Professor Plum's Relentless Rants on Eduquackery

Rod Paige Semper Fi!

So, Rod Paige, the Secy of Education under President Bush, is handing in his resignation.

He struck me as a decent man. 

Heard him speak many times.  Barely hid his contempt for the ed establishment.

I believe he cared deeply for kids and wanted to remove some of the burden of insane "practices" from the backs of teachers.

Mr. Paige reminded me of several black friends I've had over the years. 

Elegant and wise in the ways of African kings. 

Knowing much about suffering and endurance, but burdening neither himself nor his listeners with stories he already knew and which they wouldn't understand. 

Choosing instead to live a life of dignity and work for the good.

Anthropos agathos kai aristos.  Good man, and best, if I got it right.

Some  progressive (establishment) deaducators and their supporters [kakomehkhanos = contriving evil] were ecstatic when they heard the news. 

Thinking that No Child Left Behind and Reading First  (and then math first and science first) would be dead [nekros] with Mr. Paige gone, and they could go back to biz as usual--i.e., piffle and pageantry--with no fear [phobos] of exposure.

Is that a life?  Of cowardice?  [kakia]  Afraid--perhaps because unable--to argue against critics (anti-establishment) who accuse them of destroying the future of our most vulnerable children?  How could they defend themselves.  Can they show that when teachers DON'T teach (but instead "facilitate") poor kids learn a whole lot?   How DO they explain that although kids k-2 may look fine on qualitative whole language "assessments" (which measure guessing and memorization, not reading), they somehow can no longer read in the higher grades?  [Maybe it's ''cause there arent any pictures cues any more.]

Manikins.  [anthrawpion]

Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind,       
In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined       
On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind.
[From Tennyson's The Lotus Eaters]

I wish him well....

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me–
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads–you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
[Tennyson's Ulysses]

Siegfried Engelmann and The audacity to teach your children well

Some of you have written that you are scared that your little ones may be mistaught at school or, at the very least, that they will not learn the amount and at the level they can master.  I STRONGLY recommend the books listed below. 

Yes, they are all by this fellow--Siegfried Engelmann.  Engelmann is a philosopher in a school of education.  The branch of philosophy is logic.  He has figured out (since the mid '60s) how to cut through all the fluff and all the irrelevant communications and activities and get down to communicating facts, concepts, rules, and strategies at increasingly high levels of complexity.  For example, Reading Mastery (which he designed) begins with m says mmm and ends with kids analyzing MacBeth.  By "kids," I mean fith graders.

How is this possible?  Because the entire sequence is a faultless logical argument or logical progression.  Everything needed for the next learning task has already been taught and reviewed. And everything taught and reviewed is used in the next, and later, tasks.  So, no time is spent RE-teaching week after week, and no time is spent learning what you don't need.

Is it rote learning?  NOOOO!  All knowledge systems begin with rote learning.  This symbol    4  does not TELL you that it signifies and symbolizes ////  Someone has to say  This (4) means ////.

Once the needed rote learning (e.g., meaning of symbols) has occurred, you can then USE the symbols to communicate much more complex concepts, rules, and strategies.

Engelmann figured out that the acquisition of knowledge is nothing but induction, and that application of knowledge is nothing but deduction.  [And I transmitted that to you in an earlier post.]  He then found that there is a simple communication format for teaching each kind of COGNITIVE knowledge--

1. Facts.  Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Boston is the capital of Massachusetts,  There are five phases of cell division....

2. Concepts. red, color, democracy, political oprganization.

3. Rules. Exploitation fosters opposition.  When the sum is greater than 9, carry....

4. Strategies.  The routine for analyzing a poem, writing a paper, developing a model that summarizes different kinds of wars.

I gave an example of this in an earlier post.

So, if a teacher uses the correct format, he or she can be sure that communication will be as clear and therefore as effective and efficient as you can get it.

And that is how Zig Engelmann and his colleagues develop all those Direct Instruction progams--which are field tested for YEARS before they are sold. 

Engelmann once told me that he worked five years on a program called Reasoning and Writing--I think that was the one.  The teachers who tested it told him it had logical flaws.  "So," he said, "I burned it in the backyard and started over."

I asked him how he creates a program (that could have 300 lessons).  He said that he starts at the end (what are students supposed to be able to do when they are done?) and works backwards.

Let's be honest, unlike the ordinary ed perfesser, eduguru, and fly-by-night edubook writer (who come off badly--brainwise--when put up against a chicken) Engelmann and his colleagues are geniuses--which means they work REAL hard for a loooooong time.

They say you can't be a prophet in your own country.  Well, that's true here.  Engelmann (and DI in general) has been shunned by the progressive ed establishment all these decades.  Why?  BECAUSE DI WORKS!!  It works so well that it becomes clear that any other form of instruction (less logical) DAMAGES kids.  So, to save themselves (because junk is what they sell) they have to demonize DI and hide the data showing how well it works.  How do you spell f r a u d?

[You can thank George W. Bush and Rod Paige for emphasizing systematic and explicit instruction in reading, and next math--because DI is THE EXEMPLAR of that.]

I'm not saying that DI is the only way to teach, and I have NO financial interest in the publisher (SRA/McGraw-Hill), but if you want instruction that has these features--clear, effective, efficient, high level--then DI would be your best bet.

 

Engelmann's bio 

Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.

Preventing failure in the primary grades

Give your child a superior mind

If your kids are struggling to read k-3, then use 100 Easy Lessons.  [In fact, teach them to read before they get to school!!] If your kids are older (grade 3 to adult) DEMAND that your school use Corrective Reading. 

You can be sure that your kid is not alone.  It should be a schoowide endeavor.  [I can explain if you want.]

If you get the three above books, you will know just how much your kids CAN learn and just exactly how they SHOULD  be taught.  And you will be able to teach them.

In planning any operation, it is vital to remember, and constantly repeat to oneself, two things: "In war nothing is impossible, provided you use audacity," and "Do not take counsel of your fears." [George S. Patton, Jr. War as I knew it, 1947.]

In Possession of the Highest Freedom

Whatever aspect of our life we may choose to consider, we find ourselves outwardly conditioned from the first breath to the last. Despite this, however, we are in possession of the highest freedom--that of developing our inward selves in such a way as to make our lives harmonize with the moral world order. [Goethe. Wisdom and experience]

Professor Plum had an incredible week in class.  The first half of the semester I teach the basics and check to ensure that students get it.  The second half is application. “Okay, teach!”

Being a sharing and caring fellow (albeit known as “That bastard” by progressive deaduction colleagues) I figgered you’d like to know what IS possible—if you remove all fluff and focus ONLY on the logic of communicating clearly.

I teach a course on instructional design.  One of the first courses ed students take.  I begin by telling them that I and two other colleagues are the ONLY ones who’ll teach them anything useful and true, and (since they’ll not have those two wise and good colleagues), I am IT. 

They shift in their seats.   

“Is he arrogant, or what?”

“Yeah, and look at the eyes.  Piercing, in a psychotic kind of way.”

“No,” I continue.  “I’m not arrogant.  Arrogant means taking on characteristics that aren’t yours.  It’s other people—I won’t name names (I turn my head to the hallway)--who are arrogant.  They act as if they have brains, when (in point of fact) their cranial spaces are emptiness and void.  So listen, dear hearts, I’m going to teach you exactly how to teach. 

“You have two and only two choices:

1. You can do what the other perfessers will tell you (which is 99.9 percent hooey), and live a wasted life.  Or, in stark contrast

2. You can do what I tell you, and be a blessing to your students."

This way of speaking keeps their interest.

“Gee, he’s nuts! What’ll he do next?”  [all an act.]

They like this treatment.  They also learn how to teach. 

So, here’s what happened. I had given them maps and selections on the Persian Wars.  Around 490-480 BC.  I showed them how to design instruction so that even fifth graders would learn complicated material, and would get Big Ideas, such as “Superior weapons (as the Greeks had) are worthless unless you have certain military virtues, such as willingness to die for country and comrades.”  Fifth graders would also get that the willing sacrifice made by 300 Spartans, who held off 200,000 Persians at Thermopylae, is why we are not serving the Great King now, and instead live in a democratic society.  [Kind of relevant today?]

So, Wednesday, a class full of young adults—whom so many believe are at the bottom of the university hierarchy of intelligence--had indeed designed instruction right down to the scripts they would use—and they delivered excellent instruction with poise and confidence—logically faultless instruction--to their classmates. 

I could hardly believe it.  They were so good my throat started closing up.  I wanted to hug them—despite their heinous haberdashery.  I mean, are those shorts.  Are they pants?  What?

A Marine vet is in the class—25 years.  He’s done it all.  And this day two more Marines visited the class.  When the students presented the Big Idea that the 300 Spartans were the Greek version of U.S. Marines, and that those Spartans GAVE us the democracy we live in, and that we owe them a debt that is 2500 years old--and with THAT message delivered by little blond southern “girls” whom you’d have thought had nothing in their heads but boys and clothes--I tell you those battle hardened Marines choked up, too.  They had to look away.

What’s the moral?  I’m not sure.  But I’ll tell you one thing.  If you hear anyone trashing our young people, and saying that ed students are dummies who only major in education because it’s easy, you just let me know.  I’d be happy to send those Marines to straighten them out, boy howdy.

These students don’t deserve the slop they are taught.  Ed school is far BENEATH these decent and bright people.  Wish I were a lawyer.  Hey, John Edwards isn’t busy right now!

Prometheus Was a Woman

I’m blessed with two or three heroes in my graduate classes every semester.  They don’t know they're heroes, and if I told them so they’d blush from top knot to shoe sole.  If southern, they’d say, “Aw, shuuucks. Ah ayum nawt.”

Missy (not her real name, but she looks like she could be a Missy) is a southern girl from the sticks.  Thin. Purty.  Intense.  A smile so wide you can see ALL her teeth.  About 27 years old with a boy almost four.   

She’s seen rural poverty up close, and she doesn’t fool easy.  She’s teaching first grade in the school SHE went to.  Those kids are her kids.

Let’s watch as the crows eat her liver.

Missy don’ bah them treacly slogans and goofy progressive “practices.”  She knows you must teach kids every one of the reading skills. 

“Hey,  they ain’t gonna jist pick ‘em uuup.  Whah thayet’s curaazy.”

The third week Missy comes to class (6:30 to 9:15 PM after an hour drive) all flushed and shaky. 

“What’s up?”

“The materials I have to use are really pathetic.  I’m wore out.  I’m up half the night preparing lessons.  And I have to work weekends to get ready.”

“You shouldn’t have to prepare lessons.  The materials should be scripted so you can spend your time teaching.”

“Yeah, you’d think so, but they’re not.  An’ I’m just all confused.  Look at this!!  What am I supposed to do?”

The whole class (around the table) looks at the materials.  I’ve already taught them what a good curriculum should look like and which ones are the best designed.   Every page is so full of colors and boxes and arrows and borders and pictures that when you open the teacher’s presentation book demented clowns leap out and start screaming.  If you had a seizure disorder, this curriculum would set you off, Boy Howdy!

There are a dozen activities on every page for the teacher to do with the kids, but no instructions on how many you should do, and with whom, the order to do them or exactly what the teacher is supposed to say.

You’d expect that at 50,000 bucks for the whole school, the curriculum developers could at least tell you how to use their materials.

So we tell her to stash those materials and find something else. I go to my office and get a Reading Mastery Level I kit. 

“Here, use this kit.  Give all the kids the placement test and put them in groups of about eight.  Lessons take maybe 30 minutes.  You and your aide do the groups.  You take the lowest.”

[The course is all about using Direct Instruction to teach reading, and Reading Mastery is one of the best—maybe THE best—there is.  We spend the next two meetings learning to use Reading Mastery.]

Every week, Missy comes in and reports on progress—her own as a teacher and her kids as readers.

“You should jist see theyum a readin’!  And they luuuve it.  They’re sooo proud of theyemmselves.”  [Yes, she talks that way.  I think it’s lovely.]

Two months later Missy comes in near tears.

“They’re all talkin’ mean to me.  They say I’m not really teaching my kids to read.”

“Who’s saying that?”

“The kindergarten, first, and second grade teachers.  They’re still using whole language…”

“Well, that’s why the kids couldn’t read when they came to you!”

“I know that now!  I tested all my kids again and they ARE reading.  They know the sounds.  They sound out words.  And they are becoming fluent with their little story books.  But the other teachers gang up on me and try to get me to do it their way.”

“Like how?”

“I’m supposed to have the kids memorize 100 words by Christmas.  They call THAT reading.  That’s not reading!  They say my kids are going to fail the k-3 assessment test.”

“How can they possibly fail it?  They can READ!”

“Because it’s a whole language assessment.  They don’t have to sound out words.  You point to words from the list that they are supposed to have memorized.”

[Years ago, whole languagists infested the state department of public instruction and created an assessment instrument that made it look as if the kids taught with whole language could read—because they defined memorization as reading.  Missy, who IS teaching her kids to read, will appear to be incompetent even though her kids CAN read but haven’t memorized the word list.  Missy is caught in a nightmare written by Kafka and directed by Orwell.]

Missy, tough little squirt, refuses to use whole language and insists on continuing systematic and explicit instruction with Reading Mastery.  The other teachers now talk behind her back.  They pass her in the halls and don’t say “Hey!”  Some of them—in fits of histrionics—come crying to her that SHE is ruining her students.  And the principal,  instead of supporting Missy (whose skills and good heart in the long run will make HIM look good when HER kids pass the serious state reading test at the end of grade three), threatens her with insubordination if she doesn't stop using Reading Mastery.

Last time Missy was in class she was feeling much better.

“I’m on Paxil now.  I was having anxiety spells over the fall break.  Thought I was going crazy.  Thought I was going to die.  I was afraid to go out.”

These are the Voices Three,
That speak of endless endeavor,
Speak of endurance and strength,
Triumph and fulness of fame,
Sounding about the world,
An inspiration forever,
Stirring the hearts of men,
Shaping their end and their aim.

In the same poem, Prometheus says, 
“Whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad.” 
(Longfellow. The Masque of Pandora.  VI. In the Garden)

But it's not the Gods making Missy crazy.  It's the hollow men.

Prometheus was a woman.

Got any advice for Missy?