At a time when, despite increases in school funding, almost 80% of black and Hispanic eighth graders have been deemed “not proficient” in maths or reading, it’s unclear how improvements might be made while simultaneously graduating high-school pupils regardless of their performance, or even their attendance, and while shying from the existence of such terribly oppressive things as correct answers. But as we’ve been told, more than once, “suspending proficiency requirements” will – in ways that are somewhat unobvious – “benefit” those on whom these things are inflicted.
And parents will doubtless take comfort in the feats of mental contortion performed by those to whom children are entrusted – including the self-satisfied insistence, by high-school teacher Josh Thompson, that behaving in class is “white supremacy.” You see, paying attention and not being disruptive, so that things might actually be learned, if only by some of those present, is “passive” and a product of “white culture.” And expecting basic standards of behaviour – say, respecting other pupils who are trying to hear what’s being said – is “the definition of white supremacy,” and therefore very, very bad.
With education continuing to decline I guess employers will have to go back to general testing before hiring people. In the 1960’s many larger companies used to do written tests to see if a potential employee had the ability to understand what they would be doing. Time to start doing that again. Black or white it didn’t matter, every potential employee had to test.
If I had school age children today. They would be home schooled with a tutor.
Ralph Klein made some big moves in home education in Alberta but I suspect they have all been reversed by the Teachers Unions. Klein brought in a system were the Parent and the Student were customers of the education system. And they controlled where the tax dollar would be spent. The Tax Dollar was attached to the child. The Teachers Union HATED that they had to compete for those dollars.
You can hear the WHINE here.
https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2017/12/Blasetti%3ASilva.pdf
“Black or white it didn’t matter” – how racist!
While I was at Armpit College, I was frequently reminded that “student success” was the reason I had a job there. I was required to “deliver learning” that “met or exceeded the needs and expectations” of my “customers”.
I’m sure one reason my boss wanted my head on a platter was that I openly opposed it. I refused to adhere to the “consensus”.
Sure, mock the critical race theory rhetoric that A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction is heavily couched in, but do also look up the content yourselves: https://equitablemath.org/faq/. Don’t just take David’s word for, and spin on, it.
For one thing, the toolkit doesn’t “shy from the existence of…correct answers” in math — it readily acknowledges that “Of course, most math problems have correct answers.” It does, however, argue that by the time you’re in grade 6-8, understanding the underlying mathematical concepts and reasoning is more important than solely focusing on “getting the right answer”: “And teaching math isn’t just about solving specific problems. It’s about helping students understand the deeper mathematical concepts so that they can apply them throughout their lives. Students can arrive at the right answer without grasping the bigger concept; or they can have an “aha” moment when they see why they got an answer wrong. Sometimes a wrong answer sheds more light than a right answer.”
Raise thinkers, not robots. Hard to argue with that.
It’s not mocking it is truth telling. You are the one mocking minority children. I will believe Thomas Sowell way before your spin on education. He spells it out here https://tsowell.com/speducat.html .
That’s leftist spin, Ted.
The reason kids are graduating without having the basic skill sets is because not only will the teachers not teach those skills, but because they can’t. So in order to feel useful, they indoctrinate instead, turning these kids into social justice warriors, because those kids won’t be able to do anything else with their lives.
So rather than improving themselves, these kids would just rather change the system to fit their lifestyle.
Yes, sure it’s important to teach the kids how to think, but you have to give them the right answer in order to explain to them why they got the answer wrong. THAT is the missing element. To tell them that “they got it right” when it’s basically not even close to the truth is exactly why today’s generation believes all the crap that’s being spoon-fed into them by these propagandist agents masquerading as school teachers.
“Yes, sure it’s important to teach the kids how to think, but you have to give them the right answer in order to explain to them why they got the answer wrong. THAT is the missing element. To tell them that “they got it right” when it’s basically not even close to the truth…”
This is my point about looking at the actual source material rather than relying on David’s, or SDA’s, or whomever else’s spin (mine included). We’re talking about a math curriculum. Nowhere does it actually encourage teachers to not give the right answer when a student gives a wrong one. Nowhere does it actually encourage teachers to tell their students that every answer is the “right” one. It’s simply incorrect — factually incorrect — to parrot this claim.
If you can look past the progressive rhetoric — and yeah, it’s a lot — the pedagogical principles that it does encourage are not all that controversial, or even new. For example, one common problem in standard math curricula that it highlights is that procedural fluency is often preferred over conceptual knowledge. This is most certainly true. There are plenty of students who are taught to mindlessly churn out the right answers to, say, quadratic equation problems using step-wise instructions (great news for standardized testing scores), but ask them to explain what they’re actually solving or why it might be applicable in real-life and it’s crickets. Is that really “knowledge”? What “education” is actually being imparted?” What’s the point of focusing on just “getting the right answer” when anyone can generate it in seconds with an online calculator? Given the pace of recent and future technological advancement, rote computation is easy. Understanding when that specific computation is needed and why — that’s essential math education.
Okey-dokey then – how do you feel about the notion that showing up, doing the work, and not being disruptive are racist? Can we maybe address that?
Or maybe not – I’ve got to go vote and then spend the rest of the day relaxing. Harder and harder to give a crap what anyone else thinks about anything at all.
“how do you feel about the notion that showing up, doing the work, and not being disruptive are racist? Can we maybe address that?”
As you’ve described it, simply showing up, doing the work, and not being disruptive is (of course) not racist. Holding students to that expectation, also not racist.
There are, however, decades of evidence documenting that students can face different degrees of disciplinary action, for the same disruptive behaviours, depending on their racial background. Is this because teachers are old-school racist? A few are, I suppose. Much more often, it has more to do with the kinds of unconscious racial biases that we all carry around as a result of shared societal acculturation. It’s not individual, hate-filled racism so much as unintentional cognitive blindspots and heuristics. Teachers are people too.
“Raise thinkers, not robots.”
I heard a good comment at teachers college – “thinking is good, but first you have to know.”
You don’t have to choose one or the other, despite the efforts of various flakes looking to be woke.
They work well together, as any successful person knows, but getting knowledge requires a certain amount of effort and application, which dangerous, stupid people have decided is supremacy.
Hey Teddy boy
Can you do adding – subtraction – division – multiplication in your head.??
SO CA TOA..?? remember that.??
Remember your Trig and Calculus..??
I’m betting you, like so many would be completely fkd without a Calculator.
One does NOT “Need” to know any “underlying concepts” – ya just need to know how to arrive at the Correct Answer- that’s what a Fucking Calculator does….too.
Teddy
As a dyslexic I call bullshit on everything you are babbling here. First you need CORRECT answers, and then apply using it for gaining knowledge. Knowing why one screwed up and got the wrong answer will come on it’s own, after the correct answer is found. Without the correct answer, you don’t know if you got a wrong answer, or HOW you got it wrong. Yah, I used to win math competitions. And my friend, with a grade 7 education, is almost as good at mental math as I am. But, without the correct answer learning is impossible. The dyslexia allows my to speak authoritatively on this matter, as I had to struggle with many thing while in school, as, there was poor, or no understanding of such learn hurdles. Now take your leftist bullshit and spread it some were else.
On a related note, my nephew asked me what the difference was between ‘liberal’ and ‘progressive’ and I had to think about it a second before giving the pat answer that there’s effectively no difference except that liberals are now an extinct species. I realized that ‘progressive’ means ‘always moving forward’ and therefore, in the words of that well-known song, “When we ask them how much should we give, they only answer ‘more, more, more’. ” Liberals have an end goal in mind in how to make a better society, the same as conservatives, with progressives there’s no end in sight. Power is not a means to an end, power is an end in and of itself. The stuff they do isn’t meant to achieve some sort of goal, they do this stuff simply to demonstrate that they can.
N C ….there is no difference they are both communists.
The Left in America called themselves Progressives back in the 30s and early 40s when they supported Hitler.
When the scope of his crimes became public knowledge, they suddenly had to rebrand themselves (as Liberals, ultimately). The fact that they’re shifting back to the Progressive label now is… interesting… to say the least.
There’s the solution to white supremacy. Since we’ve been trying for decades to get black folks to maybe try a little harder to better themselves only to have things worsen, we simply take everything universally considered to be virtues, and deem them bad things. Problem solved.
It’s the same magic mirror we’re obligated to hold up for trannies to admire themselves in.
“I’m not a balding old fart with a wig, fake boobs and appallingly gaudy taste in clothes and makeup – I’m FABULOUS!”
“despite increases in school funding”
And they still can’t figure out that the more money you throw at schools, the more it attracts grifters that don’t give a damn about the students.
In the last several decades, we have been watering down standards so that everyone can be a “winner”. This does no one any good.
The above comment on Liberals and Progressives..I wonder how many graduates of our education system have even heard of John Stuart Mill?
Let alone read”On Liberty”.
Liberals used to espouse maximum individual freedom,they are extinct.
Progressives are Gang Green,a toxic infection of civilization.
Progressive ..Like Rust.
Course having met grade 12 Graduates,who cannot read,cannot express themselves on paper, cannot master a tape measure or make change from a dollar,I claim Public education has been a resounding success.
For a Kleptocracy needs citizens so ignorant,that they cannot realize they are being robbed.
2+2=22