Understanding the Brain-Boggling Incompetence of Superintendent Ed Graff and Decision-Makers Responsible for the Academic Portion of MPS Comprehensive District Design

Let’s all think about this real hard.

 

Let’s just forget for the moment that there is such a low-life form as an education professor and all of those whom they have ruined and constitute the education establishment.

 

Let’s just think about what our precious young people could be learning if teachers were in love with the world of knowledge, were readers of substantive books, and had minimal competence in mathematics and the teaching thereof.

 

With regard to mathematics, this is all they have to do but cannot;  the entire preK-12 mathematics course of study is given as follows  >>>>>

 

>>>>>   

 

Addition

Subtraction

Multiplication

Division

Fractions

Decimals

Percentages

Ratios

Proportions

Graphs

Tables

Charts

 

Algebra I

Geometry

Algebra II

Trigonometry

Statistics

Calculus              

 

How hard can this be?

 

If preK-5 teachers were properly trained or even just personally mathematically adept, curriculum would not even be necessary.  As with college and university professors, the necessary knowledge and skill sets would be embedded in their consciousness and ready for impartation to students.

Everything running from addition through charts would be mastered by the end of grade five.  Middle schoolers would master Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II.  Then as they matriculate in high school, grade 9 students would proceed to a combined course in Trigonometry and Statistics and by grade 10 begin an Advanced Placement Calculus course.

 

When a student comes to me in the New Salem Educational Initiative, I ask a few questions, find out immediately what a student knows as to addition through decimals and sketch out on a humble chalk board the initial skills needed for acquisition. 

 

I need no curriculum. 

 

So I can with great efficiency impart the skills, including applications and word problems.  We then move quickly on to percentages through charts.  Then we proceed at a pace matching student learning speed, which I always regard as high to very high, for students with IQs ranging from 85 or so to 150 and above, to move through the Algebra I to Calculus sequence.

 

Answer                  >>>>>     This is not hard at all.  There is not that much math to learn.  The problem is too many math-phobic teachers at preK-5 and too many teachers ruined by mathematics education (as opposed to pure mathematics) professors at the middle school and high school level.

 

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My materials are humble because the knowledge is embedded in my brain due to long study.

 

I need no curriculum.

 

This is true for other subject areas that I include in my book, Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, which covers, in addition to mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, American history, world history, African American history, other ethnic-specific histories, political science, economics, psychology, literature (classic western, world, ethnic-specific), English usage, fine arts (visual and musical), and world religions.

 

Because I have written this book to provide the essence of the education that my students should have but the Minneapolis Public Schools does not provide (and other locally centralized school districts do not provide), this is all I truly need in addition to the knowledge that I have acquired through reading deeply and broadly.

 

Toss in my trusty World Almanac and the Star Tribune (which is far from being the New York Times or Washington Post), the latter of which provides all manner of lively topics to contextualize with subject area information---  and that’s all I need.

 

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But there we have the answer---  and the dilemma.

 

Classroom teachers are not trained to be scholars.

 

Neither are site principals, nor associate superintendents, nor staff in the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning---

 

nor Superintendent Ed Graff---

 

nor Department of Teaching and Learning Executive Director Aimee Fearing---

 

nor any academic decision-maker at the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

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Students are not the problem posed by low academic proficiency rates.

 

Teachers and administrators with too little knowledge, trained by intellectual lightweights in departments colleges, and schools of education, are the problem.

 

If Superintendent Ed Graff and staff want to save the academic portion of the MPS Comprehensive District Design, either by reworking it or just by fulfilling the “well rounded education” education mandate of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)--- they must with a great act of humility,

 

>>>>>    turn to professors and independent scholars with deep academic knowledge;

 

>>>>>    actively engage with and bring on staff people who have an understanding of students living at the urban core;

 

>>>>>    and mandate that teachers use whatever techniques they need---  mainly flowing from their own love of and desire to get the information across---  with the understanding that direct teacher impartation of information in the context of spirited whole-class discussions is the most efficient and exciting way to convey vital knowledge and skill sets to students who must go forth as culturally enriched, civically engaged, and professionally satisfied citizens.