Ego of the Ignorant

Self-centered world-view ("I don't need it so neither do you.") coupled with ignorance of the many negative effects on those children who could have accomplished something.

It's the evil twin of "I don't DO math."

Having taught SATprep for many years, I can tell you that the English side of this test isn't very hard - and easier for adults than for teenagers who haven't had as much experience in literature nor the practice in writing. The math side does contain topics that are obscure if you aren't currently enrolled in Algebra II, so I can understand that part.

Tragic, really. What strikes me the most is that this was retweeted so much with comments like "You're my hero!" 

I call shenanigans.

Embedded Content and the Foreign Language Paradox

Bumped to the top from August of 2010:


Joanne Jacobs: Kids Don't Know Grammar. Although neither of those quoted (perhaps misquoted) can spell "embedding," their point is good. Embedded curriculum doesn't work.

Less than 10 percent of Robert Archer’s 10th graders know grammar. A 14-year veteran teacher in Spokane, Archer doesn’t blame middle-school teachers. He blames curriculum developers for “imbedding” grammar in the curriculum.

"in my experience, the term “imbedded” is nothing more than educationalese for “not ever specifically taught.” Somehow, this grammar-is-imbedded movement is supposed to help students naturally take in what proper grammar is (i.e., grammar by osmosis). It’s very much a hyper-constructivist approach to education; the students are supposed to “discover” proper grammar on their own as they read good pieces."

He's right. They don't pick up on the proper forms of grammar, nor do they pick up much of anything that isn't specifically presented and what is, doesn't last.

Maybe I'm an old-school fart but it seems to me that if the students really could do this type of learning by assimilation, they would be miles ahead of where they are now. I do SAT prep classes and the grammar skills are terrible -- except for the kids in Spanish or French III or IV.

I call this the "Foreign Language Paradox." When learning English in an English class, grammar and basic forms are not supposed to be explicitly taught. Literature reigns supreme and some limited essay forms are required. Grammar and proper sentence structure are supposedly understood as 5th graders. Then we are all surprised that no one seems to know them.

In any foreign language class on the other hand, noun and verb declensions, grammar and sentence structure are specifically taught; then drill, drill, drill. Every student learns through actual work and walks out with an understanding of the language and a better understanding of English, too. "I never understood the subjunctive mood until Señor told us." "Past, imperfect, pluperfect - wow! Then, a couple of present tenses and more than one future tense? Damn."

It's not just Latin that builds English skills, although Latin does have power in its rigid simplicity and endless lists and mnemonics. It's specifically teaching grammar to students when they are finally sophisticated enough to really understand and appreciate it in all its nuanced glory.

Hello? Is my curriculum coordinator listening?

Apparently not.

Joanne chimed in with her own anecdote:

On Back to School Night, my daughter’s eighth-grade English teacher told parents she was going to go off curriculum for two weeks to teach grammar and punctuation. She got a standing ovation.

It's not just English, but math as well. Bunches of my students go off to the tech center for a one or two year program and then return. They have me for algebra I and then go to forestry or woodworking or something. Invariably, I hear about the embedded math credit. They are then placed in the next class and have no clue about the missed material. What's worse is that they are in my class for the eleventh grade and thus on my roster for the NECAP tests in November. I think of myself as a good teacher, but that's just not fair to either of us.

Bottom line: No matter how smart, no matter how motivated, all kids need some instruction. Unless you are specifically making things clear, you are allowing kids to construct any old thing, and it's usually flawed.

Seriously, wordpandit?

It makes me cry because it's not a typo.

Here's a sample of the quality of their proofreading.

 Seriously, http://wordpandit.com?

Leap of Logic: Romeo and Juliet Updated

That's right.  Putting a new, flashy cover on the book will mean more teenagers will read it.

No kidding.  Adding nifty-neato-graphics hasn't worked for any math book written in the last century, but maybe Shakespeare is different? Understand that I'm all for kids reading Shakespeare ... and I've often said that if parents really knew the crudity, sex and violence in  his plays, kids would never be allowed to read them. I'm just not sure that the problem is the cover. Anyway ...

ABC News breathlessly tells us that: Sexy Covers Lure “Twilight” Teens to Capital-L Literature

"Yes, that is the Bard’s bad boy on the cover of the new Penguin edition of the classic Shakespeare tragedy."

"No frills or lace. Instead, Romeo sports a white tank top and a three-day stubble. He still talks funny, but publishers hope the catchier cover will at least get young people to give the Elizabethan prose a try. Shakespeare owes a debt to the “Hunger Games” trilogy, the “Twilight” series and Harry Potter. The runaway success of those series taught publishers that young people weaned on videos are not afraid to pick up old-fashioned books, some of which can go pound for pound with “Moby Dick” or “War and Peace.”

Really?

Shakespeare owes a debt?  Romeo and Juliet is somehow an analogous book for Harry Potter fans? A kid reads Hunger Games and just naturally picks up "War and Peace"? The "funny language" issues aren't going to get in the way either.

Has this idiot ever read Romeo and Juliet?

Not an issue.

Romeo (brash 17 year-old) wants to marry Rosaline but she says no. He falls for 13-year-old Juliet at a party even though he has no idea who she is, but he tells her he loves her on sight ... which means she realizes that she loves him right back.

If it stopped there, you might be forgiven for thinking of this as a romance, albeit somewhat creepy because of the whole age thing. (Think a high school senior wanting to marry a freshman.)

Tybalt wants to murder Romeo for coming to the party. Benvolio and Mercutio make vague threats and Romeo arrives but tries to stay out of a fight, so Tybalt kills Mercutio and then Romeo kills Tybalt. It's still a romance, though, because Romeo sleeps with Juliet that night ... because sex with a child the night after you meet her is so romantic.

Romeo has to skip town because of the killing thing, and since Juliet is only momentarily upset by the murder of her cousin, she fakes suicide to get out of an arranged marriage of her own. Romeo thinks the fake is real so he commits suicide and then Juliet commits suicide when she finds him lying there.

How heart-warming.  "And the fathers lived happily ever after in harmony."

Puts me in mind of this eCard which has been going around recently:

Self-Immolation by EduTroll

I didn't alter anything, I swear ...

Unbelieveable...if you people really think that this is the successful way to the future, then your as stupid as the students that cant spell the word 'future'. Students have no social skills what-so-ever being raised in a computer generated world. They have no English skills as a result of comp slg...oh what you dont know what computer slang short-cutting is. The have no spelling skills as a result of spell check.

Circle of Failure

The other day I was in a 504/IEP meeting and a kid was being considered for alternative programs.  The tech center guy was sitting across the table and was discussing the kid's options.

"Well, the Hospitality Program would be a good fit."
"She doesn't want to put in any effort. What would be her options after that?"
"Well, she could work with the elementary school kids.  She really likes kids."


What I wanted to say was "This girl has failed at every possible program we can think of. She is lazy, and spoiled, and even her mother can't bribe her to do well.  She hates math and barely tolerates English and Social Studies. She couldn't care less about academics of any kind.  ... Why would you put her with a bunch of impressionable elementary kids?  How can that possibly work out well?"

Fortunately, I didn't have to say that, but at some point you need to put the majority's needs ahead of the reclamation project.

Contradiction?

"One of the things that we're most concerned about is exactly that," said an administration official who was not authorized to speak publicly before the release of the report. The official described the government's plans in an interview with The Associated Press.

So why did you speak publicly, Dude?  This isn't exactly whistle-blowing and you're not leaking something to prevent injury or harm or corruption. It's just spots.

Can't fix stupid.

Is it too much to expect?

I was floating around the Teacher College website, specifically "Curriculum and Teaching", when I came across a true gem of an article in a group of articles about the program (I guess).
For starters, I reproduce the list of articles:

Program News
* Does Science Proves Some Things Taught Were False? (2006)
* T.C. Takes Second in U.S. News Rankings (2006)
* Quiet Students Can Speak Volumes Through Actions (2005)
* Cathy Benedict (Obit from 2005)
* Enrichment Program Plagued By Flaws (2004)
(Parenthetical additions mine)

Yeah, it jumped out at me, too. Aren't you impressed by this Teachers College Program? How about that first article?

"Does Science Proves Some Things Taught Were False?
Published: 10/21/2006

"When I try to help my son with his homework I see a lot of things that are different from when I was in school," said Marietta parent Matt Reed, 39. "Math is so different I can't even help him most of the time." Whether it's facts that have been disproved or courses that have simply gone out of style, there are a plethora of things that used to be part of any student's curriculum and are no longer taught in schools.

Some boards of education, including the Texas State Board of Education have recommended replacing textbooks with laptop computers and say a nationwide move in that direction is only a few keystrokes away.

"I think conventional textbooks -'" they're pretty much dead," Peter Cookson, director of educational outreach at Columbia University's Teachers College told the Associated Press. "Not this year, but in the next decade."

This article appeared in the October 21, 2006 edition of the Marietta Times.
http://www.mariettatimes.com/news/story/new55_1021200615356.asp.

To be fair, this article told me a great deal about the Curriculum and Teaching Program at Teachers' College.

• It told me that nothing good has been written about them in over 3 years.
• It told me that the College can't be bothered to check the grammar on its website.
• It told me that an article that it considered important and relevant was disjointed and bizarre -- is it discussing science proving things false as the title would indicate, curricula changes confusing parents as the first paragraph has it, or the "fact" that textbooks are dead because Texas thinks they should replace them with Laptops?
• It told me that its Director is an idiot and it made it clear why TC should be regarded as the last refuge of the Incompetents.

By the way, that Texas thing about laptops? That fad was sooooo three years ago. We're doing 21st Century Skills now. You know, technology and communication skills.

Early Morning Exercise helps academics

I went to a state-wide math teacher conference last week. Among the topics presented were abstracts from four education research studies. Essentially, they said that exercise in the morning was correlated with improved test scores. We read the abstracts and the presenters asked for opinions. A teacher in the back said she didn't think she would have 20 minutes at the beginning of each class for exercise, and could this really be true?

It really made me wonder whether she could read.

Principal Suit doesn't do English either.

How to refer to the principal? Pissed Off Teacher simply calls him "Principal Suit." This conjures up a mental image of an empty suit mindlessly emitting noise disguised as insightful comment.

If my principal wore a suit or a tie, even some of the time, it would be a perfect nickname for him. As it is, I am reminded of PS whenever he sends out email and the grammatical errors simply scream. I've never pretended to an ability to write well and I am always subject to typos so I don't care when an email contains some mildly tortured grammar or a misplaced comma or a bad caes of keybaord fumble, but even I can't ignore this:

"I am hoping there are a couple people out their that have the gift ..."

How does anyone write this way without cringing?

Is Grammar dead?

American Digest:

File under: "I try to become more cynical every day, but lately it's hard to keep up."

Can't add much to that.

LiveScience has this in an article about customer satisfaction:

And when math is involved, most of us can't cope. For example: See if you can calculate the total savings in the setup: 20 percent off the original price plus an additional 25 percent off the sale price. How much is that item marked down? If you said 45 percent off, then you're math skills are as pitiful as the 85 percent of college students who also got this wrong in a study last year by researchers at the University of Miami and the University of Minnesota.

Is it just me or did that "you're" jump out at you, too? But, it's okay. I don't DO English.
Update: Got fixed! They apparently read the comments on their articles.