| How do parents find a good school? Not only are | | | | All of these stand in direct contrast to direct instruction, |
| public schools crippled by dozens of bad ideas, but the | | | | whereby expert teachers teach what they know |
| schools seem intentionally designed so that parents | | | | better than anyone else in the room. "A sage on a |
| cannot understand what's really going on inside the | | | | stage" is exactly what children need. Constructivism |
| classrooms. Probably it's more practical to stay alert | | | | devalues the skill and preparation that good teachers |
| for the danger signs that can be observed from a | | | | bring to the schoolroom; and helps to conceal the poor |
| distance. Here's a checklist of the top eight signals that | | | | training of bad teachers. Constructivism guarantees |
| you don't want your child in this school: | | | | that instruction will move slowly and be fragmented. |
| 1) READING: The most important skill is reading. If you | | | | 6) FADS RUN RAMPANT: Other popular fads to be |
| hear any mention of Whole Words, Sight Words, Dolch | | | | avoided include: Self Esteem (where children are |
| Words, Fry Words, or Balanced Literacy, run the other | | | | constantly praised and awarded good grades even if |
| way. English is in alphabetic/phonetic language, and | | | | doing a bad job); Cooperative Learning (where children |
| should be taught phonetically. Children must | | | | are constantly forced to work in groups so they never |
| immediately learn the alphabet, and that letters stand | | | | learn to think for themselves); Critical Thinking (where |
| for sounds. (There seem to be five or 10 good phonics | | | | children are encouraged to engage in deep discussions |
| programs available. I'm not convinced the small | | | | of subjects they know little about); Creativity |
| differences matter. What's been killing us is this one big | | | | Curriculum (where playing with the arts is given |
| difference: teaching basic alphabetic information or | | | | prominence over learning knowledge); and Fuzzy |
| NOT teaching it. Any synthetic phonics program, mixed | | | | Anything (where children are allowed to guess, to |
| with poetry, song, and a light touch, seems to do the | | | | concoct odd spellings and odd grammar without |
| trick. Advocates of phonics report that virtually all their | | | | correction, to be wrong but still be graded as if |
| students learn to read by age 7. Advocates of Whole | | | | correct). All of these are warning signs. |
| Word say children should memorize a few hundred | | | | 7) GOALS: Perhaps the most distinctive trait of good |
| words each year, in which case they'll be effectively | | | | schools is that they talk about what will be taught and |
| illiterate through high school.) | | | | what will be accomplished. There are goals and |
| 2) MATH: The next most important thing is arithmetic. If | | | | expectations. There is a sense that the school has a |
| you hear any mention of Reform Math, run the other | | | | map and has traveled the road many times before. |
| way. (Reform Math is an umbrella term for at least 10 | | | | Bad schools are distinguished by an endless litany of |
| different programs, with names such as Everyday | | | | excuses and alibis. There is a sense that these |
| Math, Connected Math, MathLand, TERC, CPM, etc.) | | | | schools don't have clear goals, and they don't really |
| These programs tend to push advanced concepts at | | | | expect to advance very far. In bad schools, a lot of |
| children who don't even know how to add 10 and 16. | | | | what happens is actually a sort of make-believe |
| These programs like to use obscure methods and | | | | whereby children are kept busy doing pretend-work |
| algorithms so that children end up confused and | | | | that doesn't add up to very much. Perhaps the most |
| scattered. The proper goal is that children gain | | | | disgusting part of the whole charade is that some of |
| mastery of basic arithmetic, for example, easily adding | | | | these schools will pretend that they are being |
| and subtracting one- and two-digit numbers. Then they | | | | considerate of the children, that they don't want to |
| move on to multiplying and dividing one- and two-digit | | | | push them too far, and they don't want to expose the |
| numbers. There should be no use of calculators, no | | | | inadequacies of poor and minority children. All of this, it |
| "spiraling" about from topic to topic, no mention of | | | | seems to me, is the merest drivel, not to mention racist. |
| college-level concepts. | | | | Children need to be challenged and pushed, not to the |
| 3) KNOWLEDGE: The next most important thing is | | | | point where they give up but to the point where they |
| that children are routinely expected to acquire | | | | think, "Wow, look at me go." |
| knowledge. This used to be ordinary; but for 75 years | | | | 8) SAFETY: A signal that cuts across all the others |
| our educators have waged war against content, facts, | | | | might be called basic orderliness and security. Schools |
| and memorization. "They can look it up" is a huge | | | | should be safe places, both law-abiding and predictable. |
| danger signal. To study history, for example, requires | | | | The point is that children should be able to relax so |
| that children first learn the names of oceans, | | | | they can learn. A scary school ceases to be a school. |
| continents, rivers, mountains, and countries. Basic | | | | The Principal (comparable to a small town's Mayor and |
| geography should be a staple throughout the first few | | | | Sheriff) is a crucial figure in this paradigm: he or she |
| years; there should be maps in every classroom, both | | | | sets the tone. Principals explain goals and policies to |
| of the US and the world. In general, in all subjects, | | | | students and parents; principals motivate and support |
| children should first be taught the very simplest | | | | teachers. (This might be called the Principal Principle.) |
| information, the essentials, the foundational knowledge, | | | | Summary: The Tao of Education is very simple. |
| all in preparation for studying the subject at a higher | | | | Learning basics and academics is the goal, and the |
| level. If children do not learn the names of the oceans | | | | path to that goal. Facts and knowledge are the |
| in the first grade, they are not at a school but a | | | | lifeblood of the classroom. Teaching should be as |
| babysitting service. | | | | creative as possible; schools should be fun and student |
| 4) SCIENCE: Children should be taught, from the start, | | | | should smile a lot. But the whole process has to go |
| the rudiments of science and scientific thinking. For | | | | somewhere, has to advance. At the end of each day, |
| example, children can look at common objects and | | | | students know more than they did the day before. |
| say whether they are animal, vegetable or mineral. | | | | The problem with American education is that elite |
| Children should be able to talk about water changing | | | | educators shifted away from knowledge-based |
| from solid to liquid to steam. Older children should be | | | | education (a/k/a cognitive learning) toward |
| able to discuss the different kinds of problems dealt | | | | feeling-based education (a/k/a affective learning). |
| with by doctors, chemists, biologists, physicists, | | | | A lot of psychotherapeutic prejudices were mixed in |
| mathematicians, etc. Studying simple maps, diagrams, | | | | with a contempt for facts and a disregard of |
| charts, illustrations and blueprints is a good sign. (Put it | | | | foundational knowledge, including even literacy. The |
| another way, I can't imagine that a bad school would | | | | result, as one would expect, would be a very |
| think of teaching children to understand simple | | | | dumbed-down, mediocre school, such you might find in |
| diagrams in first grade.) | | | | any American city. The solution is to ignore the bad |
| 5) CONSTRUCTIVISM: One of the big fads raging in | | | | ideas that caused the trouble, turn away from the |
| some public schools is called constructivism. (It can turn | | | | touchy-feely cliches, and seriously try to render service |
| up in the teaching of any subject.) The giveaways are | | | | to students by giving them the best possible |
| phrases such as "construct new knowledge," "guide at | | | | preparation for the rest of their lives. |
| their side," "prior knowledge," "learning strategies," etc. | | | | |