Public education in the United States has
never been good and for 40 years has been wretched.
The history of public education in the 20th
century featured lacked of confidence that African American students and
immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were intellectually capable of
mastering knowledge-intensive curriculum.
Education professors were in the main intellectual lightweights who
devalued the knowledge dispensed by erudite professors of mathematics, the
natural sciences, socials sciences, history, literature, and the fine
arts. They promulgated an anti-knowledge
creed that took hold during the 1970s and by the 1980s was firmly
entrenched. This was highly unfortunate
timing, coming as middle class and black middle clas flight left behind the
poorest of the poor at the urban core, where crack cocaine hit the streets in
1980, gang activity became rife, and an already inept education establishment
was overwhelmed by the task of teaching young people abused by history, of
which knowledge-bereft teachers and administrators had no comprehension.
When scenarios are as bad as the specter
that we have in preK-12 education, revolution becomes imperative.
The time for the preK-12 revolution is now.
The pre-K12 revolution must include
curricular overhaul, teacher training, resource provision and referral to
struggling families, highly intentional skill development of students lagging
below grade level, and the jettisoning of staff (including at the Minneapolis
Public Schools Superintendent Ed Graff;
Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Aimee Fearing; the entire Department of Teaching and
Learning; Associate Superintendents
Shawn Harris-Berry, LaShawn Ray, Ron Wagner, and Brian Zambreno; Office of Black Male Achievement Michael
Walker; and Department of Indian
Education Jenna Ross) who are charged with the responsibility of providing
educational excellence to our students but have no idea of the constituent
elements or the purposes of an excellent education.
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To review, pre-K12 revolution must include
curricular overhaul, teacher training, resource provision and referral to
struggling families, highly intentional skill development of students lagging
below grade level, and the jettisoning of inept central office staff.
The revolution must start with overhaul of
curriculum for knowledge intensity, for subject area knowledge delivered in
grade by grade sequence to students of all demographic descriptors.
Curriculum at pre-K-5 (elementary) schools
should emphasize
mathematics
through algebra I and geometry, natural sciences (biology, chemistry, physics,
health), social sciences and humanities (government, history, geography,
economics, psychology), English literature and usage, and fine arts (visual and
musical).
Curriculum at grades 6-8 (middle schools)
should continue that sequence by providing
mathematics
instruction through algebra II, trigonometry, and statistics; natural sciences courses that complete
standard secondary training in biology, chemistry, physics, and health; social science and humanities courses that
complete the impartation of broad and deep knowledge in government, American
history (with due attention to specific ethnic histories), world history,
economics, and psychology; English
literature and usage; advanced
experiences in the fine (visual and musical) arts; and multiple options in foreign languages,
vocational arts, and physical education.
Curriculum at grades 9-12 (high school)
should emphasize
Advanced
Placement courses in calculus, United States government, American history,
world history, economics, psychology, English, and fine arts; particularly during the last two years of
high school, students should have access to an array of electives in the
liberal, technological, vocational arts, so that upon graduation students are
prepared to pursue driving interests into secondary education and go forth to
lives as culturally enriched, civically engaged, and professionally satisfied
citizens.
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All students except those
possessing truly severe cognitive challenges are capable of mastering and
delighting in this logically sequenced, knowledge-intensive curriculum.
Lagging academic proficiency
rates and low levels of knowledge manifested by students in the Minneapolis
Public Schools is due not to student inability to master the requisite
knowledge and skills but rather because administrators and teachers do not
themselves have those skills, cannot impart knowledge and skills in which they
themselves are deficient, and have low levels of pedagogical ability even if
they do possess those skills that they have never acquired.
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