne Chall, Vicki Jacobs. Available at: http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/spring2003/index.html

Reading Comprehension Requires Knowledge - of Words and the World Scientific Insights into the Fourth-Grade Slump and the Nation’s Stagnant Comprehension Scores. E. D. Hirsch, Jr. Available at:

http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/spring2003/index.html

The Early Catastrophe. The 30 Million Word Gap By Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley. Available at:

http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/spring2003/catastrophe.html

Oral Comprehension Sets the Ceiling on Reading Comprehension Andrew Biemiller. Available at:  http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/spring2003/biemiller.html

It will be a fine day when families no longer fall for mealy-mouthed guff from arrogant pinheads who sacrifice children on the alter of vanity.  I believe Ace Hardware opens around 7 AM.

On Your Feet or On Your Knees

Greek hoplite           Miltiades      Athena Parthenos
vs. Persian

Some of Professor Plum's Dear Readers appear discouraged by the doings in edland.

This shows that they are both Intelligent and guided by a Strong Moral Sense.

Why take a job that appears to pay more in the coin of hassle than in cash and respect? 

Why care? Put up walls and let the world suck eggs.

Fixing it ain't MY job.

But You Can't Leave It.

You've tried.

You keep coming back.

Why?

Because you are not a member of the Mass--guided by desires of the moment, enchanted by images in the media. You are a member of The Remnant.

"I have called you by name, you are mine...Behold I am doing a new thing...rivers in the desert." [Isaiah]

10:20
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

10:21
The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

10:22
For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

10:23
For the Lord GOD of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.

10:24
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.

******************

In other words (I think) despite the Assyrians who are responsible for so much destruction, there is a remnant of People With the Right Stuff that will return, perhaps to clean up the place.

I offer this in hopes that some folks (including me) will see that you never can tell what your job really is and what effect you will have in the long run.

I have recently learned that there are three main choices in life. [Uh, oh!  Here he goes. Get the shovel.]

1. You can live on your feet or on your knees.  Choose your posture.

2. You can (figuratively) defend your life and the lives of your loved ones with a rifle, or you can carry a spoon and be prepared to eat $#@t.  Choose your tool.

3. You can be a member of the mass or a member of the remnant. But not both.  Choose your community.

Personally, Professor Plum would rather be  a doomed Spartan at Thermopylae. It's the right place and the right fight with the right comrades.

Here's a nice paper on the subj.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/nock3b.html

A Preponderance of Piffle

It's bad enough that think tanks, university colleagues, researchers, federal and state agencies, foundations, and large consumer groups think schools of education are sinecures for nitwits who could easily be replaced by a solid degree in liberal arts, a few CDs on logic, summer courses on classroom management and instructional design, and on-the-job (in-school) training. Apparently, ed schools think it's a good idea to make it perfectly clear that this is so. Consider the following...

Professor Plum recently ran into a document entitled, "INTASC Standards."

Professor Plum is pretty sure that this document is a joke--a weak and altogether squalid joke, to be sure, but nonetheless a joke.

We are NOT supposed to take it seriously as representing the knowledge base of education.

We are NOT to USE this odious document to create and assess education school curricula and to guide and evaluate education students.

No.  It must be that the INTASC document is a quick intelligence test! Any sentient person is supposed to laugh and immediately throw it at someone who is really stupid--someone who might appreciate it.

"What," the Curious and Impatient Reader inquires, "IS INTASC?"

INTASC (Interstate New Teachers Assessment and Support Consortium) is one of the MANY saprophytic organizations that provide legitimacy to ed schools--because few ed schools have credible data showing that their graduates know how to teach anything. Others include National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE), National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), and Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC). Each of these organizations has a set of "standards."

Ed schools are supposed to "align" their curricula (syllabi, field experiences, class papers, student evaluations) with these standards and to display this alignment in the form of huge documents and matrices--each cell of which is filled with "evidences" of how the school meets the standard.

The ed school's documents and hard "products" are then reviewed by the certifying organization—members of which may make site visits. If the organization likes what it sees, all the faculty members then line up and a special representative—entitled High Polyp—strikes each faculty member on the head with a balloon attached to a stick.   

Following are INTASC "standards" along with Professor Plum's reasoned responses. Feel free to join me as we try to figure out what in the name of Reason each "principle" could possibly mean, and why we--who have spent most of our lives trying to be somewhat less dumb than a boot--allow ourselves--sheep-like--to be DEFINED by this assemblage of mind-numbing blather.

INTASC Standards

[What exactly is a standard? Why is "standard" changed to "principle"? Are they the same? If so, why use two words?  If not, why switch? Poor writing or merely sloppy thinking? Maybe both!]

Principle 1: The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and can create learning  experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for students.

[What would a "structure" of a discipline" be? Who on earth could follow this principle or be evaluated by it if no one has any idea what INTASC is taking about--assuming INTASC is talking about anything? What does it mean to "make these aspects of subject matter meaningful"? How do you make a "structure" of a discipline meaningful? Can a "concept" or "tool of inquiry" be learned at all if it is NOT meaningful? Isn't that what learning in fact means? And why is there no mention of students actually learning anything? Yep, that's the job of teachers! Don't teach ANYTHING; just make things MEANINGFUL. I'm sure that principle will be REAL useful to poor (Oooop, I mean "disadvantaged") kids. To begin this document with the word "meaningful" suggests strongly that how students FEEL about instruction is more important than what they learn from it--if anything.]

Principle 2: The teacher understands how children learn and develop, and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social, and personal development.

[Note that this principle is almost exactly the same as principle 1. It must be a two-for-one special.  I suspect the INTASC writers ran out of gas already. Note, also, that the statement places intellectual, social, and personal in a series. Is this meant to imply that intellectual and social are NOT personal? Poor writing at best.]

Principle 3: The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.

[What is an "approach to learning"? Another loose and generally meaningless phrase. Is a "diverse learner" supposed to be the same as a learner who differs in his or her "approach"?  Usually the word "diverse" is used to connote cultural and socioeconomic differences. But this "principle" conflates the two. Is this merely sloppy writing or is it sloppy thinking? Or is it perhaps another two-for-one deal? The phrase "understands how students differ in their "approaches to learning," gives the appearance that this field--education--really knows what these alleged differences in "approaches to learning" might be, how accurately to measure them, what differences if any these differences make in how students learn, and how teachers ought to teach.  In fact, there is NO preponderance of evidence to support any of these claims.  So, the question is whether the INTASC writers believe there IS anything to the phrase "approach to learning" or whether they merely use this phrase because it gives the appearance of openness to and celebration of diversity--i.e., the phrase is to be understood ideologically, as a form of persuasion that users of INTASC "standards" are "good" people doing "good" things.]

Principle 4: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.

[What on earth is a "performance skill"? Is there somehow a difference between being skilled at math and being skilled at performing math skills? How, for example, do you yodel math?  Can you use sock puppets to demonstrate how to find the first derivative? The statement is grammatically sensible, but metaphysically nonsense. Do we expect ourselves and our students to be guided by this sort of gibberish?]

Principle 5: The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages  positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

[Oooookaaayyy. The teacher should know how to get students interested. This actually has to be written?! This is a "principle" of in education?!]

Principle 6: The teacher uses knowledge of effective verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.

[This merely repeats ALL of the above principles. All it means is, The teacher teaches. Note the phrase "active inquiry."  What might "INactive inquiry" be? What is a "nonverbal" "communication technique"? The teacher points to something? Makes faces? Does a mime routine? Note also that the teacher is supposed to use "effective techniques." This is important. We don't want teachers thinking it's fine to use INeffective techniques.]

Principle 7: The teacher plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.

[It's hard to imagine yet another repetition of the same "principles," but there it is. In other words, the teacher teaches. Note the mind-expanding assertion that the teacher should base instruction on knowledge of subject matter and students!! And all this time teachers have been thinking they should base instruction on knowledge of crop circles and marinara sauce. ]

Principle 8: The teacher understands and uses formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social, and physical development of the learner.

[I'd call this a bit broad. It doesn't limit "development" to academic subjects.  Oh, no. The teacher is supposed to "ensure" "continuous" (every single second!) development of something as large as intellectual, social, and physical development. I guess I was laboring under the delusion that only the Deity is that powerful. But when you are in a field that cannot even promise that it graduates new teachers who know how to teach anything, you can claim they perform miracles. I mean, who would know they can't?]

Principle 9: The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professional in the learning community) and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.

["...actively seeks out opportunities..." Is there any way PASSIVELY to "seek out opportunities"?  Gee, I wish I knew how? And is there such a thing as an "UNreflective practitioner"? Doesn't "practitioner" imply reflective? What does it even mean? A person thinks about what she does? Wow! No kidding? But, then, what else would you want someone to think about? What they DON'T do? Why not just wear signs that say, "We are SOOO stupid"?]

Principle 10: The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support students' learning and well-being.

[I love the word "fosters."  In fact, NOTHING is actually accomplished, but things are being fostered like nobody's business.  And let's make it so broad that we have no idea what we're supposed to do--or so that we can do anything and it will satisfy this puffy "principle."]

* * * *
There is not a single word in the INTASC draft standards about teachers knowing how to evaluate the logical adequacy of curricula; about skill at designing logically clear instruction; about precise formats for teaching verbal associations, concepts, rule relationships, and cognitive strategies; about knowing the latest research in the field; about correcting errors and remedying chronic knowledge gaps; about helping students systematically to strategically integrate elemental knowledge into complex wholes; about increasing accuracy, fluency, generalization, retention, and independence--nothing at all in other words about what teachers ought to know how to do to achieve the worthy goal of "ensuring" student "development."  We leave the INTASC document wondering how any group that is guided by it calls itself a profession without using the word in an ironic sense.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life…

And here is another post from Don "Dan, the River Pirate" Hill.  Always appreciated.  Always moving. Never disappointing.  [This here blog's open to anyone who wants to join in.]

Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life. 

As a stranger in a strange land (Eduland to be exact), I have accustomed myself to lie. Put on a front, you might say. When I am in Eduland, I take a face from the gallery that is expected. I speak in a manner that is befitting. I appear to be interested.

Sometimes, I just got to be me. Under it all, I am just an old southern country boy. At times, I have to go and be alone with Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and that fine purveyor of sour mash, George Dickel. It is just something I have to do. My wife doesn’t really understand, but she understands that I have to do it. I am not knocking other music. Hell, I listen to all kinds of things. Well, about anything except new country music. I really hate liars and frauds. Those guys are nothing but pop singers that wear cowboy hats. Hank Williams never wore no leather pants…

“I’m tired of this dirty ol’ city..
I’m tired of too much work,
And never enough play.
Some folks never work
And they got plenty
Think I’ll walk off my steady job today.
Turn me loose, set me free
Somewhere in the middle of Montana.
Gimme all I got, coming to me.
You can keep your retirement
And your, so called Social Security
Big City, turn me loose and set me free…”
[“Big City,” Merle Haggard]

Now, before you stop reading, this is not about me and my drinking and my love of classic country music. In Eduland, we talk about minorities that suffer. And they do, BIG TIME.

I am starting to think about another minority that is seldom mentioned, yet is suffering. The rural white male from the south is been harmed greatly by the overlords of Eduland. We talk about cases where we dismiss one’s culture, diminish it to an unworthy status. Well, it is happening everyday to white, country boys. Of course, they are not an exception. They are just one more group to add to the butcher’s bill. I should know because I am one and I came from one and I know them and I have taught them.

But, this little scribbling is about another thing….broken promises. The promise that, viva education, you can get more out of life. Is that is the case?

The other day, I went to visit my old man to talk about some home improvement that I have been planning. My dad and I have always had a great relationship. He has taught me more that any school could ever have and I am grateful. I remember days long ago as a teenager, baking in the summer sun and holding a 40 pound steel wrench. My old man would always tell me that he wanted me to go to school (cause he never really had the chance), but he wanted me to learn how to make a good living if school didn’t work out. In my case, my status at school as always one more infraction away from probation violation anyway. I guess I was born a rebel, but I got it honest.

My dad is in his seventies now. As I enjoy his company, I never look at him without looking at his hands. He’s a small guy with massive hands. And I think about the years of labor that went into creating them. My dad was born in a shack in rural Appalachia at the beginning of the Great Depression. The house, if you want to call it that, never had electricity or plumbing. His dad died when he was three years old resulting from a pre-antibiotics case of lung infection (he had taken a back full of buckshot the previous autumn in a hunting accident.) With a widowed mother and two younger siblings, school was never going to be a real option for my dad. He dropped out of school at age 12 to work with his uncles at a sawmill.

“Every morning at the break of day
He'd grab his lunch bucket and be on his way
In winter or summer, sunshine or rain
Every mornin' he'd run that old log train.
A sweatin' and swearin' all day long
Shoutin' "git-up there oxen, keep movin' along,
Load ‘er up boys cause it looks like rain,
I've got get rollin' this old log train.”
[“Old Log Train” Hank Williams (1949)]

But, he was lucky. He was smart and hard-working enough to survive. After he married my mom in 1952, they moved to the coast and started a business. After many years and few kids, I guess it worked. The business did well because he worked hard and tried to be honest. I will never forget the day that I graduated from college the first time. My old man handed me a wad of cash and said, “You done good.” I was touched deeply. I knew how many years he had struggled to be in a position where he could do that. I remember him saying, “I never really got anything out of school, but it looks like you did. I hope you never have to feel that somebody has got something that you don’t.”

Even through the living hell that I put my parents through as a real delinquent, they wanted me to have school because they never had it. It wasn’t about money. My dad, through hard work and skin-of-your-teeth risks, had made lots of money. He, and I later, knew that I could be financially well off in the drilling and plumbing business. But he and mom saw it as something that I needed that was above money. They, even without the benefits of education themselves, knew that schooling was going to be important for an informed lifestyle. The lifestyle that they wanted for me.

Thanks Dad. Thanks Mom.

I wonder how many moms and dads felt the same way, only to see the schools fail the child. Not grade wise, but educational wise. I was lucky, many haven’t been. I can not count the people that I have known and have taught that have been failed by the system. The same system that was the faith of their parents. If you can just go to school, you won’t have work as hard as I did. You won’t have to be the low man on the totem pole. You can feel on equal footing in this society.

But the sad truth is that the vision does match the reality anymore.

The simple truth is that Eduland today is not providing these kids with a way to do anything. The days, when my old man was able to dump school at 12 and go on to make a good living later on down the line, are gone forever.

“I wish a buck was still silver, and it was back when the country was strong,
Back before Elvis, and before the Vietnam war came along,
Before the Beatles and yesterday,
when a man could still work, and still would,
is the best of the free life behind us now,
and Are The Good Times Really Over For Good.
Are we rollin' downhill like a snowball headed for hell.
With no kind of chance for the flag or the liberty bell.
I wish a Ford or a Chevy, would still last ten years like they should.
Is the best of the free life behind us now
And Are The Good Times Really Over For Good.”
[“Are the good times really over for good?” Merle Haggard]

You could do it back then with hard work and natural ability, but I think that it would be next to impossible now. My old man was lucky.

To a large extent, I have been lucky as well. I was such a trouble-maker in my early high school career that I was expelled (whole year) twice. My former Middle School Principal said, and I quote, “Mrs. Dan, your son has a criminal mind and I would not doubt if he were in prison by the time he turns 21.” (William Detrie, if you are reading this from the retired and worthless principal’s home, you can kiss my ass. But, you were right about Danny, Larry and Tom.) Yet, my mom and dad had a vision that school was something I needed. Therefore, they saw to it that I made it through the rougher years. When I did get my head together (briefly last summer), I liked it and bought into the vision. However, I am a bit older and wiser now. At my level, I see it as the hoop that it is, the proverbial brass ring.

In reality, schools can only give a good foundation in the tools of education (reading, mathematics, methodologies, etc). Real education is from self-motivated investigation and experience.

As I look at my two children, I wonder. They will be fine because that have two parents that know what they need and are not fooled by the bullshit. But how many kids don’t? Will Eduland make good on its promise of a better life? I say that they should, or be sued for false advertising.

I look at my five year old son. He is smiling at me with that crazy, “I am really gonna hate that country music when I get older” look on his face. I smile. He will probably never know the joys of southernisms the way that I do. Some of the more crazy ones, I hope he never tries. Me and my kind are a dying breed. Maybe, that’s a good thing.

I think that I’ll get my old surfboard down from the attic and teach him how to surf this summer. It’s a good way to meet girls and it’s safer than George Dickel White Label. Maybe I can get him to start listening to Dick Dale or the Venturas….Bob Marley….Jimmy Buffet, maybe…..?

Cat Scratch Fever

It's a cold and cloudy day in these here parts.  Nothing for it but to sit on the back deck, stoke the outdoor pot bellied fireplace (99 bucks from WalMart), see which I like more (Jack Daniels, Wild Turkey, or George Dickel--Captain Dan the Pirate Man prefers the latter), and occasionally turn the ribs. 

The calico feral cat (I call her Here, Kitty Kitty) now sleeps on the deck in a house I made.  Once the fire gets good and hot she hops on my lap and twists and turns  and rolls around until her head is under my hand. 

She's kinda finicky, though.  If, after a soothing  "ear bub," you proffer the usually enjoyable "tummy rub," she growls, bites, and sinks her claws in your thigh.  So far this has happened about 80 times.  I am covered with bleeding puncture wounds and the skin on my hands is nicely shredded--hence the reference to cat scratch fever.

You may recall several posts on the doings at Rockford, Il.--where the new direcrtor of instruction decided to remove reading programs that were doing good things for the kids and replace them with hooey.  As I always say, "Give an eduquack a choice and they invariably make the wrong one."  I believe it has something to do with a disability called Complete Lack of Moral Sense.

Well, the story continues, here.  Now, both the state and the feds (Reading First, under which Illinois gets its money) are investigating.  Unless the Rockford eduquacks lie like rugs, they just may get slapped.  My pref for the aforementioned slapping would be a solid wallop to the teeth with a segment of hard salami. This would made it easier for them to pronounce those difficult bi-labials.

More later.  But first I have to go to the emergency room.

The Laziest People on Earth

 

College perfessers have the easiest gig on this or any other known planet.  Yet, to hear their whining, you'd think they are worked to death.  The worst are perfessers in Departments of Anguish and Schools of Education.

At the "school" of "education" currently infested by Professor Plum there is recurring (and nauseating) complaining about "course loads." 

Course "loads"??

"Hey, at U. Blewit they only teach two and two.  [two courses per semester]  And WE teach have to teach three and three.  This is unfair!!!"   [Yeah, that's about 9 hours a week with maybe 30 minutes prep before class.   Meanwhile they don't notice the guys in green outside mowing a million acres in the blazing sun--all day every day.]

"Unjust."

"Exploitation!"  [Oh, yes, a real proletariat!]

"We need unions!"  [You need a high colonic.]

"Yeah, and after ALL we DO.  All our contributions to public schools."

"Uh HUH! And our INITIATIVES!"

"And don't forget all our matrices!  We fill out fifty matrices a year."

"High level work."

"I'm still in recovery."

Permit me, Dear Readers, to tell you what this perfesser scam really is.

You get tenure.  And you cannot imAgine the kinds of imbeciles who get tenure in ed schools. 

** Here's a "scholar" who has published 11 pages in seven years--all in first rank journals such as Mel and Ned's Journal of Literacy and Live Bait. 

** And there's a "distinguished" perfesser who is STILL cashing in on a film he made in 1415, about the time Henry V's English long bowmen were giving the finger to the French at Agincourt.  [Did you know that was the origin of "the finger."  The French threatened to cut off the long bowmen's middle fingers--hard to use a bow without it.  The archers responded with a merry hoisting of the bird, and 50,000 bodkin-tipped arrows.]

If you have drive, desire to do some good, and the intelligence to tell the difference between making a real contribution and merely filling out a matix, you work hard.

But if you DON'T, then your "scholarly career" is best described as %$#@ing around for the next 30 years.  The university makes it possible to run a scam for those 30 years by asking you to fill out a Professional Development Plan in the fall and a Professional Development Report in the spring.  This is reeallll hard to do. You include...

** Every stupid little workshop attended--put on by OTHER perfessers who are padding THEIR reports.  "Reading for the 22nd century" [Why worry about THAT when kids can't read NOW?]  "Macaroni as a math manipulative."  [Yes, they already exhausted the possibilities with mung beans on a stick.]   "Teachers matter."  [Wow!  And cheese melts.]  "The reading-writing connection."  [Now THERE's a contribution.  Whoda thunk?]

** Every lame thesis "supervised" (you spoke with the student for 30 minutes four or five times in a year).  "The postmodern superintendent revisited."  [How do YOU spell demented?]  "A new theory of learning"  [Just what we need.  Like the old ones were so useful.]

** Every minor change made in a course (such changes are called "significant revisions").  "I infused my courses with web resources."  [Meaning, the perfesser added two urls.] 

** Every spongy "idea" for a "project."  "To incorporate ALL learning styles, how about having little kids bend themselves into the shapes of letters?  W may present a problem.]  These flatulent eructations are called "proposed research."

...all of these are counted as "professional development" and "scholarly activity."   Everyone wins.  The university bean counters add them up and ship them off to the board of trustees in annual reports. 

"Our faculty are continuously and actively engaged in the highest scholarly pursuits."   [Sure.  In the sciences.  For the rest?....Someone open a window, please!]

And faculty go home for the summer to recuperate from another year's back-breaking labor--all the while celebratng themselves for being so socially progressive, so intuned to the masses, so passionate about solving the "deep, structural inequities" in our society of which, were there any, these drones would be THE exemplar.

Consider the resources ed schools have, and how much NOTHING they actually do--given their narrow and all-consuming focus on self-interest, their intellectual poverty, and their lack of imagination for anything other than creating a self-aggrandizing pageant of reports, conferences, matrices, and "outreach." 

10,000 bucks (at least!) for the annual round of celebrations.  Not one penny to start early reading programs in inner cities--based in churches or in "the projects"--teaching parents and other elders to teach kids to read using "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons."

Labs full of the latest computers--used maybe 5 hours a day.  Not one minute spent training citizens who need training in computers so they can get better jobs.

A dozen faculty in special ed and empty classrooms at night and on weekends.  Not one minute providing (and not one minute even thinking about providing) resources (telephone consultations, home visits, training programs) to families of children with disabilities.

Closets full of computers that are two years old ("obsolete") and books to get rid of, but not one package sent to Iraq or anywhere else to help rebuild schools.

Over the years, Professor Plum has suggested all of the above kinds of service, that would cost the ed school almost nothing.  And, if an organization cared how it looked to outsiders--and really wanted to make a difference--these would be terrific. 

Following is the response from "higher administration" and colleagues...

Bitch-slapping a Colleague

A little song
A little dance
A little seltzer
Down your pants.

[Mary Tyler Moore Show]

Here's a bit of interchange between Professor Plum and a colleague whom we shall designate Perfessser Mumblemore.

Mumblemore is big on celebrating diversity, learning styles, multiple intelligences, and whole language.  He despises direct instruction--though of course he knows nothing at all about it.  He presents himself as a "Man of the People," fighting at all times against our "racist, oppressive, society" while at the same time advocating with all his heart, soul, and adipose tissues for "The Underclass." Which means that he recently traded in his white Cadillac convertible for a Jaguar.  This is the TRUTH.

Mumblemore hates my guts.  Why I could not say.

Yesterday, another colleague (A good guy.  Right-thinking.  Let's call him Ned) sends to all the faculty and staff the url for an article on scientific research.  In fact, this one.

I respond  to Ned with a bit of sarcasm, as is my wont--sending the reply to the whole faculty and staff.  The sarcasm was aimed not at Ned but at the REST of the pseudo-progressives....

Dear Ned, or Neddy, as you prefer....

I, for one, appreciate your posting the article on how to conduct rigorous scientific research.

However, we must acknowledge the downside of basing education decisions on such research, rather than on testimonials, anecdotes, field notes, unvalidated/teacher-made instruments, and children's drawings.

1.  About 95% of "practices" and "pedagogies" would be placed in one of several containers:  (1) pure bilge; (2) demented edubabble; (3) child abuse.

2.  Very expensive curricula and materials in reading--to take one example--that don't work any better than no treatment--would be replaced by tested materials that work reliably, cost about 20 bucks, are readily available, and are user friendly.   This would cut into profits big time.

3.  Purveyors of fads, untested programs, and methods that are shown by rigorous research either not to work at all or not to work as well as other methods would soon be out of business.  In other words, in this case, knowledge is BAD for business.   Moreover, as in other professions that are guided by scientifically validated protocols, educators who insist on pushing nonsense would become defendants in lawsuits.  And this might adversely affect their schedules.

4.  Articles, books, and presentations submitted for publication that are counter to the tenets of scientific research would be scored on what would come to be called "The Hilarity Scale."   Author feedback would consist of one or more "Ha's."

1.  Ha.  [Simply stupid.]

2.  Ha Ha.  [Oh, my Lord!  What drivel.]

3.  Ha Ha Ha  [Caluminous rump-fed beslubbering fustiliarian flapdoodle]

So, let's be careful about becoming TOO scientific, Ned.  We might not like the consequences.  Consider what happened to Oedipus.  Not good, I'll tell you what, Boy Howdy!

Apparently sensing the wolf at the door that he shares with his kind--multi-culti's, whole languagers, child-centrists--Mumblemore  replies to me and Ned....

ON GARBAGE AND GARBAGE CANS:

“What’s one man’s cup of tea, Is another’s cup of urine!”

A true artist can find beauty in a garbage can!

1. HA!  Humor, of course. However…historically, a functioning “belief” has been more often dismissed as “myth”  by the “true believers!”

2. WHOLE TO PART, Or PART TO WHOLE?  THAT IS THE QUESTION!  CAN THEY COEXIST? REALLY?

3. Are you affirming that millions of persons have learned to read using a “Whole word decoding” approach,Involving an understanding of a word-in-its-context?  WOW!  What growth!

The present “government standard” [for “funding”…the $$$ hustle is on] = Bushwacked B.S.

Typical Mumblemore!  Note the carefully crafted argument.  The deft use of data.  The moronitude masquerading as humor.  Who could resist?  [Could YOU?]  And so I replied to Mumblemore and the whole faculty...

My Esteemed Colleague, Prof Mumblemore writes...

>>ON GARBAGE AND GARBAGE CANS: "What's one man's cup of tea, Is another's cup of urine!"

True, Mumblemore.  But persons who are guided by their senses and by data rather than by ideology, fantasy, cult-think, and delusion generally know the     difference.

>>A true artist can find beauty in a garbage can!

Not if there's no beauty in it.  Where's the beauty in 60% of African American, Hispanic, and Native American kids in 4th grade illiterate. I can't see it.  I guess it takes a true artist.

>> Are you affirming that millions of persons have learned to read using a "Whole word decoding" approach, Involving an understanding of a word-in-its-context?  WOW!  What growth!

You are confusing knowing what a word SAYS with what a word MEANS.  Of course we use context to induce meaning.  However, there is no such thing as a whole word decoding (what a word SAYS) approach.  There's whole word memorizing (rote learning) and decoding via knowledge of letter-sound correspondence (which is a cognitive strategy).

>>Have you read:  SILLY STUFF: A CHEATING OF THE PHONICS-MIND?   [He made this up.  It's supposed to be an insult.  It's on the level of "You're a poopy head."  We dismiss it utterly.  We think of a witty rebuttal...]

No, Prof Mumblemore, but I've read BULL%$#: CHEATING KIDS OUT OF A LIFE. by Srank Fmith, Gen Koodman, and Reggi Loutperson.  And I had to take Pepto Bismol to keep from barfing.  I invite you to read Srank Fmith's 1985 hit, "Reading without nonsense."  The title is a self-referential oxymoron.  Read the book and you ARE reading nonsense.  If he isn't certifiably insane, he must be joking.

Here, for your amusement, are a few quotations from Mr. Smith's widely read catalogue of the grotesque...

It is easier for a reader to remember the unique appearance and pronunciation of a whole word like 'photograph' than to remember the unique pronunciations of meaningless syllables and spelling units" (p.146)  Smith, F. (1985). Reading without nonsense: Making sense of reading.

[This is nonsense at its finest.  How is it easier to remember how to say "photograph" when you see that word than to remember to say mmm when you see m?  Of course it is easier to remember one word by sight than to learn the sounds that go with each letter.  What Smith neglects to tell the reader is that if a child memorizes ten words, the child can read only ten words, but if the child learns the sounds of ten letters, the child will be able to read 350 three-sound words, 4,320 four-sound words, and 21,650 five-sound words.  Moreover, if the child merely memorizes (but cannot sound out) "photograph," what is the child likely to "read" when the child bumps into "phosphate," "phonograph," and "phony ass?"]

Or this beauty, which took Second Prize in the Sheer Idiocy competition...

"Phonics, which means teaching a set of spelling to sound correspondence rules that permit the decoding of written language into speech, just does not work." Smith, F. (1985). Reading without nonsense (2nd. Ed).

[Mr. Smith's theory of reading makes about as much sense as the theory which argues that bumblebees can't fly.  Just ask about 2000 k-2nd graders in Big Bend County who only LOOK like they're decoding words!  Mr. Smith is merely lulling himself to sleep with a litany of undiluted drivel.]

I know you are waiting for the entry that received First Prize.  And HERE IT IS.....

"Early in our miscue research, we concluded…That a story is easier to read than a page, a page easier to read than a paragraph, a paragraph easier than a sentence, a sentence easier than a word, and a word easier than a letter. Our research continues to support this conclusion and we believe it to be true…" Goodman, K. & Goodman, Y. (1981). Twenty questions about teaching language. Educational Leadership, 38, 437-442.

[These lines have a nice rhythm--and they make sense if you have lost your mind.  The sane person wants to know how a child who cannot easily read a letter is able easily to read a word (which consists entirely of letters); how a child who cannot easily read a word is able easily to read a sentence (which consists entirely of words); how a child who cannot easily read a sentence is able easily to read a paragraph (which consists entirely of sentences); and how a child who cannot easily read a paragraph is able easily to read a story.  One wonders what kind of "research" would support the Goodmans' backwards-land belief.  Must be from another world.  Or, as I suggested earlier, peyote.]

But enough. I have run out of Pepto Bismol.

>>The present "government standard" [for "funding". the $$$ hustle is on] =  Bushwacked B.S.

I know.  I feel so sorry for folks in this field who have been getting free milk from the government udders.  Under Bush, they now have to demonstrate some intelligence before they get the cash.  Well, perhaps these trials are sent to make us more philosophical.  On the other hand, maybe it's the mills of the gods--grinding slowly, but grinding on and on.

We have been waiting with bated breath [not "baited" breath. That would be as silly and as fruitless as Barbara Boxer drawing herself up to her full height.  The woman most closely resembles Grumpy from a movie entitled Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs--a movie whose heroine was Professor Plum's (at 8 years of age) first love.  Pathetic AND psychotic.] for another response from Le Mumblemore.  However, we believe we have dashed his hopes of scoring.  We have poured the proverbial ice water down the proverbial shorts with the usual proverbial results--maximum shrinkage.

 

The Face of the Victim

We know what Sodom Hussein looked like, but not the citizens who had their hands amputated.  (You CAN find out at www.ogrish.com, but Professor Plum advises you NOT to).

Professor Plum has had occasion to report on one's little kid's view of himself after he was taught to be illiterate.

And we have reported on the victimizers in the Rockford, Illinois schools here and here.

But let's see the OTHER side of the academic child abuse, as reported by the same heroine who first brought it to our attention.

I found out the sad news last night that Tiffany Parker, the principal in Rockford who stuck her neck out for intensive phonics was told to pack up her office by the next day and report to her new job as the asst. principal at the most challenging middle school in the city. Up until now, Ms. Parker has had no educational experience with middle school students.

 

Already some of the best teachers in the school are beginning to think about transferring to other schools next year that don't have students are as challenging. In three years, one will look at the test results of the city's highest achieving minority, high poverty school and see a steady pattern of decline when it takes it place with all of the other failing city high poverty schools. Thousands of research studies showing that only systematic, explicit phonics results in higher numbers of capable readers provide a clear picture of what will happen. In just the past week the older grade level's Direct instruction reading time has been cut down to 30 minutes so that the students can do guided reading with the balanced literacy leveled books.

 

Fifth graders who are only reading at a first grade level, can no longer work in first grade level reading curriculum.......they can only go back one grade level to fourth grade curriculum (and no, this makes no sense, but the rationale is that the students will be disadvantaged by not having the constant exposure to higher level vocabulary -- even though they can't decode the words) Since these are older failing readers who never had intensive phonics in the early grades, one can look at research studies and predict that the reduced time will result in little "catch-up."

 

The irony of what has happened can be clearly seen in a report on one of our students that I heard about today in another one of our project schools. I'll call this student Jason. Jason's parents could not read in either their native language or English. In kindergarten Jason had an attention span of about three or four seconds which our videotapes always clearly showed. Despite the extra drill and tutoring in the regular curriculum, Jason was so far behind that he had no chance of catching up to his peers. Sometimes the staff wondered if he was a "bit autistic" or developmentally delayed. In some districts he would have been tested as the latter and placed in special education. Jason was a moderate behavior problem in the kindergarten class and many a day I'd walk in the room and see him in the time out chair.

 

Because he was so far behind, by the middle of kindergarten Jason not only was in Direct Instruction Reading Mastery, but because he was one of the two lowest kinders, he was in a group of only two students. One hour each day, the two boys slowly worked through the lessons only moving to the next lesson when they were at mastery. By the end of kindergarten, Jason still only knew a few letters and was only able to sound out a few words he had practiced repeatedly. Because he had so little language, he also was in a small group of students learning Direct Instruction Language for Learning each day. This program essentially teaches English as a Second Language in drill form. As with reading , Jason's progress in acquiring language was so slow, that he was one of the few children selected to continue in the program through first grade.

 

In first grade, he and his pal in this little group continued to move slowly though the reading curriculum at a snail's pace. In order to keep him focused to lessons, the teacher gave the two students points for paying attention which enabled them to earn surprises on Friday if they had earned enough points.

 

By second grade, Jason's increased attention span enabled him to work in a group of four students. He was now talking up a storm and had developed a wry sense of humor. Finally, he could read decodable stories. Understanding what he was reading was often difficult but the focused questions of the Direct Instruction stories ensured that by the time he moved on to the next story, he had thoroughly understood the last one. The staff continued to assess him every month or two with the one minute DIBELS assessments,  but despite the progress in the curriculum his scores were still low.

 

I've been away from Rockford for two years and in talking to a teacher at his school, I just had to inquire about Jason the other day. How was he now doing as a fourth grader, this child who easily could have been labeled as developmentally disabled when he started school? The reading teacher with great pride told me that he's now moved back into the regular curriculum and his last reading test showed that he's almost reading at grade level. She then mentioned as an aside that the fourth grade teachers are amazed at how well this class of fourth graders raised on intensive phonics since kindergarten reads.

 

In some ways the story of Jason exemplifies the amount of effort and commitment a district needs to put into the prevention of later reading problems. The staff at this school would be the first ones to tell you that in years past before the intensive phonics Jason would have been a nonreader.....very possibly a special education student. Over the past four years, I've learned that one of the first questions to ask a school district is how they can show that they are doing the intensive intervention needed in K-3 to prevent reading problems.....money that should not go to balanced literacy approaches like Reading Recovery [and here], but rather towards identifying anyone who needs the extra support of intense phonics approaches like Reading Mastery, Lindamood Bell, or Wilson (and my preference and analysis of the research support is Reading Mastery).

 

One of the PRIDE schools' biggest problems now in Rockford is that with across the district budget cuts, the trained classroom aides that helped maintain those small groups for the neediest students have all been cut. WIth shrinking school budgets, one can understand that cuts have to be made.....but the last, the very last place they should be made is in the manpower needed to prevent reading problems in K-3. Ultimately, this prevention based approach with reduced numbers of special education students, reduced numbers of reading specialists needed at higher grade levels, and reduced numbers of drop outs and behavior problems will pay off ten fold.

The Second Coming.
W.B. Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, 
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

 

Enemies Among Us

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT COULDN'T GET MORE MALEVOLENT...

Along comes A Smallest Minority, and reports this.  The educzars in the Newton (Mass) school system have managed to combine math and multi-culti indoctination, with the inEVITable result that students know neither math nor how to think about complex social issues.  And we quote...  [Insulting remarks in brackets and italics]

Between 1999 and 2001, under the direction of Superintendent Young and Assistant Superintendent Wyatt, the math curriculum was redesigned to emphasize "Newton's commitment [You think they had townhall discussions and voted?  Whose commitment?] to active anti-racist education" for the elementary and middle schools. [They couldn't just ADD "anti-racism" (whatever THAT might mean) to the general curriculum, or put it in Socialist Studies.  Noooo.  They had to debauch math.  This shows that they DON'T see math as a system of knowledge with internal cohesion and boundaries between it and other sorts of knowledge.  No, math, and everything else, is merely a NARRATIVE that can be written and rewritten depending on the motives of persons who CONTROL it--NOT the mathematicians, but the edumandarins who have EXPROPRIATED it to serve their interests.]  This meant that no longer were division, multiplication, fractions and decimals the first priority for teaching math. For that matter, the teaching of math was no longer the first priority for math teachers, as indicated by the new curriculum guidelines, called benchmarks, which function as the primary instructional guide for teaching math in the Newton Public Schools.  [The ideas of the ruling class are the ideas that rule the masses.  (Well, Derrrr)  An interesting irony here.  Progressives present themselves as Great Liberals and Champions of Justice who only want to Serve and to "restore" Power to the People.  But, as usual, this is mere rhetoric used to mask their elite position and power over ideas--in this case the BENCHMARKS.  Who controls the benchmarks controls education.]

In 2001 Mr. Young, Mrs. Wyatt and an assortment of other well-paid school administrators  [party hacks and useful idiots], defined the new number-one priority for teaching mathematics, as documented in the curriculum benchmarks, "Respect for Human Differences - students will live out [How do YOU spell political socialization?]  the system wide core of 'Respect for Human Differences' by demonstrating anti-racist/anti-bias behaviors."   [totalitarian?]  It continues, "Students will: Consistently analyze their experiences and the curriculum for bias and discrimination; Take effective anti-bias action when bias or discrimination is identified; Work with people of different backgrounds and tell how the experience affected them; Demonstrate how their membership in different groups has advantages and disadvantages that affect how they see the world and the way they are perceived by others..." It goes on and on.

[No doubt Chairman Mao is having a good laugh?  The Cultural Revolution comes to Newton!  Maybe edumaoists should create a "Little Red Book" for all the kids to carry and read every spare moment.  Maybe they should institute People's Court to try kids who refuse to be indoctrinated.  Maybe there should be "re-education classes" and detention and expulsion for kids who refuse to mouth the party line.]

These are the most important priorities that the school department has determined for teaching math from grade one through eight, as documented in the Newton Public Schools Benchmarks.

Nowhere among the first priorities for the math curriculum guidelines is the actual teaching of math. That's a distant second. To Superintendent Young and his School Committee, mathematical problem-solving is of secondary importance to anti-racist/anti-bias math.

We have at last arrived.  NOTHING these asses do is unbelievable.

Do these lines, below, help to explain anything?  We think so...

Unless the current decline in the sixth-grade math MCAS scores is reversed, within four years the rate of passing for sixth-graders will dip below 60 percent. Since the school department has neither an explanation nor a solution to the problem, and since it's likely that these same highly paid administrators will still be in their positions overseeing this problem for which they have neither an explanation nor a solution, there is every reason to assume that this downward trend will continue.

     The School Committee, those elected overseers of the school department, offered no instructions, challenges, or demands to those administrators under whose watch this downward trend occurred. [How do YOU spell COWARD?] The committee members, who are on a first-name basis with these bureaucrats, apparently have an unspoken rule against demanding explanations from their school department friends.  [Okay, NOT cowards. ACCOMPLICES.] Besides, Superintendent Young would never permit his School Committee to publicly challenge his school administrators. [Oooo. He wouldn't perMIT!  He might scowl.  He might get TESty.  He might say, "We'll discuss it later."]  So no one was subjected to scrutiny, no one was held accountable, no one was put on notice. The members sat passively and did nothing, just as these bureaucrats expected.

Maybe those Funky French weren't ALL wrong when they rounded up the grandees and topped them. 

But DO read the whole thing and check the links at A Smallest Minority, who delivers consistently fine posts.  Check the original article by Tom Mountain in the Newton Tab, here.  And the follow-up!!  Maybe--just maybe--there is hope.  Afterall, where's the Soviet Union?

 

Sometimes a Banana is Just a Smoke

A TRAGEDY WE'LL JUST HAVE TO LIVE WITH

Yesterday (at precisely 5:58 PM, for Curious Readers who are collecting data) Professor Plum said to his class, "And now, here's the funniest thing I've ever written..."

My Pop sold Chiquita bananas on the street. Unfortunately, she soon had her fill, and Pop went out of business.

ONE student laughed--real hard.  The rest sat there impersonating stuffed owls.  On the other hand, they may have been freeze-dried owls.  With this generation it's hard to tell which kind of owls.  But this owl issue is not germane to the point--not that there actually IS one.

So, I told the joke again.  With emphasis on Chiquita. 

"He sold ChiQUIta bananas.  It's a pun!  Get it?"

More of the stuffed (or freeze-dried) owl impersonations.

I gave up.

"Okay, so I lied.  So my Pop DIDN'T sell Chiquita bananas on the street.  He sold Chiquita bananas door to door. He was a traveling banana salesman.  One day, Pop was run over by a Good Humor man named Ned, who--suffering from leprosy--had a hard time grasping the steering wheel.  Perhaps you've seen the popular play by Arthur Miller about this tragic incident...."  [Go ahead.  You finish it... Why should I have all the fun around here?]

GOOD NEWS ABOUT READING FIRST

This comes to us from The Arizona Republic--a newspaper (as foreshadowed) from Arizona.

"Mesa kids learn to put reading first"
JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic

Jan. 18, 2005
12:00 AM

Student scores on reading  assessments have improved dramatically at one of the first Mesa elementary schools to implement the federally funded Reading First program.

Less than 25 percent of 148 first-graders met the benchmark on a national reading test at Lowell Elementary School last year, and nearly half the students needed intensive instruction. This year, about half the students met the benchmark as second-graders.

Administrators and teachers in the state's largest school district credit much of the improvement to Reading First.

The program provides federal dollars for schools with low-income students who have low test scores and allows teachers to give young elementary school students 90 minutes of intensive reading instruction each day. Staff members can increase that instruction time by an additional hour for those students who need it most.

That might sound like a lot of time to spend on one subject - it's nearly half the school day - but  teachers like Patty Henry say the commitment is worth it. The 19-year Lowell veteran can see the improvement in her second-grade class.

"It's what these kids at this type of school need because the reading they get is here," Henry said.

More than 90 percent of Lowell's students are Hispanic, and many have parents who don't speak English, which makes reading at home difficult, Henry said.

"When it has to happen at school, we need to put more time into it,"  she said.

That time has paid off, according to student performance on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills test. It's still a work in progress, school reading coach Renee Parker stressed, but the program is moving students in the right direction to succeed on yearly assessments and ultimately on the AIMS test.

Parker's salary, along with those of five other reading coaches in the Mesa Public Schools, is funded through the nearly $3.25 million the district received as part of a three-year grant.

Lowell is one of 64 Valley schools participating. Each of the six Reading First schools in Mesa received more than $500,000 to hire staff, said Kathy Savage, the district's basic skills coordinator. Though the grant funding disappears after the 2005-06 school year, administrators are confident those positions could be funded at the district or state level.

That's good news for parents like Cynthia Belmontes, who has a daughter in fifth grade and a son in second grade at Lowell.

"Before this program, they really didn't want to read a lot of books at home," she said. "But now that everybody's doing it, they're much more into books."

 

The data are thin, to be sure, but it's a good sign when teachers support a program.  [Gimme a minute and I'll think of something trite to say.]

Nacherly articles like this make my whole language colleagues run through their off-Broadway repertoire of assinine defenses.  I'd be impressed if they had the ^%!!$ simply to say, "Oh, shove it!"  Instead, they scowl, simper, and mince about--hideous even when one is well-medicated (which one IS, Boy Howdy).

"That's not REAL reading," they bloviate in that Elmer Fuddish way that has made them an object of considerable scorn and loathing among the better element.  ["We'll what exactly is UNreal reading?" I ask.  Besides, for them REAL reading is GUESSING what words say. Oh, yeah, that's a goooood idea.  Makes sense only if you're nuts.]

"It's all money and politics.  Bush is just selling books for his buddies at Open Court."  [ Oh, yeah.  No doubt President Bush has a deal going with the publisher.  He has nothing else to occupy him at this moment.]

"It's dictatorship!!  The state and federal government are MANDATING what curricula we use."  [Noooooo, Perfesser Mumblemore, the gov merely says that if you want MILLIONS of free bucks donated by The Public, you can only SPEND it on programs that have been field tested via scientific research.  Besides, you prating ass, by controlling teacher education, YOU morons have been MANdating how teachers teach.   So, just go pack sand.]

"It's the thin end of the wedge!  The thin END of the WEDGE.  First they dictate curricula. Next we'll have to submit lessons plans to the government." [Riiiiiight. That'll happen.  They had to drop portfolio assessment of new teachers because they found out they could never READ all those portfolios, but all of a sudden they can evaluate millions of lesson plans!]

"Our creativity!!  They're stiffling our creativity by requiring that we use commercial programs."  [Scuse me, dummy.  That begs the question.  You have NO (and follow me closely here) creativity.  The average slab of Jello is more creative than you.]



THE JAPANESE WAKEN FROM THEIR PROGRESSIVE SLUMBER
This from The Education Gadfly

A Weekly Bulletin of News and Analysis from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
Volume 5, Number 3.

January 20, 2005

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Progressive ed on the outs in Japan

Japan's ill-considered fling with progressive education could be coming to a close, though like every starred-crossed affair unfortunate consequences linger. Yomiuri Shimbun reports that education ministers are planning to roll back portions of Japan's 1990s experiment with yutori kyoiku or "loose education," which cut the school week, decreased reliance on traditional teaching methods, and focused on using "originality and ingenuity to teach students . . . international understanding, environmental matters, and welfare and health, by, for example, allowing them to garner practical experience." (See "Dewey does Tokyo".) Sound familiar? Once "loose" education was implemented, Japanese test scores and student performance on international assessments such as TIMMS sagged and a cottage industry of "back-to-basics" education arose (see http://www.edexcellence.net/foundation/gadfly/issue.cfm?id=170#2059). The education minister now plans to "reexamine how to secure sufficient class hours for basic subjects, including Japanese, mathematics, science, and social studies. . . . Class hours should definitely be increased for Japanese and mathematics. In particular," he observed, "being able to read and write one's mother tongue is vital." Officials expect that some Saturday class time will be reinstituted, along with other reforms.

"Ministry to change ‘pressure-free' education," Yomiuri Shimbun, January 17, 2005

Professor Plum recalls, with horror, his colleagues talking about visiting Japan (some years back) to teach American progressive methods. I wrote a complimentary (and I thought polite) note to the whole ed faculty to the effect that shipping garbage to other countries is not exactly what is meant by "international cooperation," and that IF the Japanese used our methods, it revealed a marked deterioration in Japanese mental faculties. This of course yielded no few insulting reactions from the colleagues—which is only fair—such as "Your demeaning of the Japanese is racist."   I don't see how. But, then, I don’t care.

MORE ON WHOLE LANGUAGE VILLANY

Must reading from Reader Andrew "Alpha" Wolf (The Man On The Scene) on the evil morons in Rockford, IL, of whom we wrote not so very long ago, when we were just a slip of a lad.

 

The Rockville Mental Cases have decided to:

1. Can the principal who got results.   And then

2. Hire an administrator who quickly got rid of effective reading programs and installed “balanced literacy”--which means whole language.

http://www.nysun.com/article/8073

The New York Sun: A Lesson From The Heartland
By Andrew Wolf
January 21, 2005

Tiffany Parker has been relieved of her instructional duties as principal of the Lewis Lemon Elementary School in Rockford, Ill.

Since we're here in New York, you're probably asking why we should care. However, there is good reason for us to look at Rockford: The events there are pertinent to our children and our schools.

Ms. Parker, who will now shuffle papers, was not demoted because she is incompetent, nor as the unfortunate result of an incident that she might have mishandled. Nor was she disciplined because the school's reading scores went down.

In fact, under her leadership, the school's scores improved dramatically. So why did the district administration abruptly take her out of the instructional loop?

The answer is that Ms. Parker put the children of her school ahead of pedagogical theology.

According to a dispatch in the Rockford Register Star, penned by its education reporter, Carrie Watters, Ms. Parker's background, like most educators today, is in the predominant "progressive" educational ideology. But when she got to the classroom, she found that this approach wouldn't work.

"I was trained in balanced literacy. I got so frustrated over not meeting the needs of my kids ... I had training, reading coaches, high levels of support, and I work. Yet I still felt inadequate, and it showed within the scores," she said.

"Balanced literacy" is a revisionist term for the increasingly unpopular whole-language programs that research has proven don't work for the lowest performing children - those most at risk - typically minority children.

When a federal grant obtained by a former professor at Northern Illinois University, William Bursuck, gave her school and others in the district the opportunity to use the more traditional approaches of phonics and direct instruction, Ms. Parker signed on.

The results were so impressive in the lower grades - the program was designed for grades K-3 - that the principal expanded the use of the teaching methods into the upper grades.

The reading program that Ms. Parker champions is similar to the one that was used in the Chancellor District in New York, established by former Chancellor Rudolph Crew. This was, perhaps, the most successful program ever put in place here to help the most at-risk students.

Just as balanced literacy failed in Rockford, there is evidence that the uniform imposition of "balanced literacy" in New York has not been successful with the students most at risk. Already we see declines in fourth-grade reading scores in districts where the most vulnerable children reside. The abandonment of the successful experiment in the chancellor's district is an indication that ideology is more important than results.

Like her counterparts here in New York, Ms. Parker's success has fallen victim to regime change. Under the Bloomberg/Klein restructuring, the Chancellor's District is now history, and the schools that thrived using traditional methods must conform to the city's "uniform curriculum" mandating the use of "balanced literacy."

In Rockford, a new superintendent came on board, and brought on a deputy for instruction who is a believer in "progressive" programs, like the former deputy chancellor for teaching and learning in New York, Diana K. Lam, and her successor, Carmen Farina. 

The new district leadership ordered the Rockford schools to return to the balanced literacy program that had been abandoned as a failure at the Lewis Lemon School years earlier. This was too much for Ms. Parker, who, citing a "moral obligation" to her students, refused to give up the instructional methods that had lifted scores at her school.

So the Rockford district administration has stripped her of her instructional authority, giving those powers to a reading coordinator. This does not sit well with parents at the school or some of the school board members.

One unhappy board member is Michael Williams, who said, "We need to support those administrators who are getting results. Why mess with success?"

This is an example of the pervasiveness of the true monopoly in public education. Far more powerful than the teachers unions or the bureaucrats is the university-institutional complex, the schools of education and nonprofit foundations. They dictate the instructional methodology even when their strategies defy logic.

This is why it is essential that in the revisions expected in the No Child Left Behind law, provisions that require scientifically validated teaching methods be strengthened.

Meanwhile, unless the school board acts when it meets next week, Ms. Parker will remain another casualty in the reading wars. Research demonstrates that Ms. Parker is right and the administration is wrong. But when we allow ideology to trump science, the best principals and teachers inevitably join the students as victims.  

Andrew Wolf
Editor and Publisher, The Riverdale Review,Bronx Press Newsgroup* Bronx, NY 10476050 Riverdale Avenue

Columnist, The New York Sun

(718) 543-5200 ext. 105 * FAX: (718) 543-4206

We conclude on a cheerier note...

CONSTRUCTIVISM GETS A SHARP STICK IN THE EYE.

This sent in by Dear Reader Mike McKeown, whose steely lance has gutted many a constructivist math sissypants. 

It is excerpts from a recent experiment showing that kids taught with direct instruction are more likely to master the essential logical operations of scientific experiments than kids taught with "discovery learning."   [Well, duh.]

Research Article
The Equivalence of Learning
Paths in Early Science
Instruction
Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning

David Klahr and Milena Nigam
Department of Psychology,
Carnegie Mellon University, and Center for Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh

ABSTRACT—In a study with 112 third- and fourth-grade children,
we measured the relative effectiveness of discovery
learning and direct instruction at two points in the learning
process: (a) during the initial acquisition of the basic cognitive
objective (a procedure for designing and interpreting simple,
unconfounded experiments) and (b) during the subsequent
transfer and application of this basic skill to more diffuse and
authentic reasoning associated with the evaluation of science fair posters. We found not only that many more children learned from direct instruction than from discovery learning, but also that when asked to make broader, richer scientific judgments, the many children who learned about experimental design from direct instruction performed as well as those few children who discovered the method on their own. These results challenge predictions derived from the presumed superiority of discovery approaches in teaching young children basic procedures for early scientific investigations.

A widely accepted claim in the science- and mathematics-education community is the constructivist idea that discovery learning, as opposed to direct instruction, is the best way to get deep and lasting understanding of scientific phenomena and procedures, particularly for young children. ‘‘The premise of constructivism implies that the knowledge students construct on their own, for example, is more
valuable than the knowledge modeled for them; told to them; or shown, demonstrated, or explained to them by a teacher’’ (Loveless, 1998, p. 285). Advocates of discovery learning concur with Piaget’s assertion that ‘‘each time one prematurely teaches a child something he could have discovered for himself, that child is kept from inventing it and consequently from understanding it completely’’ (Piaget, 1970, p. 715). Moreover, they argue that children who acquire knowledge on
their own are more likely to apply and extend that knowledge than those who receive direct instruction (Bredderman, 1983; McDaniel & Schlager, 1990; Schauble, 1996; Stohr-Hunt, 1996).

There are pragmatic, empirical, and theoretical grounds for questioning this position. Pragmatically, it is clear that most of what students (and teachers and scientists) know about science was taught to them, rather than discovered by them. Empirical challenges come from studies demonstrating that teacher-centered methods using direct instruction are highly effective (cf. Brophy & Good, 1986; Rosenshine & Stevens, 1986), particularly for teaching multistep procedures that students are unlikely to discover on their own, such as those involved in geometry, algebra, and computer programming
(Anderson, Corbett, Koedinger, & Pelletier, 1995; Klahr & Carver, 1988). Finally, most developmental and cognitive theories predict that many of the phenomena associated with discovery learning would make it a relatively ineffective instructional method (Mayer, 2004).

For example, children in discovery situations are more likely than those receiving direct instruction to encounter inconsistent or misleading feedback, to make encoding errors and causal misattributions, and to experience inadequate practice and elaboration. These impediments to learning may overwhelm benefits commonly attributed to discovery learning—such as ‘‘ownership’’ and ‘‘authenticity.’’

We tested three hypotheses:

_ Direct instruction is more effective than discovery learning in
teaching children CVS. That is, we expected to replicate earlier
comparisons of different instructional approaches to CVS training (Chen & Klahr, 1999; Klahr, Chen, & Toth, 2001; Toth et al.,
2000)…

_ When evaluating science-fair posters, children who have mastered CVS outperform those who have not…

_ What is learned is more important than how it is taught…

[Procedurally, CVS is a method for creating experiments in which a single contrast is made between experimental conditions. The logical aspects of CVS include an understanding of the inherent indeterminacy of confounded experiments.
In short, CVS is the basic procedure that enables children
to design unconfounded experiments from which valid causal inferences can be made. Its acquisition is an important step in the development of scientific reasoning skills because it provides a strong constraint on search in the space of experiments (Klahr, 2000; Klahr & Simon, 1999).]…

Participants were 112 third- and fourth-grade children in four different elementary schools, one of which was an all-girls school. There were 58 third graders (21 boys and 37 girls; mean age59 years, range: 8.4 years to 10.2 years) and 54 fourth graders (12 boys and 42 girls; mean age510 years, range: 9.3 years to 10.6 years). Children from both grades at each school were randomly assigned to either the direct-instruction condition or the discovery-learning condition…

In the assessment phase, which started immediately after the exploration phase, children in both conditions were asked to design four additional experiments: two to determine the effect of a factor that had been investigated earlier (run length) and two to determine the effect of a factor that had not been investigated earlier (surface). During the assessment phase, the experimenter did not provide any feedback in
either condition….

The evaluation of science-fair posters took place on Day 2, about a week later. A different experimenter (blind to training condition) asked all children to evaluate two science-fair posters (based on real posters generated by sixth graders from another school) by making comments and suggestions that would help to make the poster ‘‘good enough to enter in a state-level science fair.’’…

RESULTS

We defined a CVS ‘‘master’’ as a child who designed at least three unconfounded experiments (out of four experiments) during the assessment phase. …
...direct instruction produced many more masters than did
discovery learning. Forty of the 52 direct-instruction children (77%) became masters, whereas only 12 of the 52 discovery children (23%) did so… The superiority of direct instruction over discovery was maintained when we looked only at the children who started out with the lowest initial CVS scores (0 or 1) in the exploration phase (see Fig. 4, bottom panel):
Sixty-nine percent of the 35 children in the direct-instruction condition who received such low scores during the exploration phase became masters by the assessment phase, compared with only 15% of the 41 children in the discovery condition with equally low initial CVS scores,…

The most important result of this study is the relationship between learning paths and transfer. Children who became masters via direct instruction were as skilled at evaluating science-fair posters as were discovery-learning masters and experts. Similarly, children who failed to become masters did equally poorly on the poster-evaluation task regardless of training condition. That is, the focused, explicit, and
didactic training in the direct-instruction condition produced a high proportion of CVS masters who were as proficient as the few discovery-learning masters (and experts) when subsequently asked to demonstrate richer, more authentic, scientific judgments…

One has no illusions that the above article--or even 50 more like it--would give the edu-constructos pause.  After all, reality for them is merely an opinion.

History IS Serious

 

Left:  Persians (the ones decked out like MC Hammer--loathesome and odious) engaging in the ongoing process of higher-order reflection on the authentic experience of having their butts whipped.

Right:  Persians (foreground, still dressed like excrescences from a new and a horrifying world)  trying to get past the Spartans at Thermopylae.  Silly asses.

Professor Plum is well aware--yes, WELL aware--that Dear Readers have been waiting with bated breath (not baited breath; that makes no sense.  How exactly do you BAIT breath?  An altogether silly idea and a waste of natural resources.) for the next portion of piffle on instructional design.  Thousands of Dear Readers have required continuous sedation and cold sheets to handle their agitation--if the recent jump in sales of major tranquilizers is any indication.

In the interest of emotional, spiritual, and gastrointestinal (not sure why I put that in, but there it is) wellbeing, here is the foreshadowed and much anticipated second helping that follows (pretty logically I think) from the first serving.  [Make sure to reduce meds slowly.  We don't want to hear that some Dear Readers have come down with a nasty case of the Heebie Jeebies or, for that matter, Hoof and Mouth disease.]

The following comes to us from Floyd Gabbert, whom Plum is honored to have had in his (Plum's) class last sem.  Mr. Gabbert is a Marine veteran of 25 years.  If Dear Readers will consult their history books, they will know that Mr. Gabbert has seen and done what few others  have.  He is a credit to our Nation.  Readers will also recall the similar and we might say essential contributions  made by the Spartan hoplites and the United States Marines to the history of western democracy, and how nearly identical is the role of the Marines  today (with the SAME enemy) as it was in the time of T. Jefferson.  How do YOU spell Tripoly?

   

Uh oh!  I shouldn't have juxtaposed those images.  Professor Plum is beginning to have tender feelings--tender feelings of a MANly sort, of course, but tender nonetheless.  Pardon while we sublimate.  Let's load a .45 pistol....   Okay! All better.  Whew!  That was a close one!  But now we're feeling nothing....and feeling fine.

Please note the comprehensiveness and attention to detail in Mr. Gabbert's outline of instruction.

Thermopylae

Honour to those who in the life they lead
define and guard a Thermopylae.
Never betraying what is right,
consistent and just in all they do,
but showing pity also, and compassion;
generous when they're rich, and when they're poor,
still generous in small ways,
still helping as much as they can;
always speaking the truth,
yet without hating those who lie.
And even more honour is due to them
when they foresee (as many do foresee)
that Ephialtis will turn up in the end,
that the Medes will break through after all.

Constantine P. Cavafy

THE GREEK-PERSIAN WARS

Mr. Gabbert (Floyd writes) begins with “standards” (general objectives) in the State Standard Course of Study (in italics). Using his own knowledge of the subject, he identifies "things" students will learn that are relevant to each standard.

STATE STANDARD COURSE OF STUDY

COMPETENCY GOAL 1: Historical Tools and Practices - The learner will identify, evaluate, and use the methods and tools valued by historians, compare the views of historians, and trace the themes of history.

1.01 Define history and the concepts of cause and effect, time, continuity, and perspective.

Things Students Will Learn

1. Greek actions in the Ions lead to the Greek-Persian Wars.

2. A Greek defeat in the Greek-Persian Wars may have stopped the spread of democracy.

3. Greek system of city-states/democracy lead to a belief system and virtues which allowed them to be victorious in the Greek-Persian Wars.

1.03 Relate archaeology, geography, anthropology, political science, socioogy, and economics to the study of history.

Things Students Will Learn

1. Effects of geography on social organization.

2. Effects of geography on economic system (small farms).
Strong attachment to land. 

3. Greek city-states and democracy versus the slavery and repression of the Persian Empire.

4. Effects of geography on combat methods.

1.04 Define the themes of society, technology, economics, politics, and culture and relate them to the study of history.

Things Students Will Learn

1. Greek society consisted of a class system, however, Greek citizens were equal under the law.

2. Greek advancements in technology lead to better weaponry and armor.

3. Historically, technology influences combat tactics and techniques.

4. Greek democracy, which gave all male Greeks a voice in government, lead to tenacious fighting as the Greeks defended their homeland.

1.06 Examine the indicators of civilization, including writing, labor specialization, cities, technology, trade, and political and cultural institutions.

Things Students Will Learn 

1. Development of a democratic government.

2. Family owned and operated businesses.

3. Greek advancement in the arts and sciences.

4. Greek development of organized religion.

COMPETENCY GOAL 2: Emerging Civilizations – The learner will analyze the development of early civilizations in Africa, Asia,
Europe, and the Americas.

2.02 Identify the roots of Greek civilization and recognize its achievements from the Minoan era through the Hellenistic period.

Things Students Will Learn 

Greek achievements include:

1.  Arts and sciences.

2.  Formation of a democratic system of government.

3.  Combat tactics and techniques that were nearly invincible on the battlefield.

4.  Virtues that were nurtured and passed from one generation to the next.

COMPETENCY GOAL 6: Patterns of Social Order - The learner will investigate social and economic organization in various societies throughout time in order to understand the shifts in power and status that have occurred.

6.01 Compare the conditions, racial composition, and status of social classes, castes, and slaves in world societies and analyze changes in those elements.

Things Students Will Learn

1.  Greek democracy vs. Persian kingship.

2.  Greek freedom vs. Persian slavery.

3.  Greek opportunity for social advancement vs. Persian social status depending on family lineage.

6.04 Relate the dynamics of state economies to the well being of their members and to changes in the role of government.

Things Students Will Learn 

1.  Greek family owned farms and business vs. Persian king ownership of almost everything.

2. Greek democracy required a majority vote to enact laws, levy taxes, and elect senators vs. the Persian monarchy.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND THINGS TO TEACH

Herodotus. Xerxes Invades Greece, from The Histories.

Retrieved from: www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/herodotus-xerxes.html.

1.  Three hundred Persian ships were used to bridge the
Hellespont.

2.  Greek city-states that participated in the Battle of Thermopylae.

3. Greek troop strengths at the Battle of Thermopylae.

4.  Spartan King Leonidas ordered all but the Spartans to leave.

5.  Only the Thespians and the Thebans remained with the Spartans at Thermypolae.

6.  The death of King Leonidas and the bitter fight to recover his body.

7.  Remaining Greeks were killed by Persian archers.

“Here did four thousand men from Pelops’ land, Against three hundred myriads bravely stand, Go, stranger, and to Lacedaemon tell, That here, obeying her behests, we fell.”

[Jones, Chris. The Battle of Plataea. Retrieved from: www.fanaticus.org/DBA/battles/plataea.html.]

 8.  Supply difficulties lead to Xerxes return to Persia
with approximately one-half of the Persian army.

9. Persian forces in Greece left under the command of Mardonius.

10.  Approximately 60,000 Greek hoplites under the command of Spartan King Pausanius.

11. Persian cavalry attacks to cut the Greek lines of supply and communication.

12.  Theban Sacred Band wiped out by the Athenians.

Perl Foundation. The Phalanx. Retrieved from: http://qa.perl.org/phalanx/history.html.

 “Men wear their helmets and their breastplates for their own needs, but they carry shields for the men of the entire line.”—Plutarch.

13. Panoply consisted of a shield, helmet, breastplate, greaves, sword, spear, and tunic, and weighed about seventy pounds. The shield was called a hoplon and lead to the name hoplite. The hoplon was the hoplite’s defining piece of equipment.

The spear was the principle offensive weapon. The butt-spike was used for dispatching trampled-upon foes, or as the primary weapon after the spear shattered.

The sword was considered a weapon of last resort.

14. The phalanx typically consisted of eight ranks of hoplites, stretching abreast for a quarter mile or more.

The general—the strategos—took position in the front rank, at the extreme right, the most exposed position of the entire army.

Most Greek city-state phalanxes advanced at a trot, while the Spartan phalanx was known for its slow, methodical pace.

When opposing phalanxes collided, the battle became a scrum as each army tried to push the other’s line.

Greek phalanxes were nearly unstoppable in its intended mode of combat: head-on, on straight, level ground, with adequate protection on the flanks.

Hoplite combat was centered around a single idea: battle should be bloody, horrible, and decisive.

Public Broadcast Service. The Oracle at Delphi. Retrieved from www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/7_p1.html.

15.  The Oracle of Delphi was the most important shrine in all of Greece. Delphi was considered to be the center of the world.
People came from all over Greece to get answers about the future. Pythia, the priestess of Apollo provided cryptic answers.

Prior to the Battle of Thermopylae, Spartan King Leonidas was told by the oracle that a Spartan king must die or Sparta
would be destroyed.

Wheeler, Kevin. The Ancient Greek Battles of Marathon,
Thermopylae, Artemisium, and Salamis. Retrieved from: www.geocities.com/daesarkevin/battles/Greekbattles1.html.

16. THE FIRST PERSIAN INVASION.  Persian King Darius sent a punitive expedition to Greece, for the Greek sacking of Persian city of Sardis, in 492 BC. This expedition was struck down in a storm at Mt. Athos.

The Battle at Marathon.  In 490 BC Darius again invaded Greece.  Approximately 25,000 Persian troops face approximately 11,000 Greeks: 10,000 from Athens and 1,000 from Plataea.

After a seven-day standoff, the Greeks attack in a “suicidal frenzy.”  The Greek phalanx was thin in the middle and strong on the sides, so it hinged shut on the Persian flanks.

The better armored Greeks, surround, kill, and drive the Persians off the beaches of Marathon. Approximately 6,400 Persian were killed, while 192 Athenians were killed.

THE SECOND PERSIAN INVASIAN

Thermopylae.
In 481 BC, Darius’s son Xerxes sets out to invade Greece with an army of approximately 400,000.

The Corinthian League, headed by Sparta, is formed when the Persian army reached Sardis. Athens is evacuated when the Persian army reaches Greece.

Spartan King Leonidas is given command of the Greek force at Thermopylae.

A Greek named Ephialtes informs Xerxes of a mountain path around the Greek position.

Persians completely surround the remaining Greek defenders and fire thousands of arrows and spears at them.

Wheeler, Kevin. The Ancient Greek Battles of Platea, Mycale, and Salamis.  Retrieved from: www.geocities.com/daesarkevin/battles/Greekbattles2.html.

Battle at Plataea

The Battle of Platea occurs in 479 BC.

Prior to the Battle of Platea, Greek commanders decided to withdraw to Mt. Cithaeron.

One Spartan cohort commander, Amompharetus, refuses to withdraw in the face of the Persian army.

The remaining Spartan commanders refuse to leave Amompharetus.

Approximately 53,000 Greeks: 50,000 Spartans and 3,000 Tegeans, stand against the whole Persian army.

The fighting continues until the Persian general, Mardonius, is killed.

The Greeks take only 3,000 prisoners and the rest were slaughtered.

Herodotus states that 300,000 Persians were killed, but most historians believe that the number was no more than 70,000.

The Spartans suffered 52 killed.

White, DA. The Hoplite Experience. Retrieved from: www.holycross.edu/departments/classics/dawhite.

Philosophy of Greek warfare: the honesty of two armies facing each other in broad daylight.

Time leading to battle was a test of nerve as opposing armies eyed each other, courage tested by the knowledge of lie ahead.

Most Greek city-states had various styles of panoplies, while the Spartan formation was a uniform mass of scarlet cloaks and shinning armor.

Success of the phalanx depended on unit cohesion and discipline.

Failure of the phalanx resulted from gaps and lack of discipline.

The phalanx had to meet its enemy with enough momentum to move forward, but it had to maintain order within the ranks to prevent gaps.

The best troops were placed in the front and rear ranks. Front rank required courage to meet the enemy head on, while the rear rank had to have enough strength and bearing to maintain a constant push forward.

Hoplites in the front rank carried their spears underhand, aiming for the enemy’s groin and legs. Once the momentum of the phalanx was stopped, the front rank would hold their spears overhand, aiming for the enemy’s neck, shoulders, and face.

 
[MR. GABBERT NOW ARRANGES THE ABOVE KNOWLEDGE ITEMS INTO CHUNKS]

CHUNK 1: WHO WAS INVOLVED

1.  What rules (as big ideas) are revealed (and can guide future study) in the Greek’s responses to the Persian invasions?

2.  Whom did the Greeks fight?

3.  How many major battles were there?

CHUNK 2: MAP STUDY

2.  Identify on a map the locations of  Athens, Sparta, Salamis, Lydia, Thebes,  the Persian Empire, Persepolis.

3.  Locate on a map the places of the two main land battles.

3.  Trace on a map the route taken by the Persian invaders.

CHUNK 3: ARMAMENT AND COMBAT TECHNIQUES

1.  What were Greek infantry called?

2.  What weapons did the Greek infantryman carry?

3.  What was the Greek shield called?

4.  What were the four features of the Greek shield?

5.  In what formation did the Greek infantries fight? Explain its operating characteristic and effectiveness.

6.  Describe combat methods of the Greeks.

In addition to infantry, what other fighting forces did the Persians use?

CHUNK 4: THE FIRST PERSIAN INVASION

1.  Who was the Persian king during the first invasion?

2.  What did the Persian king expect to gain from the first invasion?

3.  Trace on a map the route taken by the Persian invaders.

4.  What was the date of the first land battle?

5.  Where was the first land battle?

6.  How far was the first battle from  Athens?

7.  Was Athens involved in the first battle?

6.  Was Sparta involved in the first invasion? Explain.

7.  What were the approximate numbers of troops on each side?

8.  Did the Persians have a navy involved in the first land battle?

9.  Who won the first major land battle?

10.  What rules (as big ideas) are revealed (and can guide future study) in the Greek’s responses to the Persian invasions?

CHUNK 5: THE SECOND PERSIAN INVASION

1.   Who was the Persian king during the second invasion?

2.  What did the Persian king expect to gain from the second invasion?

3.  Trace on a map the route taken by the Persian invaders.

4.  What was the date of the second land battle?

5.  Where was the second land battle?

6.  What is the English translation for the location of the second land battle?

7.  What did the Greeks expect to gain by fighting the Persians at the location of the second land battle?

8.  Was Sparta involved in the second land battle?

9. Describe the Greek forces in the second land battle?

10.  What was the approximate number of troops on each side?

11. How were the Greeks defeated in the second land battle?

12.  Did the Greeks accomplish what they came to do in the second land battle?

13.  What rules (as big ideas) are revealed (and can guide future study) in the Greek’s responses to the Persian invasions?

14.  In brief, what came next after the second land battle?

CHUNK 6: THE BATTLE OF PLATAE

1.  Why did Xerxes return to Persia, with approximately one-half of the Persian army, one year after his victory at Thermoplae?

2.  Whom did Xerxes leave in Greece to command the Persian army?

3. In what year was the Battle of Platea fought?

4.  Approximately how many Greek troops fought in the Battle of Platea?

5.  Who commanded the Greek forces at Platea?

6.  How or why did the Spartans become separated from the Greek army’s main force?

7.  What was the battle’s outcome?

8.  What event broke the fighting spirit of the Persian army?

9.  What rules (as big ideas) are revealed (and can guide future study) in the Greek’s responses to the Persian invasions?

CHUNK 7: CONCLUSION

1.  What rules (as big ideas) are revealed (and can guide future study) in the Greek’s responses to the Persian invasions?

[MR. GABBERT NOW DESIGNS INSTRUCTION FOR ONE OF THE ABOVE CHUNKS.]

CHUNK 5: THE SECOND PERSIAN INVASION:

CUMULATIVE OBJECTIVE: Summarize and describe the events leading up to the second Persian invasion of Greece and describe the second major land battle between the Persians and the Greeks.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE #1: Given a map of the ancient world, the student will trace the route taken by the Persian army during its second invasion of Greece, by marking the location of the Hellespont, the kingdom of Thrace, the kingdom of Macedonia, the Aegean Sea, and the location of the second major land battle between the Persians and the Greeks.

IMMEDIATE/DELAYED ACQUISITION TEST:

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Where is the Hellespont?” The student will point to the Hellspont within thee seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “How do you spell Hellspont?” The student will spell Hellspont without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Where is the kingdom  of Thrace?” The student will point to the kingdom of Thrace within thee seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “How do you spell Thrace?” The student will spell ThracE without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Where is the kingdom of Macedonia?” The student will point to the kingdom of Macedonia within thee seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “How do you spell Macedonia?” The student will spell Macedonia without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Where is the Aegean Sea?” The student will point to the kingdom of Thrace within thee seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “How do you spell Aegean?” The student will spell Aegean without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Where is Thermopylae?” The student will point to Thermopolae within thee seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “How do you spell Thermopylae?” The student will spell Thermopolae without error.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE #2: Without the aide of reference materials or notes, the student will state the name of the Persian king at the time of the second invasion of
Greece and state what the Persian king expected to accomplish from invading Greece.

IMMEDIATE/DELAYED ACQUISITION TEST:

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Who was the king of Persia during the second invasion of Greece ?” The student will say “Xerxes” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Who was Xerxes?” The student will answer, “The king of Persia during the second Persian invasion of Greece” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “How do you spell Xerxes?” The student will spell Xerxes without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What did the Persian king expect to accomplish by invading Greece?” The student will state, “Avenge his father’s defeat by the Greek’s during the first Persian invasion of Greece and to subjugate the whole of Greece” within five seconds.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE #3: Given a multiple-choice list of dates and names, the student will select the date of the second major land battle between the Persians and the Greeks, the Greek name the battle came to be know by, and the English translation of the battle’s name.

IMMEDIATE/DELAYED ACQUISITION TEST:

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “When was the second major land battle of the Greek-Persian Wars fought?” The student will answer, “480 BC” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What happened in 480 BC?” The student will answer, “The second major land battle of the Greek-Persian Wars was fought” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What was the name given to the second major land battle?” The student will answer “Thermoyolae” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What was Thermopylae?” The students answer, “The second major land battle of the Greek-Persian Wars” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What is the English translation of Thermopylae?” The students will answer, “Hot Gates” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What is the Greek word for Hot Gates?” The student will answer, “Thermopylae” within three seconds.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE #4: Without the aide of reference materials or note, the student will state what the Greeks expected to accomplish by fighting the Persian invaders at Thermopylae.

IMMEDIATE/DELAYED ACQUISITION TEST:

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Why did the Greeks choose to fight at Thermopolae?” The student will answer, “Because of the narrowness of the pass, the Greeks hoped to delay the advance of the Persian army” within three seconds.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE #5: From memory, the student will list the composition of Greek and Persian forces that fought in the second major land battle, to include approximate troops strengths and types of combat units.

IMMEDIATE/DELAYED ACQUISITION TEST:

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Name the Greek city-states that sent troops to fight at Thermopylae.” The student will answer, “Arcadia, Mantinea, Corinth, Mycenae, Orchomenus, Philius, Sparta, Tagea, Thebes, and Thespia” within five seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Arcadia.” The student will spell
Arcadia without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Cornith.” The student will spell Cornith without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Mantinea.” The student will spell
Mantinea without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Mycenae.” The student will spell
Mycenae without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Orchomenus.” The student will spell Orchomenus without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Philius.” The student will spell Philius without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Sparta.” The student will spell
Sparta without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Tagea.” The student will spell Tagea without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Thebes.” The student will spell
Thebes without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Thespia.” The student will spell Thespia without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “How many Greek troops were in the vicinity of Thermopolae at the time of the battle?” The student will answer, “4,200” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “How many Greeks troops were actually involved in the fighting at Thermopylae?” The student will answer “1,400” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “How many Spartans were at the Battle of Thermopylae?” The student will answer, “300” within thee seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Why were so few Spartans involved in the Battle of Thermopylae?” The student will answer, “A religious festival in
Sparta prevented the Spartan army from marching to Thermopylae” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What type of combat units did the Greeks have at Thermopylae?” The student will answer, “Infantry,” or “Hoplites” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Who was given command of the Greek force at Thermopylae?” The student will answer, “Spartan King Leonidas” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Who was King Leonidas?” the student will answer, “The Spartan king who was given command of all Greek forces at Thermopylae” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “How many Persian troops were facing the Greeks at Thermopolae?” The student will answer “400,000” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Name the types of Persian combat units involved in the Battle of Thermopolae.” The student will answer, “Infantry, cavalry, and archers” within five seconds.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE #6: Without the aide of reference materials or notes, the student will make a list of features, comparing the Greek force’s method of combat at Thermopylae to the more traditional method of Greek combat, which occurred at the Battle of Marathon. Compare its similarities and differences.

IMMEDIATE/DELAYED ACQUISITION TEST:

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What is the name of the formation that Greek forces normally fought in?” The student will answer, “The phalanx” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What is a phalanx?” The student will answer, “The formation that Greek troops fought in” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Was the phalanx used for offensive or defensive combat?” The student will answer, “Offensive combat” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What are the features of combat between phalanxes?” The student will answer, “The phalanx normally stretched across a valley, consisted of shock combat, and was designed to penetrate the opposing phalanxes line” within five seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Did the Greeks fight in a phalanx at Thermopylae?” “Why or why not?” The student will answer, “The Greeks did not fight in a phalanx at Thermopylae because the narrowness of the pass would not allow it” within five seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Did the Greeks mainly use offensive or defensive combat at the Battle of Thermopylae?” The student will answer, “Defensive combat” within three seconds.

SPECIFIC  OBJECTIVE #7: Without the aide of reference materials or notes, the student will explain the event that lead to the deadliest combat at the Battle of Thermopylae.

IMMEDIATE/DELAYED ACQUISITION TEST:

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What single event lead to the bloodiest combat at Thermopylae?” The student will answer, “The fight to recover the body of Spartan king Leonidas” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “The fight to recover the body of Spartan King Leonidas resulted in what?” The student will answer, “The bloodiest fighting at the Battle of Thermopylae” within three seconds.

SPECIFIC  OBJECTIVE #8: From memory, the student will state why the Spartan king was so willing to fight to the death at the Battle of Thermopylae.

IMMEDIATE/DELAYED ACQUISITION TEST:

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What was the name of the shrine of Apollo?” The student will answer, “The Oracle of Delphi” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the asks, “What was the most important shrine in all of
Greece?” The student will answer, “The Oracle of Delphi,” or “The shrine of Apollo” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Oracle of Delphi.” The student will spell Oracle of Delphi without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What was the name of the priestess of Apollo?” The student will answer, “Pythia” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Who was Pythia?” The student will answer, “The priestess of Apollo” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Pythia.” The student will spell Pythia without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Why did people from all over Greece
go to the Oracle of Delphi?” The student will answer, “To get answer about the future” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What did Pythia tell the Spartan king?” The student will answer, “A Spartan king must die or Sparta will be destroyed” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Why was the Spartan king so willing to fight to the death at the Battle of Thermopolae?” The student will answer, “To save
Sparta” within three seconds.

SPECIFIC  OBJECTIVE #9: From memory, the student will describe how the Greek force at Thermopolae was defeated.

IMMEDIATE/DELAYED ACQUISITION TEST:

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Who order the rest of the Greek force leave Thermopylae?” The student will answer “Spartan King Leonidas”, within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What did Spartan King Leonidas do right before the battle ended?” The student will answer, “He ordered all but the Spartans to leave Thermopolae” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Who remained with the Spartans at Thermopolae?” The student will answer, “The Thesipians and the Thebeans” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Who was Ephialtes?” The student answers, “The Greek traitor that showed the Persians a way around Thermopylae” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Who was the Greek traitor that lead the Persian army around Thermopylae?” The student will answer, “Ephialtes” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher says, “Spell Ephialtes.” The student will spell Ephialtes without error.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Once the Persian army made its way around Thermopylae, how did they kill the remaining Greek defenders?” The student will answer, “By firing arrows and spears into them”, within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “What is the inscription on the statue, dedicated to the Spartans, say?” The student will answer, “Go, stranger, and to
Lacedaemon tell, That here, obeying her behests, we fell” within five seconds.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE #10: Without the aide of reference materials or notes, the student will analyze the Battle of Thermopolae and state whether or not the Greek force accomplished its objective and justify your answer.

IMMEDIATE/DELAYED ACQUISITION TEST:

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Why did the Greeks choose to fight at Thermopylae?” The student will answer, “Because of the narrowness of the pass, the Greeks hoped to delay the advance of the Persian army” within three seconds.

(Verbal Association) When the teacher asks, “Did the Greeks delay the advance of the Persian army at the Battle of Thermopolae?” The student will answer, “Yes”, within three seconds.

[MR. GABBET NOW PREPARES A SCRIPT FOR TEACHING THE KNOWLEDGE RELEVANT TO SOME OF THE OBJECTIVES ABOVE.  NOTE THAT HE USESA THE GENERAL TEACHING FORMAT: FRAME THE TASK, MODEL THE INFORMATION, LEAD STUDENTS, TEST TO SEE IF STUDENTS GOT IT.]

SCRIPT

LEARNING OBJECTIVE #8: From memory, the student will state why the Spartan king was so willing to fight to the death at the Battle of Thermopylae.

REVIEW: "Today we will continue our study of the Greek-Persian Wars. During our last class, we discussed the event that lead to the bloodiest fighting at the Battle of ThermopYlae.

"When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to tell me the name of the Spartan king that was in command of the Greek force at Thermopylae. Get ready…now! [Provide correction and praise as needed.]

When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to tell me what was the event that lead to the bloodiest fighting at the Battle of Thermopylae. Get ready…now! [Provide correction and praise as needed.]

"Earlier this year, during our discussion of Greek culture, we learned that the Greek religion played a major role in the daily lives of the Greek population. Now, we will learn some interesting facts about just how important religion was to the Greeks.

FRAME: "Today, we will discuss the reason why Spartan King Leonidas was willing to fight to the death at the Battle of Thermopolae.

MODEL: "New fact, get ready to write. One of the most important religious sites in all of Greece was the shrine to Apollo, which was called the Oracle of Delphi.

When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to tell me the name of the shrine to Apollo. Get ready…now! [Provide correction and praise as needed.]

"When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to tell me what was the Oracle of Delphi. Get ready…now! [Provide correction and praise as needed.]

"Oracle is spelled O-R-A-C-L-E. [Spell Oracle a second time.]

"When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to spell Oracle. Get ready…now! [Provide correction and praise as needed.]

"Delphi is spelled D-E-L-P-H-I. [Spell Delphi a second time.]

"When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to spell Delphi.
Get ready…now! [Provide correction and praise as needed.]

[Call on individual students to state the name of the shrine of Apollo and to spell Oracle of Delphi. Provide correction and praise as needed.]

Write Oracle of Delphi on the board.

MODEL: "New fact, get ready to write. The priestess of Apollo was called Pythia.

When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to tell me the name of the priestess of Apollo. Get ready…now! [Provide correction and praise as needed.]

"When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to tell me who was Pythia. Get ready…now! Provide correction and praise as needed.

Pythia is spelled P-Y-T-H-I-A. [Spell Pythia a second time.]

"When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to spell Pythia. Get ready…now! Provide correction and praise as needed.

[Call on individual students to spell Pythia. Provide correction and praise as needed.]

Write Pythia on the board.

MODEL: "New fact, get ready to write. People from all over Greece
went to the Oracle of Delphi to have Pythia give them predictions about the future.
When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to tell me why people from all over
Greece went to see the Oracle at Delphi. Get ready…now! [Provide correction and praise as needed.]

"When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to tell me what did Pythia do for the people of Greece. Get ready…now! Provide correction and praise as needed.

Call on individual students to state why people from all over Greece went to see the Oracle of Delphi. Provide correction and praise as needed.

MODEL: "New fact, get ready to write. Before the Battle of Thermopylae, Spartan King Leonidas went to the Oracle of Delphi and was told that a Spartan king must die or Sparta would be destroyed.

"When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to tell me the prediction that Pythia gave to Spartan King Leonidas. Get ready…now! [Provide correction and praise as needed.]

[Call on individual students to state the prediction that Pythia gave to Spartan King Leonidas. Provide correction and praise as needed.]

MODEL: "New fact, get ready to write. Because of the prediction that he received from Pythia, Spartan King Leonidas was willing to fight to the death, at the Battle of Thermopylae, to save Sparta from destruction.

"When I give you the signal, I want the whole class to tell me why Spartan King Leonidas was so willing to fight to the death at the Battle of Thermopylae. Get ready…now! [Provide correction and praise as needed.]

[Call on individual students to state why Spartan King Leonidas was so willing to fight to the death at the Battle of Thermopylae. Provide correction and praise as needed.]

GENERALIZATION TO FURTHER LEARNING

A form of the Greek panoply, which consists of the armor and weapons that the Greek hoplite carried into battle, is still used today—body armor, helmet, and rifle.

The basic formation of the Greek phalanx was used for thousands of years and was the basic combat formation during, such wars as, the American Revolution and the American Civil War.

The virtues that lead the Greek hoplites to fight more intensely when fighting for their own homes and lands is still a virtue of fighting men today.

The idea that freedom and liberty is greater that one’s own life is still a virtue of fighting men today.

The defeat of the Greeks, during the Greek-Persian Wars, may have lead to the total destruction of today’s democratic system of government.

============================================================

[THE SCRIPTS, ABOVE, PAY ATTENTION EVEN TO SMALL DETAILS, SUCH AS USING  SIGNALS TO MAKE SURE STUDENTS RESPOND AS A GROUP; AND MAKING SURE THAT STUDENTS KNOW EVERY RELEVANT FACT.  THIS DEGREE OF PRECISION WOULD BECOME LESS OBVIOUS (THOUGH MR. GABBERT WOULD STILL BE AWARE OF EVERY DETAIL), AND STUDENTS WOULD RECEIVE LARGER CHUNKS OF INFORMATION, AS MR. GABBERT AND THE CLASS BEGIN TO WORK TOGETHER FLUENTLY. In other words, Mr. Gabbert will find that his students are learning to hear, write, and remember facts and rules.  Therefore, he does not have to teach and test these one small piece at a time.  But unless he BEGINS with that degree of precision and focus, his students may NOT learn to pay attention and to learn the details.  They will merely sit back and let Mr. Gabbert talk, and MAYBE get a few words.]

History Can be Serious

         

"Go tell the Spartans, thou who passeth by,
That here in obedience to her laws we lie."
 

This stunningly fine post builds on earlier ones, such as this and this and

this and this.  It is an example of how my students will design

instruction--if I ever shut up long enough to teach them.

Here's the strategy.

1.      Using your own knowledge of history, the State standard course of study, your district’s course of study, and texts you are supposed to use, think of the strands of knowledge that you will weave together to help your students to GET and to retell the story.

Timeline of events
Persons
Groups (families, political parties)
Social institutions
Culture (values, beliefs)
Technology
Geography
Big ideas to be gained (lessons, big pictures).

2.      Let’s say that it’s time (along the time strand) in your history course  to teach about the Persian Wars.  You have resources that contain knowledge from the different strands. The resources are your own memory and notes, books and articles, the internet.

a.   Persons: Xerxes, Darius, Leonidas,  Miltiades, Pausanias, Mardonius,  Themistocles

b.   Groups:   Athenians, Spartans, Plataeans, hoplites

c.   Social institutions:  religion, military, tribal, political

d.   Technology:  weapons,  ships

e.   Geography and demography:  mountainous, plains, ocean,   
relative isolation of city states.

f.   Culture:  the role of gods in human affairs, duty, definition of
man, cohesion of city states/tribes and hoplite armies.

g.   Big ideas that guide and conclude instruction: 

      The need for certain virtues (bravery, steadfastness) for weapons to be effective; the roots of these virtues in Greek culture--revealed in poetry, grave markers, plays, speeches.

      The importance of totally defeating an enemy.

The importance of public support and participation.

      The effects of fighting to protect land, family, and culture on the bravery, ferocity, and tenacity of soldiers.

The relevance of these lessons for today’s war with the ideas and world-domination strategy of Islamic jihad.

 3.     Examine these resources. Identify and list what you want students to DO when you are done with the lessons.

         a.   Create a general objective. “Students describe the background, main stages/battles, and outcomes of the Persian Wars, including important persons, groups, technology, cultural  influences, and lessons."

         b.  Create a list of specific THINGS to be learned that are IN the  materials, and relevant to the general objective.

 4.     Arrange the list of THINGS to be learned into a LOGICAL and COHERENT sequence that tells a story.  Logical means that students must know some things before others.

5.      Create DO-objectives for each THING you want students to learn.

        “When given a map of Greece and Persia, and asked to trace the route of the Persian army during the second invasion, students draw a line from Persia west, across the Hellespont, south through Thermopylae..."

            "When asked to describe the panoply of the Greek hoplite, students list armor and weapons (hoplon, spear, cuirass...), describe the main features of each (size, weight, composition), and use in battle."

 

6.      Each objective you work on in the sequence would be a task or exercise  in the lessons.

7.      Now write scripts for exactly HOW you will get the knowledge (relevant to the objectives) across. The kind of script/communication depends on the form of knowledge you are teaching (verbal association, concept, rule, strategy). But the  general format is frame, model, lead, test/check, verification,  presentation of examples/nonexamples, acquisition test on all examples.

===========================================================
Here are resources relevant to steps 1-3. They include expository text, pictures, and maps.

Selections from The Histories, Herodotus.

http://historynet.com/mhq/bldspartans/

http://monolith.dnsalias.org/~marsares/warfare/index.html#greeks

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/PERSIAN.HTM

http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/Mediterranean/PersianWars.html

http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/Mediterranean/Salamis.html

http://history.boisestate.edu/westciv/persian/

http://lilt.ilstu.edu/drjclassics/lectures/history/PersianWars/persianwars.shtm

http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_110/Persian.Wars.html

http://www.metrum.org/perwars/

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_time_persianwars.htm

http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_110/Arch.Greece.html

http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~warfare/Lectures/lect04.html

http://www.classics.und.ac.za/projects/democracy/armour.htm

===========================================================
From these resources, identify "things" students will learn. Each of these is later turned into a specific do-objective.

List of Things to Learn/teach

1.     Whom did the Greeks fight?

2.     How many major land battles were there?

3.     Where was the first land battle?

4.     What was the date of the first land battle?

5.     Who was the Persian king during the first invasion?

6.     What did the Persian king expect to gain from the first invasion?

7.     Was Athens involved in the first battle?

8.     Was Sparta involved in the first invasion? Explain.

9.     What were the approximate numbers of troops on each side?

10.   In what formation did the Greek infantries fight? Explain its operating characteristics and effectiveness.

11.   What were Greek infantry called?

12.   What weapons did the Greek infantryman carry?

13.   What was the Greek shield called?

14.   What are four features of the Greek shield?

15    In addition to infantry, what other fighting forces did the Persians use?

16.   Describe combat methods of the Greeks.

17.   Who won the first major land battle?

18.   How far was the first battle field from Athens?

19.   Did the Persians have a navy involved in the first land battle?

20    What was the date of the second major land battle?

21.   Where was the second land battle?

22.   Who was the Persian king during the second invasion?

23.   What did the Persian king expect to gain from the second invasion?

24.   Was Sparta involved in the second land battle?

25.   Describe the Greek forces in the second land battle.

26.   What is the English translation for the location of the second land battle?

27.   What did the Greeks expect to gain by fighting the Persians at the location of the second land battle?

28.   What was the approximate number of troops on each side?

29.   Did the Greeks accomplish what they came to do in the second land battle?

30.   How were the Greeks defeated in the second land battle?

31.   In brief, what came next after the second land battle?

32.   What rules (as big ideas) are revealed (and can guide future study) in the Greek’s responses to the Persian invasions?

33.   Locate on a map the places of the three main land battles (Marathon, Thermoylae, Plataea) and the main sea battle (Salamis). 

34.   Trace on a map the route taken by the Persian invaders.

35.   Identify on a map the locations of Athens, Sparta, Lydia, Thebes, Plataea,  the Persian Empire, Persepolis.

36.   Describe the forces, tactics, and outcome of the battle at Plataea.

37.   Describe the forces, tactics, and outcome of the battle at Salamis.

38.   State the lessons (rules) about: the need for certain virtues (bravery, steadfastness) for weapons to be effective; the roots of those virtues in Greek culture; the importance of total defeat of an enemy; the necessity of public support and participation; the effects of fighting to protect land, family, and culture on the ferocity and tenacity of soldiers; the relevance of these lessons for today’s war with the ideas and world-domination strategy of Islamic jihad.  [The rules will be carried forward to other historical periods.]

==========================================================================================================

The knowledge items, above, were extracted from the resource materials in the order read.  They are NOT in a logical sequence; e.g., that tells a story.  So, the next task is to group the 38 items above into a logical and easily-graspable sequence of instructional chunks; for example:

1.  Map skills.

2.  History of Greece and Persia leading to the clash.

3.  Comparison of Greek and Persian institutions (political, military, religious), cultural values, and citizenship, and how these prepare soldiers and communities for war.

4.  Comparison of Greek and Persian armor and weapons, battle strategies, and military virtues.

5.  Examination of each of the Persian invasions and the major battles:  Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea.

6.  Lessons of the Persian Wars.

===========================================================================================================

Teachers then transform each item to be taught in each chunk into a concrete DO objective; e.g., locating Marathon on a map, identifying generals at the battle at Marathon, describing features of Spartan culture that produce warrior virtues.

The teacher determines whether the knowledge to be taught is a verbal association (e.g., names, dates); concept (democracy, hoplite, panoply, virtue, phalanx); rule (superior weapons are useless in hoplite combat unless soldiers are brave enough to fight in the enemy's face); and strategies (locating cities on a map; writing a paper that synthesizes materials into a description of a war).

The teacher than writes a script using the communication format proper to the type of knowledge.

For example...

Boys and girls.  New concept.  panoply. [write panoply on the board]

Spell panoply.

Get ready to write the definition of panoply...

A panoply is the set of weapons and armor used by the Greek hoplite.  [hoplite has already been taught.]

I'll say that definition again...A panoply is the set of weapons and armor used by the Greek hoplite.

Everybody, what's the definition of panoply.

Now, get ready to make a list of weapons and armor in the panoply.
Weapons. [Show pictures of each one)
*Sword
*Spear
*Dagger

Armor
*Hoplon
*Cuirass
*Helmet
*Greaves

[Show several examples of each one. Point out essential sameness (e.g., the arm strap on the hoplon, or shield) and irrelevant differences (e.g., the differing images representing their city state that soldiers painted on the front of the hoplon)].

Then have students...
Recite the items in the panoply.
State the essential features (composition and use)

Next post--examples of students' work.

Pigs at the Trough

I came.  I saw.  I ate.

Don "Dan" Hill's post on the banality of evil and/or malevolent stupidïty is nicely and nauseatingly exemplified by the following.  [Give me a minute and I'll hack up some even MORE stilted prose.]

So, Professor Plum's ed school just got a new building.  We're talking Hyatt Regency meets the Ritz Carlton.  We're talking 15 million big ones.  Three-story atrium. Two-story windows.  Three fish ponds and fountains.  Circular staircase with handmade brass rails.  Green Mexican tiles.  Sumptuous offices.

This in a state that cries poor and hasn't given faculty a raise in three years--not that they deserve what they GET.

But the university sees fit to spend 50 grand "installing" the new chancellor.

[I figgered you could install her by clicking on her head and letting the wizard shove her in the hard drive.  My idea of installing a chancellor who is given a free mansion and decides immediately to spend a million remodeling it is "Here's a sandwich.  Now siddown and get to work!"]

My ed school is following in THOSE footsteps.

So, I'm at a dept meeting yesterday. One woman, a fine person, is starting a program to support new teachers.  A nice idea.  She says, "Schools in some counties are so poor teachers have to buy their own supplies.  I gave two teachers 25 dollar gift certificates and they started to weep."

Naturally, my oh-so-empathic colleagues were "aaawww"-ing and "Isn't THAT a shame"-ing.

Then our chairman (a real decent guy who knows what's what) announces that we are having an Open House in February.

"We'll be having 7 or 800 people here from all over the state.  Corporate donors.  Administration from the state university system.  And so on.  Lots of food and music."

Everyone is beaming.  "We must be WONderful."

My leg starts to shake.  I can feel my heart hammering.

So I say, "Uh..."

Everyone looks up and freezes, like one of those salamanders when you step near. 

"No offense," I say, "but something's wrong here.  Jenny just told us how teachers are so poor they have no money for supplies, and they no doubt spend hard earned cash at the dollar store to buy chalk, and here we're gonna spend five hours celebrating ourselves sucking up champagne and chomping through buckets of jumbo shrimp at 12 99 a pound and slabs of brie cheese the size of chariot wheels.  This thing's gonna cost easily 40 bucks a person, for a total of at least 32 grand.  Is there something WRONG with this picture?"

Silence!!!

Then one ass says, "You mean YOU won't be eating any shrimp? Ha Ha."--as though to make me out as a hypocrit.

"No, Professor Moistbottom, I won't eat any shrimp. In fact, I'm not going.  This here gala blow out in self-indulgence is supposed to be some kinda GESTURE.  Here's a gesture.  Take the money and buy supplies for teachers.  Or take the buckets of food to a battered women's shelter and let them and their kids have ONE nice meal."

SILENCE.

This is a case of malevolent stupidity, ain't it?  I swear no one but me and Jenny GOT it--saw the moral contradiction just hanging in mid air. As big and as grotesque as Liza Minelli's smile.      I mean, the juxtaposition of cash poor teachers and OUR affluence couldn't have more clearly revealed the unthinking presumption of (completely undeserved) great value. 

And of course my even mentioning this elicited the anger that one expects from petulant self-absorbed pampered spoiled-brat popinjay beef wits.

Hey, but what do ya expect from people who say "Kids don't need logically clear communication. They learn well enough in messy environments"?  [Reading Recovery guru.]

Maybe it's upbringing.  Professor Plum's Pop (Louie) owned a variety store. Dad  wanted to be a physician but had to forget college and go to work to support his family during the Depression.  I worked at the store on weekends.  Lots of days he'd take in just 40 bucks.  And never said a word.  Me neither.  I didn't want to shame him.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/louis/4.html?sect=16

My Uncle Izzy.  Check Londe, second paragraph.

And, "Busted by Lt. John Doherty, leader of the St. Louis Hoodlum Squad, for speeding in the 4800 block of Natural Bridge. Identified as an associate of Isadore Londe, notorious St. Louis gangster."

Another uncle--Sam--got rich  (I mean rrrriiiiich) in the booze biz during Prohibition.  Afterward he stayed rich with a deft horizontal move--a liquor chain.

My Grandpa--Charlie--the one who looked like Telly Savalas in Kojak--died (age 75) behind the wheel of his red '59 Buick convertible--with "A Bleach Blonde" at his side and a silk suit on his tanned and fit frame.  He, too, was, shall we say, a player.

Dang, half my chromosomes come equipped with little pistols!

Banality of Evil

Banality of Evil (or in some cases Malevolent Stupidity)

THIS GUEST POST (Oh, how formal!) COMES TO ALL OF US BY WAY OF FEARLESS READER DON “Tribe of Dan” “Prophet of Dan” “Dan the River Pirate” HILL.  And may I offer the same opp to others of y'all.  Certainly many of your great comments could be posted up front.  Feel free to expand on what you've sent or write more.

Here's Don, or Dan...

Sometimes a bulb comes on in the head of Dan. While it is sometimes hard to see though the bong residue and Budweiser stains of a misspent youth, it often starts the wheels rolling. Although, I can never be certain where the cart is going, I figure that I should ride anyway.

While I am neck-deep in Eduland (a former teacher, graduate student and in-transition educational administrator), I consider myself, in the academic sense, as a reader of history. I say a reader because no other title seems to fit. In short, I think that I understand a bit of the past and reflect upon it to consider current events.

I believe now that I understand a bit about the condition of Eduland. Not how to fix it, but how it came to be the blinded Cyclopes that it is today. “Nobody has blinded me!!”

This is not an attempt to add anything to the reasons already laid down by the distinguished Plum. He has the concrete evidence. I offer nothing more than an extended analogy that is probably a bit extreme and probably helpful only to myself.

In the Spring of 1946, several of the leading Nazi figures awaited trial at Nurembergfor war crimes.  Amassed in Bad Mondorf Prison were some of the most notorious human beings that the twentieth century had spawned. While villains such as Hitler, Grobbels, Himmler, Bormann and Heydrich had escaped earthly justice by way of cyanide or good old German steel, the roster included several figures that will surely have a wing in Hell named after them. Goering, Raeder, Hess, Frank, Rosenberg, Ribbentrop, Kaltenburnner, Seyss-Inquart et al were murderers on a grand scale. By 1945, they had killed six million European Jews along with millions of others, especially Slavic Europeans. While that alone would be enough, the methodology of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question was sinister beyond scope. The conspiracy ran so deep. There were schedules, 24 hour killing facilities, a whole national bureaucracy dedicated to the extermination of human beings. They had an agenda.

I am sure you have all heard the stories.

Nonetheless, Bad Mondorf was under the jurisdiction of the US Army. The US top brass decided that this was a good opportunity to allow a few psychologists and psychiatrists to explore the minds of these suspected war criminals. The real reason was to overt suicide. Himmler had recently pulled a capsule from his rectum and gone the way of the dodo while in British custody. The only comfort is thinking of him dying with the taste of his own feces on his lips.

Anyway, these headshrinkers interviewed these criminals almost to the hour of their rendezvous with the hangman. Gilbert, an army psychologist, wanted to explain how these people could be capable of such horrific acts. How does one send millions of people to their death? How does one allow children to be starved to death or gassed? All of these men could have stopped it or, at the very least, limited it. Each of these men had the ability to not follow orders. Why did they do it? Emotionally, how did they do it?

Gilbert said that he saw evil, in this respect, as two-fold; the complete lack of empathy for other human beings and the disassociation with the task. To his surprise, Gilbert found that all of these men (with a couple of exceptions) were not psychotic axe murderers. Most had a loving family relationship, happily married, and remembered as good fathers. Yet, these men would leave the happy confines of home each day and do the paperwork (or in the case of Kaltenburnner et al, “hands on” work) that led to the systematic murder of more than SIX MILLION PEOPLE.

“Bye, Honey! I am off to work.”

“Bye, Dear. Are you going to be working late again?”

“Yes, Hon. The damn crematoriums are working at full throttle and we still can’t keep up.”

“You take it easy, dear. Maybe next year you can get transfer to a nicer place like Treblinka.”

Not to trivialize the event, but a monster such as Hoess (who personally came up with the idea of using Zyklon B and, as the commandant of Auschwitz, killed 1.5 million by his own estimates) said that he was merely doing his job to the best of his ability. In the same breath, he would talk about the joys of raising his children.

The one thing that all of these men had in common was that they were “yes” men. They followed popular opinion and general orders without conscience.

Georing, a man of high birth and aristocratic background, would never lower himself to actually murder a person with his hands. Yet, he sat at desks and slaughtered millions with the stroke of his pen. Nonetheless, he was a “yes” man. Hitler wanted it; he did it and never lost a moment of sleep to question morality.

Another example of “desk murderers” can be seen with the CEOs of American tobacco companies. In the late eighties, the seven CEOs of top tobacco stood before Congress under oath and stated that they did not believe that tobacco was addictive. The companies had known that nicotine was highly addictive since the 1930’s and had been working on ways since the 1950’s to make cigarettes more addictive. As one whistleblower said, “We are in the nicotine delivery business.”

I am sure all of these CEOs were good people in ways. They were probably kind and generous. They gave lots to charity and had all kinds of programs and plaques to prove it. Yet, they were “yes” men to the core. The stockholders said they wanted a heap of money and they wanted their interests protected. I use these folks as an example because of their conspiratorial nature. It is a planned operation…schedules, facilities and agendas. The CEOs said “yes.”

Okay, what the hell does Nazi war criminals and big tobaccos have to do the Eduland? I am getting to that…

A wise man once said that there is basically one crime and that is theft. In short, all other crimes are variations of theft. Murder, being one of the most heinous crimes, can be defined as a theft of opportunity. In sum, the victim is denied the opportunity of existence and the rest of society is denied the opportunity to benefit from their existence.

In being a cult of “yes” men, the Nazi regime denied opportunity to millions. They denied opportunities of existence, opportunities of safety and opportunities of freedom. For greed and acceptance by superiors, they carried out these orders without remorse. In other words, their pursuit of approval superceded natural human inclinations concerning right and wrong. The result was the holocaust and a war that ultimately killed 70 million people world wide.

The tobacco CEOs continue to be a party to the death of millions each year. They are denying or stealing freedom and existence through the continued sale of addictive and potentially fatal products. Do you smoke? Is some of your day spent smoking? If so, some of your freedom and opportunity has been stolen. Do they sleep well at night? I wonder…

In Eduland, there is and has been a theft of opportunity. Just as with the Nazis and big tobacco; the organization, methodology and the bureaucracy makes it more sinister.

Maybe I am over the top with this, but hear me out. If a group of people get together and do harmful things, there can only be two assumptions; they know better and are therefore evil and harmful or they do not know better and are therefore stupid and harmful. I refuse to believe that an Eduland school does not know better. Most of the heads are very educated. They read reports and know that 50% or more of minority kids can not read. Yet, they continue to purposely promote a fraudulent method that they know doesn’t work. Greed and lack of empathy….a disconnection with the task…denial of freedoms and opportunities to others. It is systematic. They are “yes” men (and women). They seek profit and approval of peers. They know what they do and that makes it sinister.

One of my favorite quotes from the Nuremberg trials concerns the cross examination of Walter Funk, former head of the Reichesbank. An American prosecutor had asked him about SS deposits from 1942 to 1945. Funk denied that he knew the source where the gold was coming from and said that nothing appeared strange about the transactions as the SS had been making regular deposits since 1933. The American prosecutor looked him square in the face and asked him, “Prior to 1942, how many of your customers deposited their teeth in your bank?” Funk got a life sentence.

Banality means dullness. I guess most of us think of evil as exciting…. Who knew?

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Don/Dan is definitely the Man. When he becomes a principal it won’t take long for his teachers and their kids to realize their good fortune.