Readers won't find me blogging much on education since it is the subject of my day job, but today's Seattle Times does have a couple fascinating education stories worth a read:
1) An editorial column from Bruce Ramsey raising pointed questions about the constant education funding debate and the future of Seattle schools. What makes the column especially worth a read are the pointed comments from former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, and surprisingly, even more candid thoughts from current Mayor Greg Nickels. Ramsey gets in a great line on Nickels describing him as "a man not bashful about raising a tax." Yet, Nickels' thoughts are still refreshingly direct.
2) A story on successful science test scores in the Eastside suburbs hones in on one of the true secrets of successful teaching:
'We don't just want to prepare our students to take the WASL,' said Debbie Ney, science teacher at Maywood. 'We want to prepare them to be scientists. We want them to be engaged with science so they want to go on.'
Teaching to the test is poor form. However, teaching students to know the subject area well enough that they perform well on tests, and maybe even get excited about the topic, is outstanding.
My sixth grader, whom I have been told is an average student, was asked to multiply 60 x 3 and subtract 120 from 120 as I started teaching her long division. Is it just me or didn't we learn long division in like the fourth grade?
Posted by: swatter on September 21, 2006 07:21 AMthe native American "class" gets bigger every year--started with an after-school evening play, now filling 2 full days of class time, presumably with "consultants" making a nice buck; i wonder how it skirts the school's religious prohibitions, as the lessons are not purely cultural and "the Spirits" are intertwined in that culture & virtually all its stories;
don't get me wrong, it's very interesting stuff & part of the local culture, but not worth 2 full class days, to the shortchanging of the (sarcasm inserted) "bad white wild west settlers'" stories;
perhaps an argument could be made defending its time as a class trip to the aquarium--full day, travel, etc;
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on September 21, 2006 07:53 AMPosted by swatter at September 21, 2006 07:21 AM
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No, swatter, you're not wrong. Kids are not learning math in any fashion that will correctly serve them in the future. We have a schools system that is turning out dolts rather than educated citizens.
The Washington Educators' Assoication and the National Educators' Assoication haven't been much help in preventing this "dumbing-down" of public education. (Notice that I used the ter, "Educators" versus "Education" when mentioning the WEA and NEA. I believe they are unions that exist to promote the welfare of educators versus promoting education. In short, I view them as part of the problem.)
Posted by: Libertarian on September 21, 2006 08:30 AMWhen I went to school I was never in a "required" class smaller than 25 students. My graduating class was 625.
And we now have the "new" NEW Math, ie calculator based.
But the best example of how out of touch those responsible for education was done by ABC's 20/20. Which did a special report called "John Stossel's 'Stupid in America' ".
If you missed it, read the excerpts and see the video clips here.
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=2383857&page=1
It was right on the button. The program showed a school district, that had so much money they could afford having the students arrive by taxicab. And yet their test scores plummeted downward.
Posted by: Mike P on September 22, 2006 06:39 AMI would like thank all the teachers that I had in all those schools. For being as professional as they were, when teaching me. Even when one recommended that I be held back a year (3rd grade).
Posted by: Mike P on September 22, 2006 06:48 AM