Among the features of the New Salem Educational Initiative that secure the success of students enrolled in the program, two essential features are given emphasis in this article: 1) We treat each life as precious. 2) We signal from the beginning that the commitment to each precious young life is forever.
Any teacher worthy of the name embraces each student as if she or he is a rare treasure to be handled carefully and polished to its finest sheen. Each student is intelligent, each student is capable of grade level performance, and each student is then capable of rising above grade level performance to embark securely on a college-bound track. This is true for the Grade K (kindergarten) student who enters into a schedule of weekly two-hour academic sessions and thus has the benefit of the academically ambitious program of the New Salem Educational Initiative from the very beginning. It is also true of the Grade 7 student who comes to me functioning at, say, a Grade 4 math level and a Grade 3 reading level. Even with those severe deficits, the ascent to grade level is typically accomplished within an academic year or two, at which point there is still time to get on the track bound for success in college. If a student enters the program of the New Salem Educational Initiative at Grade 11 or 12, the task becomes much more difficult, but the challenge is still embraced. Great emphasis is placed on an aggressive program of skill remediation and intense training to pass the required high school Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments in writing, reading, and math. It is typically realistically too late to train that student for an acceptable performance on the ACT or SAT for four-year college matriculation; but, with continued support from the New Salem Educational Initiative, attendance for such a student at a community college is possible, and with two years of continued academic training achieved, enrollment in a good four-year college becomes a viable endeavor.
So each student's academic situation is different upon entrance into the New Slaedm Educational Initiative. This is true for the student's life circumstances, as well as her or his academic skills. The opportunity presents itself in each case to treat this precious young life as unique, worthy, something to be cherished. For indeed each life is a treasure that during childhood and adolescence is polished to a bright shine--- or effectively cast aside, forever looking dull and unappreciated. So any educator worthy of the name embraces the peculiar circumstances prevailing in the life of this young person, brimming with potential if the full array of talents are properly tapped. Each life matters. Each person deserves her or his chance for success in life. Education is critical to life success. In a democracy, therefore, full commitment to each K-12 student must be made.
And, consistent with the second feature of the New Salem Educational Initiative given emphasis today, the commitment must be forever. Eight years of the program's existence have now yielded several students who have graduated from the weekly two-hour small group program and are or will soon be matriculating at colleges and universities. I am in touch with them all, as I always told them that I would be. I have worked with each of these students in the summer to bring their skills to ever higher levels, as I always told them that I would do. These particular students all enrolled at relatively late stages in their K-12 experience, so getting them ready for success in college has required intense effort. But they are all on course to move forward successfully in their college programs, and all have much more magnified opportunities in life because of a commitment that 1) treated each life as unique and precious; and 2) was made in the context of permanence.
As a rule, children who enroll in the New Salem Educational Initiative as elementary (K-5) students have embarked on a program whereby attendance at an Ivy League or equivalent university is possible. Students who enroll at the middle school (6-8) level or the Grade 9 and 10 levels of high school have viable chances of attending good colleges and universities. Students who enroll at the Grade 11 or 12 level, assuming the typical academic deficits of Minneapolis Public Schools students from impoverished or familial dysfunctional backgrounds, have viable chances through intense skill remediation to attend two-year colleges with a vision of going on to earn a bachelor's degree at a four-year college or university.
In each case, the life prospects of the student has been enhanced because we
1)treated the young person as a precious being worth of great care and love; and
2) because the caring and love have been given throughout the relationship, enduring to the present and committed permanently into the future. As teachers fulfilling our mission in a democracy this is our obligation and our great privilege.
Aug 9, 2011
It's Education, Stupid
We pay all the time, in many ways, for our lack of a decent K-12 system of education in the United States. This is true in the full meaning of the latter federal entity, meaning all of the states in the nation, including Minnesota. We would do well to adapt an expression from the 1992 Clinton campaign and remind ourselves that while in electoral politics, "It's the economy, stupid," on a broader and even more important societal scale, "It's education, stupid."
When another young life is taken at 22nd and Dupont in North Minneapolis, "It's education, stupid." Almost certainly all of the young people involved have been poorly educated, have poor life prospects, may not really believe that they will live beyond the age of 21, and are adrift in wasted lives for lack of knowledge of the sort that can be applied productively in the world. "It's education, stupid."
When politicians cannot agree on a deficit and debt ceiling deal, even of the inconclusive sort, until the final hours before the deadline, "It's education, stupid." Too many of the politicians themselves never had much of an education in economics, so those on the left are beholden to Paul Kruger for their information, those of the Tea Party are beholden to right wing commentators and unexamined popular notions, and more old-line Republicans fall back on assumptions that have been expounded by the Wall Street Journal and won them favor with corporate political backers. In the public at large, there is considerable confusion over the distinction between deficit and debt, the difference between familial and governmental economics, the exact role of executive versus legislative branches in budgetary decision-making, the exact function of the Federal Reserve as an entity and as an actor for facililatating economic policy, or the exact roles of the Treasury Department versus the President's Council of Economic Advisers. So legislation is crafted in considerable ignorance and evaluated by the public and the electorate in woeful ignorance. "It's education, stupid."
When No Child Left Behind legislation gets to the point at which it is functioning magnificently, putting the uncomfortable spotlight on schools that have failed many students for decades, ill-educated journalists of no significant analytical and research capacity have little that they can do aside from repeating the unexamined shibboleths of the education establishment. And so we have another need to be reminded, "It's education, stupid." We hear and see repeated, as if mantras, empty-headed phrases such as "teaching to the test," "narrowing the curriculum," "unfairly punishing schools," and other such nonsense. Ill-educated and non-analytical journalists become dependent on the very people who have ill-served our students for so long. "It's education, stupid."
If we had even a good system of K-12 education in the United States and in the state of Minnesota, we would have fewer inner city young people living wasted lives, politicians and a body politic with some genuine understanding of basic economic principles and institutions, and journalists capable of being something other than the mouthpiece of vested interests. But we do not have a thoroughgoing sense of the importance of a well-balanced liberal arts education in the United States; we wander on forever claiming that we want an "excellent education" for our children without ever getting around to defining an "excellent education," much less constructing the kinds of institutions that would be capable of actually delivering high quality education. So in these and many other realms we suffer from a lack of knowledge and a paucity of clear thinking on matters relevant to the paramount issue of our time.
Because, to be sure, in the broad societal realm we suffer every day, in so many ways, for failing to understand that "It's education, stupid."
When another young life is taken at 22nd and Dupont in North Minneapolis, "It's education, stupid." Almost certainly all of the young people involved have been poorly educated, have poor life prospects, may not really believe that they will live beyond the age of 21, and are adrift in wasted lives for lack of knowledge of the sort that can be applied productively in the world. "It's education, stupid."
When politicians cannot agree on a deficit and debt ceiling deal, even of the inconclusive sort, until the final hours before the deadline, "It's education, stupid." Too many of the politicians themselves never had much of an education in economics, so those on the left are beholden to Paul Kruger for their information, those of the Tea Party are beholden to right wing commentators and unexamined popular notions, and more old-line Republicans fall back on assumptions that have been expounded by the Wall Street Journal and won them favor with corporate political backers. In the public at large, there is considerable confusion over the distinction between deficit and debt, the difference between familial and governmental economics, the exact role of executive versus legislative branches in budgetary decision-making, the exact function of the Federal Reserve as an entity and as an actor for facililatating economic policy, or the exact roles of the Treasury Department versus the President's Council of Economic Advisers. So legislation is crafted in considerable ignorance and evaluated by the public and the electorate in woeful ignorance. "It's education, stupid."
When No Child Left Behind legislation gets to the point at which it is functioning magnificently, putting the uncomfortable spotlight on schools that have failed many students for decades, ill-educated journalists of no significant analytical and research capacity have little that they can do aside from repeating the unexamined shibboleths of the education establishment. And so we have another need to be reminded, "It's education, stupid." We hear and see repeated, as if mantras, empty-headed phrases such as "teaching to the test," "narrowing the curriculum," "unfairly punishing schools," and other such nonsense. Ill-educated and non-analytical journalists become dependent on the very people who have ill-served our students for so long. "It's education, stupid."
If we had even a good system of K-12 education in the United States and in the state of Minnesota, we would have fewer inner city young people living wasted lives, politicians and a body politic with some genuine understanding of basic economic principles and institutions, and journalists capable of being something other than the mouthpiece of vested interests. But we do not have a thoroughgoing sense of the importance of a well-balanced liberal arts education in the United States; we wander on forever claiming that we want an "excellent education" for our children without ever getting around to defining an "excellent education," much less constructing the kinds of institutions that would be capable of actually delivering high quality education. So in these and many other realms we suffer from a lack of knowledge and a paucity of clear thinking on matters relevant to the paramount issue of our time.
Because, to be sure, in the broad societal realm we suffer every day, in so many ways, for failing to understand that "It's education, stupid."
Aug 5, 2011
Closing the Achievement Gap and Attaining Educational Excellence: Embracing the Challenge and Getting Students to the Excellent Teacher
The mission of K-12 public education holds no room for excuses. Children and adolescents from impoverished or dysfunctional families bring challenges to school that the genuine educator will embrace.
There is much in the design of the New Salem Educational Initiative from which the public schools can extrapolate for purposes of meeting the challenges. When eight years ago I started this program of total academic support for inner city young people, I knew that I would be providing transportation. I knew that I would go right up to the doorstep of the household wherein the student dwelled, talk with members of the family, get a sense of any current familial concerns, walk the student to the car, hold the academic session, then return the student in like manner--- checking in again with the family.
The advantages of proceeding in this way are multiple, most notably the high likelihood of near perfect attendance that this routine allows. The approach reduces the parental forgetfulness or distractedness factor in failing to get a student to a session. Even if the parent has forgotten that the day and time is that designated for the academic session, a relationship properly cultivated allows me to locate the student, articulate the reminder, and eventually transport the student to the session. In a significant number of cases, students may actually live or stay frequently in more than one household. So in many instances I have arrived at a designated address only to find that the student is currently staying somewhere else, so off I go to find the student at that place. This is the kind of on-the-ground, take no chances quality that pervades the approach of the New Salem Educational Initiative. In this instance it virtually guarantees perfect attendance; even if the rare instance occurs in which I don't get the student in the car for transport on the designated day, I reschedule on the spot and no session is missed. All of this is again abetted by the excellent relationships that I develop with the families of my students, so that one feature of the program strengthens another feature, and all features coalesce around the all-important objective of getting the student into a classroom wherein a teacher of excellence presides.
So two of these mutually reinforcing programmatic features are 1) the provision of transportation and 2) the development of strong relationships with the families of students. A third feature has to do with my knowledge of inner city communities in general and North Minneapolis in particular. I am comfortable with people of every walk of life and in many international outposts, and on one level I insist that my students eventually learn the linguistic conventions and mores of mainstream middle class society in the United States; but I am also able to converse and relate to children and adolescents in the vernacular of people living at the urban core, children often operating upon inner city African American linguistic conventions, or other ethnic groups heavily influenced by ebonics. But I also draw upon my experience in Hmong, Hispanic, and other cultures to make what other linguistic adjustments are necessasry.
And this ability to communicate across many cultures and ethnicities involves more than just words that are actually spoken. It also involves the tone and cadence of the voice, body language, and sheer comfort with the culture of reference. This is not easily taught; it is best acquired through deep experiences, across as many years as possible, on the ground and in the homes of people with mores similar to those from which a student population is drawn.
People write long tomes on what it takes academically to reach and teach inner city young people and thus close the achievement gap. But here again, the matter is best reduced to simply stated features that are difficult to achieve, but which require more in the way of action than discussion. The public schools very well may never go about the task of reaching the inner city child and adolescent in the exact same manner as I do, but the fundamental successful features are there for extrapolation and application by the public schools.
To fully embrace the challenges of reaching urban youth from impoverished or dysfunctional life circumstances, institutions of education must adapt the following interlocking features: 1) get students into the classroom by going with assertive transportational intent right where the student lives; 2) communicate with families about their own concerns, even as the importance of attendance to academic achievement is impressed upon them; 3) ensure that the teacher in the classroom to which the student is being transported has both command of the academic knowledge base and the cultural nuance to reach the student in her or his brain and heart.
The public education of K-12 students allows for no excuses. It is fundamental to a democracy. All students, from the many backgrounds that the word "all" suggests, must be provided with a high quality public education. Thus it is incumbent on public systems of education to adapt the principles that have proven so successful in imparting an excellent education to students from impoverished and dysfunctional familial situations.
There is much in the design of the New Salem Educational Initiative from which the public schools can extrapolate for purposes of meeting the challenges. When eight years ago I started this program of total academic support for inner city young people, I knew that I would be providing transportation. I knew that I would go right up to the doorstep of the household wherein the student dwelled, talk with members of the family, get a sense of any current familial concerns, walk the student to the car, hold the academic session, then return the student in like manner--- checking in again with the family.
The advantages of proceeding in this way are multiple, most notably the high likelihood of near perfect attendance that this routine allows. The approach reduces the parental forgetfulness or distractedness factor in failing to get a student to a session. Even if the parent has forgotten that the day and time is that designated for the academic session, a relationship properly cultivated allows me to locate the student, articulate the reminder, and eventually transport the student to the session. In a significant number of cases, students may actually live or stay frequently in more than one household. So in many instances I have arrived at a designated address only to find that the student is currently staying somewhere else, so off I go to find the student at that place. This is the kind of on-the-ground, take no chances quality that pervades the approach of the New Salem Educational Initiative. In this instance it virtually guarantees perfect attendance; even if the rare instance occurs in which I don't get the student in the car for transport on the designated day, I reschedule on the spot and no session is missed. All of this is again abetted by the excellent relationships that I develop with the families of my students, so that one feature of the program strengthens another feature, and all features coalesce around the all-important objective of getting the student into a classroom wherein a teacher of excellence presides.
So two of these mutually reinforcing programmatic features are 1) the provision of transportation and 2) the development of strong relationships with the families of students. A third feature has to do with my knowledge of inner city communities in general and North Minneapolis in particular. I am comfortable with people of every walk of life and in many international outposts, and on one level I insist that my students eventually learn the linguistic conventions and mores of mainstream middle class society in the United States; but I am also able to converse and relate to children and adolescents in the vernacular of people living at the urban core, children often operating upon inner city African American linguistic conventions, or other ethnic groups heavily influenced by ebonics. But I also draw upon my experience in Hmong, Hispanic, and other cultures to make what other linguistic adjustments are necessasry.
And this ability to communicate across many cultures and ethnicities involves more than just words that are actually spoken. It also involves the tone and cadence of the voice, body language, and sheer comfort with the culture of reference. This is not easily taught; it is best acquired through deep experiences, across as many years as possible, on the ground and in the homes of people with mores similar to those from which a student population is drawn.
People write long tomes on what it takes academically to reach and teach inner city young people and thus close the achievement gap. But here again, the matter is best reduced to simply stated features that are difficult to achieve, but which require more in the way of action than discussion. The public schools very well may never go about the task of reaching the inner city child and adolescent in the exact same manner as I do, but the fundamental successful features are there for extrapolation and application by the public schools.
To fully embrace the challenges of reaching urban youth from impoverished or dysfunctional life circumstances, institutions of education must adapt the following interlocking features: 1) get students into the classroom by going with assertive transportational intent right where the student lives; 2) communicate with families about their own concerns, even as the importance of attendance to academic achievement is impressed upon them; 3) ensure that the teacher in the classroom to which the student is being transported has both command of the academic knowledge base and the cultural nuance to reach the student in her or his brain and heart.
The public education of K-12 students allows for no excuses. It is fundamental to a democracy. All students, from the many backgrounds that the word "all" suggests, must be provided with a high quality public education. Thus it is incumbent on public systems of education to adapt the principles that have proven so successful in imparting an excellent education to students from impoverished and dysfunctional familial situations.
Aug 4, 2011
Closing the Achievement Gap and Delivering High Quality Education: The Need to Stop Talking and Just Get the Job Done
We overtalk the matter of education reform and the achievement gap, and we do too little. I increasingly observe that what we need to do is very clear, that we need to cut way back on the verbal exchanges about the key issues with regard to educational advancement in our K-12 schools, and that we need to start applying the elbow grease in much greater quantities. But that is an implicit problem. Adults tend to want to make themselves feel very smart by intellectualizing about matters of educational philosophy, rather than simply to sit down beside a child and teach her or him what that student needs to know at the relevant grade level.
Take math, for example. Math education professors and others tend to discuss approaches to math instruction as if such discussion involves some really perplexing issues. Often such discussion assumes that students need to be drawn to math through games and projects and activities that make math fun and engaging. Of course, this is one of many matters in which adults have vested interests in the education of K-12 young people, because math education professors (as opposed to professors of math as a legitimate discipline)would have no jobs if enough people realized what actually needs to be done rather than discussed.
At the kindergarten through Grade 2 level, students need to learn how to add and subtract, including eventually the knowledge of how to "regroup" (carry and borrow). Along the way they also should acquire knowledge of such things as calendars and time recognition (clocks and watches), but these latter things tend to fall into place when the strong number sense implied by addition and subtraction is acquired.
Most of my students in the New Salem Educational Initiative who begin studying with me as kindergarten or Grade 1 students tend to acquire all of the above skills by Grade 2 and to move on to multiplication. I have students as young as those at Grade 1 who have mastered their multiplication tables from 0 through 9, a skill that traditionally has been taught at Grade 3.
So my veteran students are ready at Grade 3 to move on to multi-digit multiplication and division. From there they progress as fast as time and care allow through a sequence of skills involving fractions, decimals, percents, proportions, ratios, and probability. They learn how to deal with increasingly sophisticated data, graphs, and tables. By Grade 6, my veteran students are ready for algebra and geometry of the sort that traditionally has been taught at Grades 9 and 10. So engaging in these subjects at such a young age, they gain the intellectual weight and ballast to thrive when they get to algebra and geometry in school, and they are laying the foundation for success in trigonometry and calculus.
Many employers would be thrilled if they had more applicants who know math at the level mastered by most of my students by Grade 6. How do I impart knowledge of math to my students? I just show them what to do. This is what would deeply disturb many math education professors and those who would like to discuss math instruction as if students do not like math and as if math instruction is some recondite matter for adult intellectualizing. It isn't. When I teach students addition and subtraction by sitting down beside them and sketching out problems on a yellow pad, they get it. They like it. Success builds on success, and they want more. No tricks or time-wastng projects are necessary. Well-selected word problems obviate the necessity for time-consuming projects, and my students get all the real-world application that they need. With addition and subtraction mastered, I proceed with multiplication along the lines detailed in another article. And so it goes on my yellow pad through division, fractions, decimals, percentages, proportions, ratios, probability, and tables and graphs; and from there to the skills relevant to algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus.
Similarly, as my students in the New Salem Educational Initiative learn to become better readers, they read a wide variety of material from fiction, poetry, history, government, economics, and the natural sciences. These subjects lead to interesting discussions in the classroom and in transport to and from the academic sessions, involving additional topics from such fields as geography, psychology, and philosophy.
So this is what it takes to impart high quality education to students: a well-educated teacher willing to apply the elbow grease in time-efficient applications, and comfortable discussing a wide variety of subjects.
The next time you are tempted to overintellectualize about matters of pedagogy and educational philosophy, save your breath. Instead, go sit down beside a child and start explaining. You'll then find out how much young people yearn for substantive knowledge, how appreciative they are, and how they don't need your tricks: They just need your knowledge, your time, and your love.
Take math, for example. Math education professors and others tend to discuss approaches to math instruction as if such discussion involves some really perplexing issues. Often such discussion assumes that students need to be drawn to math through games and projects and activities that make math fun and engaging. Of course, this is one of many matters in which adults have vested interests in the education of K-12 young people, because math education professors (as opposed to professors of math as a legitimate discipline)would have no jobs if enough people realized what actually needs to be done rather than discussed.
At the kindergarten through Grade 2 level, students need to learn how to add and subtract, including eventually the knowledge of how to "regroup" (carry and borrow). Along the way they also should acquire knowledge of such things as calendars and time recognition (clocks and watches), but these latter things tend to fall into place when the strong number sense implied by addition and subtraction is acquired.
Most of my students in the New Salem Educational Initiative who begin studying with me as kindergarten or Grade 1 students tend to acquire all of the above skills by Grade 2 and to move on to multiplication. I have students as young as those at Grade 1 who have mastered their multiplication tables from 0 through 9, a skill that traditionally has been taught at Grade 3.
So my veteran students are ready at Grade 3 to move on to multi-digit multiplication and division. From there they progress as fast as time and care allow through a sequence of skills involving fractions, decimals, percents, proportions, ratios, and probability. They learn how to deal with increasingly sophisticated data, graphs, and tables. By Grade 6, my veteran students are ready for algebra and geometry of the sort that traditionally has been taught at Grades 9 and 10. So engaging in these subjects at such a young age, they gain the intellectual weight and ballast to thrive when they get to algebra and geometry in school, and they are laying the foundation for success in trigonometry and calculus.
Many employers would be thrilled if they had more applicants who know math at the level mastered by most of my students by Grade 6. How do I impart knowledge of math to my students? I just show them what to do. This is what would deeply disturb many math education professors and those who would like to discuss math instruction as if students do not like math and as if math instruction is some recondite matter for adult intellectualizing. It isn't. When I teach students addition and subtraction by sitting down beside them and sketching out problems on a yellow pad, they get it. They like it. Success builds on success, and they want more. No tricks or time-wastng projects are necessary. Well-selected word problems obviate the necessity for time-consuming projects, and my students get all the real-world application that they need. With addition and subtraction mastered, I proceed with multiplication along the lines detailed in another article. And so it goes on my yellow pad through division, fractions, decimals, percentages, proportions, ratios, probability, and tables and graphs; and from there to the skills relevant to algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus.
Similarly, as my students in the New Salem Educational Initiative learn to become better readers, they read a wide variety of material from fiction, poetry, history, government, economics, and the natural sciences. These subjects lead to interesting discussions in the classroom and in transport to and from the academic sessions, involving additional topics from such fields as geography, psychology, and philosophy.
So this is what it takes to impart high quality education to students: a well-educated teacher willing to apply the elbow grease in time-efficient applications, and comfortable discussing a wide variety of subjects.
The next time you are tempted to overintellectualize about matters of pedagogy and educational philosophy, save your breath. Instead, go sit down beside a child and start explaining. You'll then find out how much young people yearn for substantive knowledge, how appreciative they are, and how they don't need your tricks: They just need your knowledge, your time, and your love.
Aug 3, 2011
Focusing LIke a Laser on Training Excellent Teachers
The reform of K-12 education in the United States remains a topic of considerable discusssion in the political ether of the nation of note, but much of the discussion is misaimed and peripheral to any effort that would attain the desired end. The painful truth about K-12 reform, as it is usually termed, is that what we really need is revolution (complete restructuring, or what Michelle Rhee euphemistically calls "transformative reform"), not mere reform. And the revolution, the needed overhaul, the total change that must ensue is simply stated but difficult to achieve. It really begins and ends with a higher quality of teacher, a classroom-tested bearer of at least a master's degree in a legitimate discipline (not attained in departments of education but in departments of natural science, social science, and the humanities), a true professional.
So there you have it. As with most important problems, the needed program is or should be simply stated, but it is difficult to achieve. And, as in those other cases, our chronic problem in addressing the issue at hand is that we do not address the issue at hand: Rather, we create countless distractions for ourselves, some of which are intellectually interesting and sometimes make people feel very smart through extensive discussion--- but constitute wasted effort contributive not one whit toward the solution of the truly important matter putatively under discussion.
Thus it is that in education we create many discussions, apparently very interesting to adults who like to haggle verbally, but which have no possibility of advancing a high quality education for children and adolescents. So, for example, if you have ever thought that better education will be attained through smaller schools, larger schools, classrooms with boys only, classrooms with girls only, exciting curricula focused on the arts or science or math, schools created by and run by parents or teachers or communities--- think again. Whatever virtues such educational initiatives may or may not have, they are not germane to the topic of attaining educational excellence.
Because if schools founded on such beliefs and strategems lack well-trained teachers, all founders. Excellent teachers are the key to attaining excellent education. I have in a previous article defined an excellent education as a rich liberal arts curriculum delivered by excellent teachers. Of the two main features of an excellent education, excellent teachers are by far the most important. Because truly excellent teachers who are experts in their fields of study could write their own curriculum and deliver meaningful subject area content in history, literature, natural science, economics, history, and the fine arts all as a matter of their own training and intellectual inclination.
Celebrate and despair. Achieving educational excellence is just that easy and just that hard. Almost everyone with whom I have discourse--- and I have lively discussions with people representative of many walks of life and strains of ethnicity--- are a long way from even grasping the advanced level of training of teachers for which I advocate (see previous articles, especially concerning the definition of an excellent teacher), much less being ready, willing, and able to apply the elbow grease needed to get the job done.
We would have to dismantle all current programs of teacher training to attain the quality of teaching that would be necessary to attain educational excellence. That would require enormous effort and cut against many entrenched polical interests. Then we would have to institute the program of teacher training for which I have advocated in previous articles. That would require more enormous effort. Thus it is that I cite the necessity of pursuing "transformative educational reform" (revolution) of a kind that we must have but have many miles to go before readying ourselves for the task.
But understand this: We will have no meaningful change in our K-12 system of education until we focus like a laser on improving teacher training. Any other discussions are intellectual pastimes for adults that will accomplish nothing at all for the students themselves, who want and are capable of so much more.
So there you have it. As with most important problems, the needed program is or should be simply stated, but it is difficult to achieve. And, as in those other cases, our chronic problem in addressing the issue at hand is that we do not address the issue at hand: Rather, we create countless distractions for ourselves, some of which are intellectually interesting and sometimes make people feel very smart through extensive discussion--- but constitute wasted effort contributive not one whit toward the solution of the truly important matter putatively under discussion.
Thus it is that in education we create many discussions, apparently very interesting to adults who like to haggle verbally, but which have no possibility of advancing a high quality education for children and adolescents. So, for example, if you have ever thought that better education will be attained through smaller schools, larger schools, classrooms with boys only, classrooms with girls only, exciting curricula focused on the arts or science or math, schools created by and run by parents or teachers or communities--- think again. Whatever virtues such educational initiatives may or may not have, they are not germane to the topic of attaining educational excellence.
Because if schools founded on such beliefs and strategems lack well-trained teachers, all founders. Excellent teachers are the key to attaining excellent education. I have in a previous article defined an excellent education as a rich liberal arts curriculum delivered by excellent teachers. Of the two main features of an excellent education, excellent teachers are by far the most important. Because truly excellent teachers who are experts in their fields of study could write their own curriculum and deliver meaningful subject area content in history, literature, natural science, economics, history, and the fine arts all as a matter of their own training and intellectual inclination.
Celebrate and despair. Achieving educational excellence is just that easy and just that hard. Almost everyone with whom I have discourse--- and I have lively discussions with people representative of many walks of life and strains of ethnicity--- are a long way from even grasping the advanced level of training of teachers for which I advocate (see previous articles, especially concerning the definition of an excellent teacher), much less being ready, willing, and able to apply the elbow grease needed to get the job done.
We would have to dismantle all current programs of teacher training to attain the quality of teaching that would be necessary to attain educational excellence. That would require enormous effort and cut against many entrenched polical interests. Then we would have to institute the program of teacher training for which I have advocated in previous articles. That would require more enormous effort. Thus it is that I cite the necessity of pursuing "transformative educational reform" (revolution) of a kind that we must have but have many miles to go before readying ourselves for the task.
But understand this: We will have no meaningful change in our K-12 system of education until we focus like a laser on improving teacher training. Any other discussions are intellectual pastimes for adults that will accomplish nothing at all for the students themselves, who want and are capable of so much more.
May 13, 2011
How to Teach Multiplication Table Factors through Nine
One of the most irritating phenomena that I confront in teaching math to elementary, middle school, and high school students enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative is the failure of teachers in the Minneapolis Public Schools to have imparted knowledge of basic multiplication table factors, those including the numbers 0 through 9. In my observation, this unfortunate circumstance results from two causes: 1) education professors in general, and math education professors in particular, who see learning basic multiplication factors as rote memorization of the kind that they abhor; and 2) classroom teachers who typically suffer from having matriculated at university departments of education and are all too ready to retreat into lazy pedagogy that exalts the calculator.
All of this is a great shame, because full memorization of multiplication factors through 9 is necessary efficiently to find common denominators, reduce fractions, calculate decimals and percentages, solve proportions, find ratios and probability, solve algebraic equations, and perform a variety of mathematical operations in geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. And the shame is further intensified when one discovers that young children love to learn multiplication table factors when properly taught.
So consider this approach:
I always start with "0" and "1" as multiplied by the factors through 9, even when students have long since learned that "0" times any number is "0," and "1" times any number is that latter number. I rarely go through the whole group of factors through 9, but I do give students a chance to do one or two of each of these, upon which I say, "Wow, look at that--- you already know 20 of these cards. We just have to look at the ones involving 2 through 9 now."
So then I move on to the "2's," which tend to go very fast. I don't have a problem with students using their fingers to count by "2's," although after all factors "0" through "9" have been memorized or gained quick responses, I do begin to insist that students move so fast as to make counting on the fingers impossible. By this time, the "2's" have in any case typically been memorized.
I then skip to the "5's," which involve the counting exercise that comes easily to most students, so that I can then say, "See there, we don't have that far to go now. You already have mastered the table with factors using '0,' '1,' '2,' and '5.'" The student's confidence builds and what might have once seemed a daunting task now seems very manageable.
Then I back up to the "3's" and "4's." These are not quite so easily countable as the "2's" and "5's," but most students do not have much trouble first counting by
"3's" and then performing the corresponding multiplication tasks. And "4's" are still low enough that this holds true for this set, as well.
I have by this time also introduced my students to the pneumonic potential of rhyme by pointing out that "5 times 5 is 25" (vocal stress on the 5) and "6 times 4 is 24" (vocal stress on the 4). Particularly in this age of hip-hop, students love this sort of word play.
After the "3's" and "4's," I skip ahead to the "9's," at which point I teach them my version of the "9 trick." To my astonishment, few students are taught this easy pneumonic device in today's classrooms. I get "0" and "1" as multiplied by "9" out of the way and then focus on the trick, which is simply that the first digit in the product is the number sequentially just before the number by which "9" is multiplied, then the second number is that first digit subtracted from "9." So in
6 times 9, the first digit is "5" (just before "6"), and the second digit is "4"
("5"subtracted from "9") to yield "54." Similarly, the trick reveals the first digit in the product of 8 and 9 to be the number right before "8" and the second digit to result from subtracting that "7" from "9" to get "2" and thus yields a product of "72." The trick works throughout the numbers multiplied by "9" from "0" through "9."
So all of this usually goes quite quickly, allowing us to focus on the three numbers in the "0" through "9" sequence that tend to come most slowly for students: "6,"
"7," and "8." But by this time, there really are just a few individual sets of factors that the student has not seen in earlier sets of factors, because she or he has already seen these numbers multiplied by "0," "1," "2," "3," "4," "5," and "9." And the "6's" come rather quickly after I point out that in addition to the rhyming value of "6" times "4" is "24," that same sort of rhyming value exists in "6" times "6" is "36."
Students can then settle in to master the remaining "7's" and "8's," focusing especially on the most difficult five pairings for most students: "6" times
"7"; "7" times "7"; "7" times "8"; "6" times "8"; and "8" times "8." But "6 times 8 is 48" features another rhyme, and many students remember that "7" times
"8" is "56" after I tell them that this is the hardest one in the deck; interestingly, this observation (based on my experience in teaching multiplication over the years) helps students remember the correct product when they are presented with "7" times
"8."
I have found that this method incrementally builds student mastery and confidence, enabling young people to master the multiplication table with factors "0" through
"9" quickly. All of my Grade 2 students master this fundamental skill and knowledge set, and I have a few Grade 1 students who have already mastered the multiplcation table through "9" by the end of that academic year.
My students to a person love to learn multiplication in the way described above, and in the knowledge of this kind of response deserve to have this skill and knowledge set imparted to them as early in their K-12 years as possible.
All of this is a great shame, because full memorization of multiplication factors through 9 is necessary efficiently to find common denominators, reduce fractions, calculate decimals and percentages, solve proportions, find ratios and probability, solve algebraic equations, and perform a variety of mathematical operations in geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. And the shame is further intensified when one discovers that young children love to learn multiplication table factors when properly taught.
So consider this approach:
I always start with "0" and "1" as multiplied by the factors through 9, even when students have long since learned that "0" times any number is "0," and "1" times any number is that latter number. I rarely go through the whole group of factors through 9, but I do give students a chance to do one or two of each of these, upon which I say, "Wow, look at that--- you already know 20 of these cards. We just have to look at the ones involving 2 through 9 now."
So then I move on to the "2's," which tend to go very fast. I don't have a problem with students using their fingers to count by "2's," although after all factors "0" through "9" have been memorized or gained quick responses, I do begin to insist that students move so fast as to make counting on the fingers impossible. By this time, the "2's" have in any case typically been memorized.
I then skip to the "5's," which involve the counting exercise that comes easily to most students, so that I can then say, "See there, we don't have that far to go now. You already have mastered the table with factors using '0,' '1,' '2,' and '5.'" The student's confidence builds and what might have once seemed a daunting task now seems very manageable.
Then I back up to the "3's" and "4's." These are not quite so easily countable as the "2's" and "5's," but most students do not have much trouble first counting by
"3's" and then performing the corresponding multiplication tasks. And "4's" are still low enough that this holds true for this set, as well.
I have by this time also introduced my students to the pneumonic potential of rhyme by pointing out that "5 times 5 is 25" (vocal stress on the 5) and "6 times 4 is 24" (vocal stress on the 4). Particularly in this age of hip-hop, students love this sort of word play.
After the "3's" and "4's," I skip ahead to the "9's," at which point I teach them my version of the "9 trick." To my astonishment, few students are taught this easy pneumonic device in today's classrooms. I get "0" and "1" as multiplied by "9" out of the way and then focus on the trick, which is simply that the first digit in the product is the number sequentially just before the number by which "9" is multiplied, then the second number is that first digit subtracted from "9." So in
6 times 9, the first digit is "5" (just before "6"), and the second digit is "4"
("5"subtracted from "9") to yield "54." Similarly, the trick reveals the first digit in the product of 8 and 9 to be the number right before "8" and the second digit to result from subtracting that "7" from "9" to get "2" and thus yields a product of "72." The trick works throughout the numbers multiplied by "9" from "0" through "9."
So all of this usually goes quite quickly, allowing us to focus on the three numbers in the "0" through "9" sequence that tend to come most slowly for students: "6,"
"7," and "8." But by this time, there really are just a few individual sets of factors that the student has not seen in earlier sets of factors, because she or he has already seen these numbers multiplied by "0," "1," "2," "3," "4," "5," and "9." And the "6's" come rather quickly after I point out that in addition to the rhyming value of "6" times "4" is "24," that same sort of rhyming value exists in "6" times "6" is "36."
Students can then settle in to master the remaining "7's" and "8's," focusing especially on the most difficult five pairings for most students: "6" times
"7"; "7" times "7"; "7" times "8"; "6" times "8"; and "8" times "8." But "6 times 8 is 48" features another rhyme, and many students remember that "7" times
"8" is "56" after I tell them that this is the hardest one in the deck; interestingly, this observation (based on my experience in teaching multiplication over the years) helps students remember the correct product when they are presented with "7" times
"8."
I have found that this method incrementally builds student mastery and confidence, enabling young people to master the multiplication table with factors "0" through
"9" quickly. All of my Grade 2 students master this fundamental skill and knowledge set, and I have a few Grade 1 students who have already mastered the multiplcation table through "9" by the end of that academic year.
My students to a person love to learn multiplication in the way described above, and in the knowledge of this kind of response deserve to have this skill and knowledge set imparted to them as early in their K-12 years as possible.
May 3, 2011
An Overview of the Successful Approach of the New Salem Educational Initiative
In previous series on "The Importance of No Child Left Behind" and "Teaching the Child from a Poor and Dysfunctional Family" I have emphasized the importance of public education in a democracy, systemic failings of our current public education system upon which No Child Left Behind has shone a bright light, and important tenets for teaching children whom we need to reach if we are to transform education into the agent for genuine democracy that it should be.
In this article, as I resume posts of greater regularity (if not quite the torrid pace that I was setting for awhile), I offer in brief form the key features of the New Salem Educational Initiative that make it an agent for highly effective education and democratic transformation. I will in the course of time (although not necessarily immediately following upon this article) discuss all of these features more fully.
The New Salem Educational Initiative proceeds on the basis of tenets that I have previously emphasized as defining an "excellent education":
1) an excellent teacher;
2) a strong liberal arts curriculum.
The great bulk of students enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative participate in the small-group format for which I am the only teacher. I cordially invite anyone reading this article to come and see me in action as I teach my students in groups of one to five at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church at 2519 Lyndale Avenue North in Minneapolis. I have 17 groups whom I serve after school and on weekends, seven days a week. The students range from Grade K students to Grade
12. The emphasis is on getting students who have been functioning well below level of school enrollment up to grade level in math and reading as quickly as possible. When this is accomplished, I put my students on a college preparatory track in which they engage with challenging material from across the liberal arts curriculum with vocabulary pertinent to a variety of content areas, including fiction and poetry; history; economics; natural science; and the fine arts.
In the course of a 40-year career I have developed highly effective approaches to teaching the mathematical sequence of the K-8 years, including basic operations, fractions, decimals, percents, proportions, probability, ratios; and the Algebra I-Geometry-Algebra II-Trigonometry-Calculus sequence of the 9-12 years. Explicit vocabulary acquisition and close critical questioning regarding content undergird my approach to teaching students to be effective readers across a breadth of subject area material.
I love my students and they know it. I love teaching and they observe it in every session. I know exactly what I want my students to accomplish each and every session, and this is manifested in the logically sequenced progress that my students can see from week to week. We approach what we do with joy. We embrace education as the stuff of life. We spend virtually all of our time in straight-ahead approaches that waste no time. The fun that we have comes from the joy of acquiring new knowledge and skill sets, and from the happy and jocular manner that I bring to the task at hand, not from time-wasting and trivial games.
Willie Mays once said, "I am the best baseball player that I have ever seen."
And I would say, "I am the best teacher that I have ever seen."
There is no substitute for effective pedagogy. There is no surrogate for academic training to the level of a Ph.D. I am thinking all the time, every day, about how to impart the skill and knowledge that I bring to the art of teaching so that the model that I have developed can be generally implemented.
In the delivery of an excellent education, an excellent teacher and a strong liberal arts curriculum are paramount.
More briefly on this particular day, the New Salem Educational Initiative also thrives on the following programmatic features:
>>> transportation that I provide personally, going wherever I need to go, even for those students whose residences shift often and may include a multiplicity of possiblities (stayng variously with mom, dad, grandma, grandpa or close family friends on any given week);
>>> detailed knowledge of family situations and very close relationships that I develop with family members in every one of my students' households.
>>> genuine concern for the students and their families, with offers to connect them with resources needed by families of the inner city as they strive to meet the many challenges of their lives.
These are the major features through which students in the New Salem Educational Initiative rise to grade level performance and embark on a college preparatory track. The first features of excellent teacher and strong liberal arts curriculum are necessary for an excellent education. The other programmatic features--- flexible transportation; knowledge of family situations and close human relationships with the members of those families; and genuine concern combined with effective action in helping people meet their life challenges--- are those that recognize the additional responsibility of any educational system that seeks to meet the needs of all of its students and thus advance education as the agent of democratic transformation that it should be.
In this article, as I resume posts of greater regularity (if not quite the torrid pace that I was setting for awhile), I offer in brief form the key features of the New Salem Educational Initiative that make it an agent for highly effective education and democratic transformation. I will in the course of time (although not necessarily immediately following upon this article) discuss all of these features more fully.
The New Salem Educational Initiative proceeds on the basis of tenets that I have previously emphasized as defining an "excellent education":
1) an excellent teacher;
2) a strong liberal arts curriculum.
The great bulk of students enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative participate in the small-group format for which I am the only teacher. I cordially invite anyone reading this article to come and see me in action as I teach my students in groups of one to five at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church at 2519 Lyndale Avenue North in Minneapolis. I have 17 groups whom I serve after school and on weekends, seven days a week. The students range from Grade K students to Grade
12. The emphasis is on getting students who have been functioning well below level of school enrollment up to grade level in math and reading as quickly as possible. When this is accomplished, I put my students on a college preparatory track in which they engage with challenging material from across the liberal arts curriculum with vocabulary pertinent to a variety of content areas, including fiction and poetry; history; economics; natural science; and the fine arts.
In the course of a 40-year career I have developed highly effective approaches to teaching the mathematical sequence of the K-8 years, including basic operations, fractions, decimals, percents, proportions, probability, ratios; and the Algebra I-Geometry-Algebra II-Trigonometry-Calculus sequence of the 9-12 years. Explicit vocabulary acquisition and close critical questioning regarding content undergird my approach to teaching students to be effective readers across a breadth of subject area material.
I love my students and they know it. I love teaching and they observe it in every session. I know exactly what I want my students to accomplish each and every session, and this is manifested in the logically sequenced progress that my students can see from week to week. We approach what we do with joy. We embrace education as the stuff of life. We spend virtually all of our time in straight-ahead approaches that waste no time. The fun that we have comes from the joy of acquiring new knowledge and skill sets, and from the happy and jocular manner that I bring to the task at hand, not from time-wasting and trivial games.
Willie Mays once said, "I am the best baseball player that I have ever seen."
And I would say, "I am the best teacher that I have ever seen."
There is no substitute for effective pedagogy. There is no surrogate for academic training to the level of a Ph.D. I am thinking all the time, every day, about how to impart the skill and knowledge that I bring to the art of teaching so that the model that I have developed can be generally implemented.
In the delivery of an excellent education, an excellent teacher and a strong liberal arts curriculum are paramount.
More briefly on this particular day, the New Salem Educational Initiative also thrives on the following programmatic features:
>>> transportation that I provide personally, going wherever I need to go, even for those students whose residences shift often and may include a multiplicity of possiblities (stayng variously with mom, dad, grandma, grandpa or close family friends on any given week);
>>> detailed knowledge of family situations and very close relationships that I develop with family members in every one of my students' households.
>>> genuine concern for the students and their families, with offers to connect them with resources needed by families of the inner city as they strive to meet the many challenges of their lives.
These are the major features through which students in the New Salem Educational Initiative rise to grade level performance and embark on a college preparatory track. The first features of excellent teacher and strong liberal arts curriculum are necessary for an excellent education. The other programmatic features--- flexible transportation; knowledge of family situations and close human relationships with the members of those families; and genuine concern combined with effective action in helping people meet their life challenges--- are those that recognize the additional responsibility of any educational system that seeks to meet the needs of all of its students and thus advance education as the agent of democratic transformation that it should be.
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