Things Fall Apart. Part 2

Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. The power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing….Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. …Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals [Alexis de Tocqueville. From Democracy in

America, Volume II. 1840]

 

In our last shipment, we tried to answer the question, How come schools so often do such a poor job? Isn't a trillion bucks and a hundred years enough?

One reason, we decided, is that, unlike serious professions, education has NO shared and strong knowledge base that says, "Teach like this, not (for the love of G-d!) like that."  That knowledge IS there; always has been.  But the field refuses to weaken its hold, and its opportunities for ever-increasing daffy innovations, by subordinating itself to an external power--facts and reason.

The absence of an uncontrovertible knowledge base frees the egos of deaducators to think and do what they will to kids stuck in schools six hours a day, 180 days a year.  At the same time, the progressivist ed establishment hides its real motives--control and self-aggrandizement--behind nauseating slogans that members never tire of chanting.

"We are the champions of social justice."  [Oh, put a sock in it, will ya?]

"We are the stewards of America's children." [Who asked you?]

Well, you know what all the nibs say about a lie that's repeated often enough. 

In this, our second and final shipment, we'll discuss three more reasons why schools can't seem to do what millions of homeschooling families and many private and charter schools do every day--often better, far cheaper, and without school yard bullies, assinine time-filling assignments, and daily soul-destroying humiliations.

Bogus innovations (fads, fraud, and folly) disguised as ''best practices''
Instruction in most subjects could be routine.  We’ve known for 2000 years how to teach reading, math, rhetoric, science, history, writing, art, and other subjects. Most kids (with and without disabilities) can be taught these subjects—if instruction is well designed.  In fact, knowledge of exactly how to teach these subjects could easily be put (and has been put) in a cheap and easy to use form, such as commercial curricula, on-line programs, and CDs. 

SRA/McGraw-Hill.  Direct Instruction.
Saxon Math.
Singapore Math.
Curriculum Associates.
Sopris West.
Funnix.com
Headsprout.com
Yoyager Literacy

...to name a few.

But there’s a powerful incentive in education not to package or use effective instruction—although this would increase teachers' effectiveness and benefit students.  Instead, there’s an incentive continually to revolutionize pedagogy (theory) and technique.   Packaging and using effective and inexpensive curricula would put the battalions of sleazy education consultants, half-witted doctrinaire education perfessers, self-appointed social revolutionaries (who forget that CHE IS DEAD!), and demented gurus...out of business.   

Absence of Contract, Contact, and Accountability
In medicine, law, and business, clients contract with service providers; generally have direct contact with providers; and can hold providers accountable for not delivering the contracted outcomes or for violating professional standards.  But in edland, the innovators (e.g., professors, workshop promoters, publishers) have no contract with students, families, and nation (the consumers).  They rarely interact with anyone harmed by their innovations.  They receive no corrective consequences for "products" that don’t work and that damage kids. 

When farmers screw up, they starve. When public schools and ed schools screw up, they get a million dollar grant. 

It took me a long time, but finally I see how the game is played. 

Ed schools and their supporters (such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, the National Association for Teachers of English, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, the National Education Association) regard your children and our schools as THEIRS—theirs to play with, theirs to muck around with, theirs to experiment on. They call this Professional Development Systems--in which school districts actually sign a CONTRACT allowing ed schools to infest districts with the newest “hot ideas—and then everyone celebrates the “exciting collaboration."

Or they call it “action research”—in which education professors and grad students “try something” in a school. [What if the “something” bombs? Well, sorry, the “project” is over. “See ya next time we think of something interesting!”]  Till then, they will have published some tenure-conferring articles. And, most satisfying, they will have made the news.

               The Evening News With Dan Blather

“Professors at the Dipsy Doodle School of Education believe they have made a breakthrough in literacy education. Working closely with teachers at I. B. Gullible Elementary School, the good professors have done away with systematic instruction in grammar." [Camera pans to an obvious idiot who says]  "All that emphasis on proper grammar stifles children’s creativity. Language is a living, breathing thing. There is no need for stodgy rules or for drill in clear communication. So, at the

Gullible Elementary School, we will be doing away with grammar altogether! Speak and write any way you want. That’s the ticket!"

[Pan back to Dan.  (Clever rhyme scheme--a a)]
"So, there you have it.  It's a brave new world that has such people in't--or in it, as the case may be."

In a year or two, when their kids come home speaking as if they just had a stroke, parents will wonder—too late—what happened. But by then the perfessers and gurus will be onto another hot idea. 

"How about having kids lay on the floor and twist themselves into the shapes of the letters?  We could call it 'orthopedic phonics'.   Of course,  w  will be pretty tough, but kids with scoliosis can probably do it!"

[You think I'm kiddin', don't ya?  I mentioned this to some colleagues at a faculty meeting.  I was JOking.  They took me seriously!  "Hmm, has possibilities.  Surely they will learn the shapes if their whole body is involved."  I tell you, they are CRAZY!]

Why do districts and schools go for this--obvious--exploitation?  Simple.  No knowledge base!  They don't KNOW ahead of time what is likely to be beneficial and what is likely to be a horror.  AND, they see ed perfessers as much smarter than they are.  So, they show deference. 

"Oh, certainly.  Come on in.  Our classrooms are yours!" 
[Why not put a brown recluse spider in your shorts, too?!]

In summary, there can be no compelling sense of moral responsibility where self-importance and arrogance are bred by egoism, where no adverse consequences follow fraud and folly, and where there is no external, professional code similar to the Hippocratic oath in medicine.

Neither is there a “Guido’s Oath” as in the construction trades. “You sell me damaged goods, me and Nunzio here gonna break your legs.”

Education Schools as the Primordial Soup of Fad, Folly, and Fraud 
Schools of education are for the most part the source of pernicious innovations.  They are the carriers of the progressivist doctrine.  They induct new teachers and administrators into the progressivist thought world, and thereby ensure that another generation is prepared to injure kids with progressivist innovations. 

For example, ed school teacher training rests on progressivist (constructivist, child centered, developmentally appropriate) shibboleths concerning how children learn and therefore how children should and should not be taught: drill and kill; be a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage; teachers should facilitate but not directly teach; students should construct knowledge; don’t correct spelling errors.  These are repeated in course after course, book after book, and exam after exam in education schools.

Ed schools do not (in fact, they DARE not) teach students the logic of scientific reasoning—especially how to assess the validity of an education professor's or writer's argument and the credibility of conclusions.  Nor do ed schools commonly have students read original works (to see if in fact Piaget said what is claimed for him), to read original research articles, meta-analyses, and other literature reviews.  The result is that ed students don’t have the skill to determine the validity of the progressivist propositions and curricula they are taught; they must rely on what their professors tell them to believe.

Finally, ed schools are remarkable in their intellectual poverty, or cognitive squalor (patent pending). Ed professors rarely read anything but what they already believe; they ignore research that absolutely demolishes their child-centered, constructivist delusions; and they mount bumbling arguments against research that challenges what they teach.  And of course, ed faculty only hire persons who are educationally correct—who believe the same doctrine as the committee that hires them, and therefore won't upset existing relations of power or challenge anyone to desist with the mooing and try thinking.

As long as there's only one game in town, that's the game you play if you have to play.  If there is only one place for kids to be educated, and one place for eager students to become teachers, then whoever controls these places controls the market.  It is therefore in the best interest of our kids and our nation to support charter schools (but still hold them accountable for achievement), private schools, homeschooling, and vouchers, as well as alternative forms of teacher training and certification.

see  www.abcte.org

 

Comments

[silvermine]

I'm not sure whether to clap or cry. I've been visiting your site often... I have always been interested in education, but had no idea where to start (besides the ed schools which I already dismissed as idiots). Anyway, I've been trying to educate myself about it more, since my son was born. He's 19 months now, and I have only a few years to figure out how on earth a smart little boy in silicon valley can get a decent and non-harmful education. :P

I'm not very optimistic right now... But hopefully I'll have the tools to evaulate schools better thanks to your site.