I was on the way here, and thinking again about John Taylor Gatto’s “Dumbing Us Down” in combination with the inane statement “No Child Left Behind” (where are they going?  Who is leading?  What’s behind and what’s ahead?), and so forth, as I myself continue UNDOING the devastation of “success” in the U.S. Public Education system and reflecting on the valuable lessons I learned outside it, and trying to also spring my children, when able to. 

The local Libertarians (“LewRockwell.com”) had a neatly summarized article, fronting Mr. Gatto’s books, and adding (probably unconsciously) some subliminal comments blaming absent fathers, and a photo targeting our current President.  One of many reasons I don’t identify STRICTLY with the so-called “libertarians” (liberty for WHOm?).  MOre on that later.

Anyhow, the phone rang, the internet froze, then shut down, and another search found this article, this time BY Gatto, on Schooling.

I think in light of the $150million/year of taxes being spent, supposedly, to promote Marriage, Fatherhood, and mandate parenting classes on adolescent and above-level people (including some that ought to know how to behave by now) (if the educational system failed the FIRST time round, why should “WE, the people” pay them again to use the same approach — and it IS a similar approach, carrot & stick and patronizing — to teach kids they removed from homes (in support of a jobs base) to learn in herds, and then failing to excel in that environment, by and large?

What they don’t realize is that teaching and learning ARE about relationships.  They are NOT values-neutral, and it is virtually impossible to extract (OR “inject”) religion into a situation without assigning it a value called “peripheral” or “Relative.”  It’s a recipe for war among parents…

Plenty of other things, it seems, ARE getting injected around school grounds, or imbibed, and peripheral activities sometimes make the headlines.

THE relationship, primary, being taught in schools, this guy (Gatto) at least identified about 20 years ago, at least, and he is not the only one.

The Kansas City School District, one of the largest urban areas, is reversing the age-segregation into ability groupings, i.e., going AGAINST the trend of lockstep (goosestepping) education. 

I know I seem to be rambling here but the destination is clear — there’s a relationship between Dumb and in Debt, and the way to keep most people there is to keep them illiterate of what some of the “litterati” are doing.

And the way to smarten up is to Detach.

(it’s the manner, I’ll get around to the point eventually, for the more persistent readers…  After all, don’t some famous rivers do the same thing?  It adds to their beauty…  Enjoy the ride..)

So here’s Gatto on Against School.

which appeared in the September 2003 issue.

. . .

We have, for example, the great H. L. Mencken, who wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not

I HOPE I JUST GOT YOUR ATTENTION ENOUGH TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE!

If the principles of an endeavor are understood, and they can be practiced, most kids (trust me) can “get it.”  This has been repeatedly proved in different circumstances.  Here’s another reference to how FAST kids can learn when not boxed up, sorted like fruit, dumbed down, labeled, and sent off the manufacturing line to their womb-to-tomb assigned place in life.

John Mighton, JUMP Math’s founder, wrote The Myth of Ability: Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every Child in 2003.  It explores his work and teaching approach, as well as the development of the JUMP Math program.

http://jumpmath.org/about

Math is a numeracy program started in 1998 by mathematician, author and award-winning playwright John Mighton. We are a federally registered charitable organization based in Toronto, Canada. 

JUMP Math believes that all children can be led to think mathematically, and that with even a modest amount of attention every child will flourish. By demonstrating that even children who are failing math or who are labeled as slow learners can excel at math, we hope to dispel the myths that currently prevail. We offer educators and parents complete and balanced materials as well as training to help them reach all students

JUMP stands for “Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies.”

There are several core beliefs at the foundation of the JUMP Math philosophy:

• New intellectual abilities can emerge suddenly in even the most challenged student from a series of small advances, just as a chemical solution can change colour with the addition of a single drop of reagent. More than any other subject, math is a tool for adding, in a methodical and effective way, the drops of knowledge that will transform a student.
• This non-linear potential can only be nurtured if students are confident and attentive.  Teachers must pay attention to the psychology of the classroom to make sure that everyone is included, involved and participating, and supported with responsive instruction, praise and encouragement.  Children who don’t believe they can succeed will never do so. The JUMP program starts with a confidence building exercise that has demonstrably changed children’s perceptions of their abilities. 
• By adopting the methods and principles of JUMP, schools can teach mathematics to a higher standard, without leaving students behind, and in a cost-effective manner.
• There will always be differences between students, but we don’t need to exaggerate or highlight them by setting up unnecessary hierarchies.  By using materials and methods that minimize differences, teachers can cover more of the curriculum and can narrow or close the wide gap in student performance that exists in most classrooms.
• Teachers will only succeed in helping all levels of student when they know how to determine what their students know, how to reduce concepts into the most basic elements of perception and understanding, and how to extend ideas in a way that is engaging while taking into account the student’s readiness to move forward.

Here’s another book I recommend (and have read) — the site is the review, not the book:

Uncovering the “Secrets” of High Poverty, High Success Schools

There is no question that economic deprivation clearly has an adverse impact on student achievement, as the effects of poverty, poor housing, inadequate medical care and many other factors are reflected in lower achievement by poor students.Nevertheless case studies of successful high poverty schools demonstrate time and again that effective teaching and leadership also have a profound and positive impact on student learning.  The “secrets” of these successful schools are never to be found in proprietary programs (Haycock, 1999).  Rather, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests the consistent themes that emerge repeatedly.  These themes come down to teaching and leadership variables that cannot be sold by vendors nor purchased by schools.  ** They can, however, be practiced and implemented by committed leaders.  This article summarizes some of these key ideas.

So HOW, and WHY, was the American public either so stressed, so frightened, or so hoodwinked into believing that these things COULD be sold? 

The Feds are CONSTANTLY reforming the schools, and demanding more blood ($$) from people who can’t afford it to experiment:  We “promise” we’ll make it better this time (quack, quack, quack….  If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, perhaps you’d better “duck.”)

Here’s $20 million for Columbus Ohio:

Feds award $20 million to reform 7 city schools

Saturday, June 19, 2010  02:50 AM

By Jennifer Smith Richards

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH 

Seven troubled schools in Columbus will get an academic makeover this summer using more than $20 million in federal money.Some will adopt new pay-for-performance plans for teachers or shrink class sizes. Some will open twilight and Saturday programs for students who need different school hours. Most will hire coaches and specialists to help teachers improve and consultants to help make community connections.All will work tirelessly to turn the schools around, said Superintendent Gene Harris.”We will be rolling out things this fall that we haven’t done before,” she said. “We’ll be providing support for schools that we haven’t provided as effectively as we think we need to. We’ll be extending the day in ways we haven’t been able to do before.”Eleven school districts and three charter schools statewide were awarded part of a federal school improvement grant worth $95 million that was announced yesterday. More than 200 had applied. Locally, awards will go toward reform initiatives in 42 schools total and are split over the next three school years.

 To win the grant, schools had to pick one of four reform methods: replace the principal and at least half the staff, close the school and reopen it as a charter school, close the school and send students to a better one, or “transform” the school by training teachers, involving the community and studying student data.

$20 million is what Jayce Dugard and her daughters (California) were awarded for a screwup of what were probably public school graduates Phillip & Nancy Garrido.  $20 Million to reform schools, $20 million to settle a lost childhood (and cover further exposure of screwups on the part of those who were supposedly monitoring a convicted rapist and convicted kidnapper…), and a paltry — was it $150 million?  To start over and try to teach us how to be better parents.

Is that REALLY what all those funds are for?

 REALLY?

FIXING SCHOOLS IN KANSAS CITY

Here’s KANSAS CITY’s version of the same idea:

Forget grade levels, KC schools try something new

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Forget about students spending one year in each grade, with the entire class learning the same skills at the same time. Districts from Alaska to Maine are taking a different route.

Instead of simply moving kids from one grade to the next as they get older, schools are grouping students by ability. Once they master a subject, they move up a level. This practice has been around for decades, but was generally used on a smaller scale, in individual grades, subjects or schools.

{{NO, actually, this practice has been around for centuries, if not longer.  It predates the school system we now think of as “ours” but which is only “ours” as to who is paying for it.  Rather than actually admit that the model failed, and we are going back to someone else’s model, this is introduced as “new and improved.”  Well, if I knock you down to the ground, and give you a hand(out) HALFWAY back up, I suppose that could be called “improved” but not in any “net” sense of the word. …  A whole lot of context and history is missing.}}

Now, in the latest effort to transform the bedraggled Kansas City, Mo. schools, the district is about to become what reform experts say is the largest one to try the approach. Starting this fall officials will begin switching 17,000 students to the new system to turnaround trailing schools and increase abysmal tests scores.

“The current system of public education in this country is not working” said Superintendent John Covington. “It’s an outdated, industrial, agrarian kind of model that lends itself to still allowing students to progress through school based on the amount of time they sit in a chair rather than whether or not they have truly mastered the competencies and skills.”

{{My kids could’ve told him this, by observation, before they were 10, probably… He is admitting the obvious, now that it’s obvious}}

Here’s how the reform works:

Students—often of varying ages—work at their own pace, meeting with teachers to decide what part of the curriculum to tackle. Teachers still instruct students as a group if it’s needed, but often students are working individually

This is the philosophy, at least one of them, behind homeschooling.  But if PARENTS do and fund it, they are right-wing religious idiots who JUST MIGHT be another cultist and dropout from this welfare society.

One of my long-term projects is to do a survey of EVERY PARENT IN THE U.S. CONGRESS & HOUSE OF REPS.  Some of them are young enough, I think, to have children probably still in high school, or just out of it. 

I wonder how many of these children attended the local public schools, or were they parochial (probably a  step up at least academically)?  Of course there are security issues, but are they advocating ONLY public education for everyone ELSE”s children as avidly as they are advocating Monogamy (a father, any kind of father — or give him to us — no, forget that, we’ve got programs to go get him — and we’ll fix it! — in every child’s life?) for OTHER folk.  Pay US and we’ll show you (not by example of course — let’s not get TOO zealous) how marriage is really done right. 

Google “Hot Mike Duvall” on this blog for a clue…

HOW THEY DO IT IN ST. LOUIS 

A Professor of Political Science who had been honored as a distinguished teacher at his university, Martin Rochester became deeply involved in public education as a result of his children’s misadventures in the classroom. Like most parents, he wanted to make a difference. Like them, his way of trying to contribute was to become a dogged volunteer in his children’s classrooms and his Parent-Teacher Organization. But what he found, in addition to overbearing administrators and overworked teachers, was a system which had contempt for the most fundamental elements of traditional schooling (ability-grouping, grades, homework, rigor, discipline, etc.), allowed nonacademic diversions to crowd out academic study, and subordinated a commitment to excellence to an obsession with “equity.” Rochester gradually evolved from concerned parent to informed critic. As he relates in “Class Warfare,” he became a familiar presence in front of local school boards and with the state education bureaucracy as well, and was finally asked to testify before the Missouri legislature on what he had discovered.

“Class Warfare” is a fascinating personal story of trying to fight through the education establishment maze, a story repeated every year by millions of parents looking for what’s best for their children in an era of stagnant test scores, classroom chaos, and bizarre educational theorizing. But this book is also a shrewd critique of why our schools fail. Taking the reader on a field trip that begins with his own upper-middle class suburban school district in St. Louis and then moves on to inner-city locales and some of the best private schools around the country, Martin Rochester shows how “pack pedagogy” has steamrolled parent resistance in promoting disasters such as whole-language, fuzzy math, multiple intelligences theory, teacher-as-coach, the therapeutic classroom, and all the other fads found in today’s schools. Rochester concludes that all children are being victimized, not only the most gifted, but also, more cynically, “average” students and those lower achieving kids whose supposed needs are now driving the entire curriculum.

Combining the eyewitness testimony of a parent with the perceptive analysis of a professional educator, “Class Warfare” provides an unusual glimpse into the malaise that afflicts our schools and a sensible prescription for how thing can get better.

About the Author
J. Martin Rochester is The Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the author of five books on international politics, and has written widely on the subject of education in periodicals such as “Phi Delta Kappan” and “Education Week.” He is a recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at UM-St. Louis.

 And he smartened up QUICK about the suburban schools when it was his own son involved.  A chapter in there relates the resistance to a sensible math curriculum, and a protest of recognized mathematicians to the adoption of another one.  He talks about how this style cheats students in what are called “good” schools, also. 

READ IT!

NOTE:  My link to the Dr. Laura.com page should NOT be associated with my endorsement of anything else on the site.  ANyone that looks like this, for real, I have serious question abouts, even in a posed picture.

@@@

 One of the most serious indicators that we have significant DEBT problems which result from DUMBNESS problems is that we pay legislators to have conversations like this: