The introductory section of the most recent
draft for the Minneapolis Public Schools Comprehensive Design acceptably
focuses on a well-rounded education as phrased in the Every Student Succeeds
Act. Sections pertinent to career and
technical education, special education, and world languages also read
coherently and describe viable approaches to improving the quality of education
at the Minneapolis Public Schools.
However, the phrasing for the main program
of academic instruction is predictably laden with jargon endemic to those
trained by education professors.
To understand how this resort to vacuous
verbiage over substance, review carefully the lexicon given below from the
strange world of education professors and those whom they train. You will first read an objective description,
followed after this long presentation by my own comments that decode education-
professor-speak.
Accessing Skills
This refers to the use of websites and
other forms of cyber-technology, along with traditional encyclopedias,
dictionaries, and other forms of print to gain information needed at a certain
time for a particular purpose.
At their own pace
The term of reference asserts that a child
best learns at her or his own pace, rather than according to the dictates of a
teacher or in the context of learning targets to be met by an entire group of
students at the same time.
Authentic Assessment
This form of assessment is of the
portfolio, project, demonstration type, allowing a student to show what she or
he knows about a topic typically selected by the student herself or himself; this form of assessment is counterpoised to
measurement of student skill acquisition via multiple choice and other formats
for providing definite answers in taking standardized tests.
Break the Mold Schools
This is a term much in vogue from the 1980s
forward, referring to schools inaugurated by parents, teachers, and community
members who endeavored to utilize methods that could produce higher rates of
learning or more satisfying learning opportunities for students; the advent of charter schools in the early
1990s became a widely prevalent version of “break the mold” schools.
Child-Centered Schooling
This is a term first made popular by Harold
Rugg in his 1928 book, The Child Centered
School. “Child-centered schooling” focuses on the interests and perceived needs
of the individual child, in contrast to
the traditional schools, which transmits
set bodies of knowledge to students.
Competition
“Progressive” educators have since the
1920s argued against pitting students against each other in attempting to
achieve top grades and high scores on test.
Constructivism
Proponents of this view assert that
education should begin with the life experience of each individual child, so
that all information is either sought by the student as an extension of
personal experience or carefully introduced by the classroom facilitator so as
to build on what the child already knows.
Cooperative Learning
This form of learning provides
opportunities for students to pursue information on topics selected by the
classroom facilitator in a group context, advocated by education professors as
preferable to requiring students to study or seek information individually.
Critical Thinking Skills
Along with “lifelong learning,” this is one
of the key emphases of education professors, who maintain that critical
examination of topics of immediate interest is more important that learning a
set body of knowledge.
Culturally Biased Curriculum
This is the notion that the key problem
with curriculum as conventionally presented in K-12 classrooms has a bias
toward the West, mainly Europe and the United States.
Culturally Biased Tests
This term refers to the cultural bias that
education professors and their acolytes in the education establishment assert
makes standardized tests unfair to students of color and to other populations
who are unfamiliar with vocabulary and references that originate in the culture
of European Americans who dominate in constructing the tests.
Developmentally Appropriate
Educators and other “progressive” educators
maintain that introducing concepts before a child is ready can be demoralizing
and psychologically harmful to the girl or boy;
the student should not be presented with information earlier than age
ranges at which children typically encounter concepts.
Drill and Kill
“Drill and kill” is the moniker assigned by
education professors and others in the education establishment to rote methods
of learning and to the memorization of factual material, considered by those
who use the term to destroy creativity and promote a distaste for school-based
learning.
Exhibitions
This refers to presentations made by
students, following group projects or from portfolios from which students
select items to present to teachers, to other evaluators, or to an audience of
parents and other interested observers.
Factory-Model Schools
This is a derogatory term applied by
education professors and other “progressive” educators to the traditional high
school, held to be a fossil from an industrial age when the function of schools
was to train students as if working in lockstep on an assembly line in a
factory on the floor of which a foreman did the bidding of those higher in the
bureaucratic hierarchy.
Facts are inferior to understanding
Education professors assert that factual
knowledge is unimportant, except as sought by the student herself or
himself; what is more important is a
deep conceptual understanding of the concepts to which the facts are pertinent.
Facts are soon outdated.
Education professors hold that in this
fast-changing world of technology, discreet facts are soon outdated, so that
learning how to learn is more important that systematic acquisition of defined
knowledge sets.
Hands-On Learning
In the view of education professors and the
“progressive” educators that they train, real-world experience with tactile
objects is preferable to book learning.
Holistic Learning
This term refers to learning as natural
engagement with the totality of one’s environment, featuring interconnection
rather than segmention into artificially designated subject areas.
Individual Differences
As “progressive educators” sent forth by
education professors, most K-12 teachers and administrators emphasize the individuality of each student,
understood to have significant differences in familial circumstances,
ethnicity, learning styles, interests, and other characteristics that
necessitate differentiated instruction and curriculum variance from student to
student.
Individual Learning Styles
These follow from the conceptualization of
multiple intelligences by the psychologist Howard Gardner, who maintains that
there is no one kind of intelligence as in an intelligence quotient (I. Q.),
but rather a least eight categories of intelligence: musical, visual, verbal, mathematical,
kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic; education professors and the students whom
they send forth as K-12 teachers and administrators believe that instruction
should vary according to the modality in which each student learns best,
depending on her or his dominant form of intelligence.
Individual Differences
As “progressive educators” sent forth by
education professors, most K-12 teachers and administrators emphasize the individuality of each student,
understood to have significant differences in familial circumstances,
ethnicity, learning styles, interests, and other characteristics that
necessitate differentiated instruction and curriculum variance from student to
student.
Individual Learning Styles
These follow from the conceptualization of
multiple intelligences by the psychologist Howard Gardner, who maintains that
there is no one kind of intelligence as in an intelligence quotient (I. Q.),
but rather a least eight categories of intelligence: musical, visual, verbal, mathematical,
kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic; education professors and the students whom
they send forth as K-12 teachers and administrators believe that instruction
should vary according to the modality in which each student learns best,
depending on her or his dominant form of intelligence.
Learn to Learn
Education professors assert that mastery of
a set body of knowledge is not important;
rather, the student should learn how to learn by developing skills in
accessing information from multiple sources.
Metacognitive Skills
These skills involve student contemplation
of what she or he is doing in any learning activity; rather than just mastering a discrete skill,
the student should ask questions as to why the skill is being learned and what
process is being utilized in learning the current task.
Multi-Aged Classrooms
Preference for classrooms in which students
vary in age is grounded in the education professor’s contention that each student should learn at
her or his own pace; in this scheme,
traditional grouping of students of like age at specific grade levels gives way
to classrooms filled with students of different ages studying at their own pace
and assisting each other in learning activities.
Open Classrooms
These were most in vogue from the 1970s
into the early 1980s, during which many school buildings were constructed so as
to feature classrooms without permanent walls, allowing students to move easily
from class to multi-media room, auditorium, cafeteria and other rooms
throughout the building, eliminating the physical and psychological obstruction
of enclosure spaces.
Passive Listening
Education professors and their proteges
deride the transmission method of learning via teacher lecture or direct
instruction as encouraging passivity;
they favor active projects, personal investigations, and hands-on
learning activities.
Performance-Based Assessment
This involves evaluation of student
demonstration of learning by the classroom facilitator, who assesses the
quality of a portfolio or presentation rather than giving conventional
objective tests; this is what education
professors and their vocational progeny call “authentic assessment.”
Portfolio Assessment
This is one form of performance-based
assessment, whereby in this specific case the classroom facilitator evaluates
the academic and creative production selected by students for inclusion in
portfolios, again as an alternative to conventional objective tests.
Problem-Solving Skills
This is another emphasis of the education
professor, who maintains that mastering specific subject area knowledge is not
important; rather, the student should
learn to exercise critical thinking to solve problems, thereby accessing the
information and utilizing the skills actually necessary to a given
One Size Fits All
This is a term of disparagement for set
curriculum delivered to all students, in the absence of consideration for
individual differences, learning, styles, and interests.
Project Method
William H. Kilpatrick first popularized
this term among “progressive” educators in his 1918 book, The Project Method, in which he argued that students learn best
when engaged in holistic, life-like projects in cooperation with others in
groups.
Promise of Technology
One hears and reads in many places these
days that computers will revolution education;
technology enthusiasts view computers and other instruments as having
the capacity to provide individualized learning experiences based on the pace
of learning and interests pertinent to each particular student, ensuring
universal success.
Research has shown
This is a phrase used often by members of
the education establishment (education professors and the administrators and
teachers whom they train) to bolster claims made for favored approaches such as
portfolios, cooperative learning, and differentiated instruction.
Rote Learning
This refers to learning facts through
memorization and repetition, considered by education professors and their
acolytes to be inferior to learning in holistic, life-like experiences, and through
interaction with one’s fellows.
Self-Esteem
This became a key concern of education
professors and those whom they trained from the 1970s forward, promoting
favorable comments to students in an effort to build self-confidence and to
make all young people feel good about themselves in the world.
Teaching to the Test
Education professors and other opponents of
standardized testing frequently claim that the administration of standardized
tests narrows the curriculum and diminishes teacher creativity as practice for
looming standardized assessments limits the focus of teaching to the skills and
material that will ensure good test scores.
Teach the child, not the subject
This is one those notions that has been
around since the 1920s, when William Heard Kilpatrick, Harold Rugg, and
education professors at Teachers College of Columbia University started their
campaign advocating an approach to education for which they appropriated the
appellation, “progressive”; teaching the
child rather than the subject focuses on the social and emotional needs of
student rather than content conventionally associated with academic curriculum.
Teach the whole child
This was the third major component of the
“progressivist” movement of the early 20th century, along with
“child-centered schooling” and “teach the child, not the subject”; teaching the whole child deemphasizes
knowledge-based curriculum in favor of an approach that gives more weight to
the social and emotional needs of the child, in the effort to produce a person
of high self-esteem and confidence in the world.
Textbook Learning
Education professors deride learning via
textbooks in particular, and books in general, favoring projects,
demonstrations, and “hands-on” learning experiences.
Thematic Learning
This approach is counterpoised to focus on
individual academic disciplines, favoring instead multi-disciplinary
investigations of themes, topics, and subjects driven by student interest.
Transmission Theory of Schooling
This is a pejorative expression in
opposition to the impartation of knowledge from teacher to student,
counterpoised to active involvement of students in projects, demonstrations,
and the compilation of porfolios.
Whole-Class Instruction
Conventional classroom presentations by a
teacher to a whole class are anathema to education professors and their
acolytes, who prefer cooperative learning, student investigations, and projects
conducted while a classroom presence known as a “guide” or “facilitator” rather
than a teacher assists student in their active learning experiences.
Whole-Language Instruction
This approach to the teaching of reading,
emphasizing engaging reading experiences with literature in the absence of
instruction in phonics and phonemic awareness, became a major mode of
instruction in many schools of the 1950s and 1960s; the assumption is that students will pick up
principles of grammar and English usage naturally as the joy of reading whole
words in engaging reading material animates and motivates the young reader.
Analysis of
the Education Profedssor’s Lexicon
Accessing skills
are not efficiently utilized in the absence
of strong bases of knowledge; the
absence of contextualizing information necessitates quick and typically shallow
understanding, rather than the acquisition of knowledge inculcated and
internalized over an extended time, to the point of automaticity.
At their own pace
is by no means satisfactory for acquiring
the enormous body of knowledge at the core of an excellent education; students should be the recipients of
knowledge and skill sets possessed by teachers who are themselves broadly and
deeply knowledgeable, with a strong sense of the pace at which information is
best acquired.
Authentic Assessment
Is a supplementary rather than primary
format for the demonstration of student knowledge and skill; well-constructed standardized tests are the
fairest, most objective means to measure student achievement in mathematics,
reading, and all subject matter.
Break the Mold Schools
Well-trained scholars operating at the
level of the locally centralized school are better positioned than most parents
and community members to inaugurate and manage schools; the perceived need to launch “break the mold
schools” is a testimony to the terrible training that administrators and
teachers receive in departments, colleges, and schools of education.
Child-Centered Schooling
Adult educators should nurture young people
as village elders and responsible adults have always imparted knowledge and
wisdom to those who shall carry forth and innovate upon their cultural
inheritance.
Competition
Numerous scholarly investigations demonstrate
that tests and grades are powerful motivators for the acquisition of specified
knowledge and skill sets; an excellent
teacher conveys an excitement about the pursuit of knowledge for the intrinsic
satisfaction of learning while establishing instruments for measuring student
achievement.
Constructivism
Especially for students whose families have
had limited opportunities for education, travel, and experiences with the
world, the intentional introduction of knowledge and skill sets to be mastered
by a broadly and deeply knowledgeable teacher is vital to an excellent
education; all children should be
understood in the context of their life circumstances, but such circumstances
are neither the basis for the starting point of study or the foundation for
curriculum.
Cooperative Learning
Group study must be adroitly overseen by a
highly killed teacher as a supplementary rather than prime mode of
learning; vital student learning
proceeds best on the basis of individual assignments, group discussions, and
individually demonstrated acquisition of knowledge and skill sets on objective
assessments.
Critical Thinking Skills
Astute thought can only occur on the strength
of a strong body of knowledge pertinent to the matter being analyzed.
Culturally Biased Curriculum
The real problem in K-12 education is the
absence of any systematically presented curriculum, especially at K-5, which if
properly constructed would reflect the human cultural inheritance across all
cultures of the world.
Culturally Biased Tests
Great attention has been paid over the
course of that last twenty years by those who construct standardized tests to
present examples from a variety of cultural contexts that resonate with
students of diverse cultures; especially
with regard to mathematics, though, there is not much cultural bias embedded in
the four basic operations, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios,
proportions; and concepts from algebra,
geometry, trigonometry, statistics, and calculus.
Developmentally Appropriate
No preconceived notion of when a child can
learn a given skill or knowledge set should proscribe what the precocious or
highly motivated learner seeks to know or is able to learn under the sensitive
guidance of a master teacher.
Drill and Kill
Athletes and musicians practice certain
motions, learned from the best practitioners, to the point of automaticity, all
the better preparing them for individualistic creative expression as their
knowledge and skill level increases;
K-12 students should do the same.
Exhibitions
These are adjunct ways of demonstrating
what a student knows; objective tests
and standardized, assessments more accurately and fairly indicate what a
student knows across a broad and deep range of knowledge.
Factory-Model Schools
Conventional schools provide classroom
settings conducive to efficient learning;
when conducted by a master teacher, lectures and classroom discussions
abet the accumulation of a multiplicity of knowledge and skill sets in an
engaging and intellectually challenging learning environment.
Facts are inferior to understanding
Factual knowledge is a necessary
prerequisite for deep contemplation and full understanding.
Facts are soon outdated.
The preponderance of facts accumulated over
centuries of experience by scientists, mathematicians, historians, and other
scholars are permanent fixtures in the architecture of the major academic
disciplines; mastery of time-tested
facts and concepts is necessary to evaluate information in contemporary
contexts and to engage in processes that produce new knowledge sets.
Hands-On Learning
Reading books or cybernetic print
sources and listening to lectures are
the most efficient ways to accumulate vast stores of factual knowledge; hands-on learning is an engaging way to apply
and experiment with what one has learned from lectures and reading.
Holistic Learning
Mastery of knowledge and skill sets in the
discreet academic disciplines abets holistic learning.
Individual Differences
The master teacher should always be aware
of a student’s particular life circumstances and special talents; but students at given ages have much in
common and all have a need to learn the same body of knowledge and the array of
skills necessary to academic success.
Individual Learning Styles
These are magnified for emphasis way out of
proportion to their validity and applicability;
the master teacher should always be aware of talents possessed by her or
his students, but all students respond to well-crafted lectures, direct
instruction, and classroom discussions.
Learn to Learn
Learning how to learn should occur in the
process of mastering well-defined, logically sequenced knowledge and skill
sets, delivered in grade by grade sequence throughout the K-12 years.
Metacognitive Skills
Education professors as a rule lack the
intellectual ability to engage in this sort of deep think at the upper grade
levels, so they pretend that they are grand philosophers working their wonders
with children at grades K-5; students at
grades K-5 would be much better off learning to read well, master basic
mathematical operations, and practicing good principles of English usage and
composition.
Multi-Aged Classrooms
Children and adolescents are much better
off being matched with their peers, who have very similar intellectual and
social propensities.
Open Classrooms
These proved to present irritating
distractions; classrooms enveloped by
walls are quieter, more comforting places, conducive to learning challenging
knowledge and skill sets.
Passive Listening
The master teacher provides scope for active learning but also encourages her or his students to become good listeners, adept at deriving information from lectures and classroom discussions.
Performance-Base Asessment
This form of assessment should be
supplementary to objective and standardized tests, which are fairer and more
dependable forms of assessment.
Portfolio Assessment
As with performance-based assessments, this
form of assessment should be supplementary to objective and standardized tests,
which are fairer and more dependable forms of assessment.
Problem-Solving Skills
Students should learn to analyze material
and solve problems while mastering challenging curricula comprised of
well-defined knowledge and skill sets;
these latter make possible more efficient and well-informed
investigation into current events and matters of immediate interest.
Project Method
This is an adjunct, secondary mode of
learning, supplementary to more efficient methods such as reading challenging
material across the liberal, vocational, and technological arts; listening to teachers delivering lectures and
to fellow students in class discussions;
and engaging in individual research on serious academic subjects.
Promise of Technology
Advances in computer and other digital
technologies have given students rapid access to information on a wide variety
of subjects; but technology is not a
substitute for engagement with teachers and classmates, must be used wisely in
the quest for quality information, and more than ever makes an abundance of
knowledge and skill sets vital for evaluation of sources and dependability of
information.
Research has shown
Educational research varies widely as to
quality, too often conducted with small sample sizes with accompanying
extrapolations that are scientifically dubious;
educational research should be compared to findings in scientifically
rigorous studies in fields such as psychology and sociology that are published
in refereed journals scrutinized by academic experts.
Rote Learning
Memorization of factual material to the
point of automaticity makes learning more efficient, embedding great quantities
of information in the long-term memory so that new information may be acquired
more quickly and securely; memorized and
inculcated facts are important for critical analysis and encourage creative
inferences and extrapolations.
Self-Esteem
Teacher comments intended to raise a
student’s self-esteem should be genuine expressions of admiration; in the school setting, such comments should
most often be rendered for the accomplishment of an academic feat.
Teaching to the Test
All teachers should impart the knowledge
and skill sets that will be covered in well-constructed objective and
standardized tests that measure what students should know at a given grade
level; this expands rather than narrows
the curriculum.
One Size Fits All
One size should indeed fit all, in the
sense that all students should be taught the same abundance of knowledge and skill sets in a well-defined,
logically sequenced, grade by grade curriculum throughout the K-12 years; and just as the quantity and content of what
is learned should be the same, the quality of instruction provided to all
students should also be uniform.
Project Method
This is an adjunct, secondary mode of
learning, supplementary to more efficient methods such as reading challenging
material across the liberal, vocational, and technological arts; listening to teachers delivering lectures and
to fellow students in class discussions;
and engaging in individual research on serious academic subjects.
Promise of Technology
Advances in computer and other digital
technologies have given students rapid access to information on a wide variety
of subjects; but technology is not a
substitute for engagement with teachers and classmates, must be used wisely in
the quest for quality information, and more than ever makes an abundance of
knowledge and skill sets vital for evaluation of sources and dependability of
information.
Research has shown
Educational research varies widely as to
quality, too often conducted with small sample sizes with accompanying
extrapolations that are scientifically dubious;
educational research should be compared to findings in scientifically
rigorous studies in fields such as psychology and sociology that are published
in refereed journals scrutinized by academic experts.
Rote Learning
Memorization of factual material to the
point of automaticity makes learning more efficient, embedding great quantities
of information in the long-term memory so that new information may be acquired more
quickly and securely; memorized and
inculcated facts are important for critical analysis and encourage creative
inferences and extrapolations.
Self-Esteem
Teacher comments intended to raise a
student’s self-esteem should be genuine expressions of admiration; in the school setting, such comments should
most often be rendered for the accomplishment of an academic feat.
Teaching to the Test
All teachers should impart the knowledge
and skill sets that will be covered in well-constructed objective and
standardized tests that measure what students should know at a given grade
level; this expands rather than narrows
the curriculum.
Teach the child, not the subject
Teaching the child in a school setting is
primarily about the impartation of knowledge from teacher to student; the excellent teacher is a professional of
broad and deep knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge
to all students, necessitating sensitivity to a child’s social and emotional
needs.
Teach the whole child
The teacher’s prime professional
responsibility is to ensure that a student learns important knowledge and skill
sets pertinent to the subject matter of her or his class; in doing this, the master teacher is keenly aware
of the multiplicity of needs that a young person has as she or he develops and
grows in the school setting and beyond.
Textbook Learning
Wide reading of material spanning the
liberal, vocational, and technological arts is central to the school
experience; textbooks, other books, and
direct instruction by the teacher provide the most efficient means of
accumulating vast stores of knowledge and skill sets at the core of an
excellent education.
Thematic Learning
Themes are meaningfully explored only on
the basis of strong knowledge sets that provide the factual underpinning for
contemplation, reflection, and discussion of the variety of topics considered
in an education of excellence.
Transmission Theory of Schooling
Teachers should be professionals of broad
and deep knowledge with the prime role of imparting that knowledge to students
of all demographic descriptors;
transmission of knowledge and wisdom is as central to the teacher’s
responsibility as to the role of elders across the world who pass on the
cultural inheritance to young people under their guidance.
Whole-Class Instruction
Teachers of those nations (Finland, japan,
South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore) whose students record highest achievement on
the Program of International Student Assessment operate primarily in the mode
of whole-class instruction, the most efficient and effective pedagogical
method; all other classroom actitivities
are secondary to the prime method of whole-class instruction.
Whole-Language Instruction
Students become excellent readers only when
they grasp the fundamentals of phonics, phonemic awareness, and the many
conventions of English and other languages;
going forth to wide reading in classic world and ethnic-specific
literature should then be a given.
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