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nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1183
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 1, 2004 - 8:08 pm: |     |
Well, now that we got that straightened out, it's time to get back to Rod:
Teacher of the Year declines invitation to DOE event
Monday, March 1, 2004
The following e-mail was sent to a U.S. Department of Education official who had invited all state Teachers of the Year to an event in Washington on March 1. The e-mail is from the Massachusetts 2003 Teacher of the Year.
Dear Ms. Jacobs,
I wanted to thank you for your gracious invitation to the conference of Teachers of the Year that is scheduled for next week. I was hoping to attend, but I am sorry that, considering Secretary Paige's recent remarks about the NEA and the teaching profession, I no longer feel that his invitation is sincere; neither do I feel that he will be providing a healthy and constructive environment in which to enhance the education of our young people. I am sure that you, Ms. Jacobs, are a sincere and well-intentioned individual, and I am sorry to send these words through you to the Secretary. I do believe, however, that the Bush Administration is hostile to public education and that the No Child Left Behind Act is a disingenuous, cynical plan by which to attack the poor and the non-white. Again, my comments are in no way meant to be uncivil to you. I do not see, however, how I can justify leaving my own students in order to attend a meeting with a gentleman who seems to harbor nothing but ill will and contempt for us all.
Thank you for the invitation, and please accept my good wishes for a peaceful, fulfilling springtime.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey R. Ryan, Ph.D.,
Massachusetts Teacher of the Year 2003
http://www.educationnews.org/teacheroftheyeardeclines.htm |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 1022
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 2, 2004 - 1:30 pm: | |
That guy has either been pressured to not attend by the union (a hostage), or he's in with the terrorists. |
lumpynose
Citizen
Username: Lumpyhead
Post Number: 740
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 2, 2004 - 2:03 pm: | |
So the one teacher is boycotting the event and he is from Massachutes and you are surprised? What about the rest?
This thread has turned into spam. It has absolutely no balance or objectivity, only hatred for the current administration. I am sure SOME child in the US has benefited from NCLB. I am sure you have researched the positive impact of NCLB and not just want you want to hear. |
nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1184
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 2, 2004 - 5:18 pm: | |
Ok, here's another one:
From John Fullinwider
Published in New York Times (03/01/2004)
Education Secretary Rod Paige's characterization of the National Education Association as a "terrorist organization" (news article, Feb. 24) shows how the "war of terrorism" can break out whenever and wherever the administration is confronted with dissent.
I am a Texas teacher and proud union member, with a master's degree, certification in four subject areas and more than a decade in the classroom. The elevation of standardized tests to near divine status is destroying public education in our state.
No child left behind? Right — except for children who don't measure up, children in overcrowded classrooms, children speaking languages other than English, children growing up in grinding poverty and children who, for whatever reason, learn at other than the "standard" pace. The law is contempt masked as compassion, irresponsibility masked as accountability.
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nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1187
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 3, 2004 - 5:40 am: | |
I dedicate this one to Michael.
Letter to the editor of the NY Times, by Joanne Yatvin
Although I disagree with your opinion (Editorial, 3/2/04) of the motives of both the Bush administration in pushing the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the National Education Association (NEA) in opposing it,motives are not the issue. Results are. So far, NCLB has, proportionally,done the most harm to the poor and minority students it purports to help, by denying so many of them graduation, holding them back in grade, pushing them out of school, and offering them test prep instead of good teaching. So far, instead of putting a highly qualified teacher in every classroom, NCLB has driven the best teachers toward affluent suburban schools or premature retirement, offered early career teachers "training" in how to parrot scripted programs, tarnished the reputations of experienced teachers who are teaching courses in addition to the ones they are certified for, and facilitated the issuance of "quickie" licenses to those who think they"might like" to teach. What new wonders does this deceitful and vicious law have in store?
Democrats are talking about the under-funding of NCLB because that is what members of the public who do not have children in school can most easily understand. Many politicians of both parties know-as Howard Dean was not afraid to say-that money alone can't transform this sow's ear into a silk purse. The repeal of NCLB, with all its ugliness and stupidity,and replacing it with true education reform should be the goal of all
Americans who sincerely care about education.
Sincerely yours,
Joanne Yatvin
(Former public school teacher and administrator;
member of the National Reading Panel)
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nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1188
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, March 4, 2004 - 8:06 pm: | |
"That guy has either been pressured to not attend by the union (a hostage), or he's in with the terrorists."
-OR-
Here's another take on the story:
Mass. teacher snubs Paige over 'terrorist' comment
By Ken Maguire, Associated Press, 3/4/2004
BOSTON -- The Massachusetts teacher of the year declined to attend an event in Washington honoring the nation's top educators of 2003, in protest of U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige calling the nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization."
Jeffrey R. Ryan, a history teacher at Reading Memorial High School who lost a friend in the Sept. 11 attacks, said he couldn't accept Paige's apology for his Feb. 23 comments about the National Education Association.
Paige said it was a "bad joke," but Ryan says he's not laughing.
"Nazi death camps aren't funny. Lynching people isn't funny. Famine isn't funny, and terrorism isn't funny," said Ryan, whose 35-year-old friend, Ted Hennessey of Belmont, died aboard hijacked Flight 11. "I just couldn't show up and shake that man's hand after he made those remarks."
Forty-four teachers of the year attended Monday's one-day conference at a city hotel which the U.S. Department of Education arranged weeks before Paige's controversial comment.
The Education secretary made the comment in a private meeting with governors. He later apologized for his choice of words, but maintained that the union uses "obstructionist scare tactics." He apologized again Monday in a speech to the teachers of the year.
"I made some inappropriate remarks," Paige told the teachers. "If you took offense at anything I said, please accept my apology. I can assure you, I have nothing but the highest esteem for teachers and the teaching profession."
The National Education Association had called on President Bush to fire Paige. The White House says Paige's job is safe.
Ryan, 49, said his refusal to attend the conference was also a protest of the 2-year-old No Child Left Behind Act, which he called a "stealth tactic by the Bush administration to undermine public schools."
Championed by Bush, the law calls for expanded standardized testing, qualified teachers in all core classes, school choice, and several other reforms.
The NEA says it does not oppose the law but wants Congress to change some of its provisions. And it wants to recruit states to sue the Bush administration over funding of the law, a move Paige has equated to assembling a "coalition of the whining to hold kids back."
Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education, said the administration has pumped billions of new dollars into public education and strengthened accountability. Had he attended the conference, Ryan could have expressed his opinion directly to Paige, she said.
"We're disappointed that he felt he was unable to attend," Aspey said.
None of the other teachers who missed the conference Monday indicated they did so out of protest, according to Aspey and NEA officials.
NEA spokeswoman Melinda Anderson called Ryan's comments, in an e-mail to Paige, "very eloquent," and said there was no organized attempt to boycott the event. The union represents 2.7 million teachers and other school workers.
Pennsylvania's representative was Joyce Dunn, a first-grade teacher at Shanksville-Stony Creek Elementary School in Shanksville, where United Flight 93 crashed during the Sept. 11 attacks.
"My school is a mile and a half from where Flight 93 crashed, and I thought it was a very poor choice of words, and he did apologize," she said. "I felt it was important to go to the forum because of the issue of No Child Left Behind and the implications of how it affects children were so much greater than Secretary Paige's comments."
Ryan has taught for 25 years, including the last six years in Reading, a suburb 15 miles north of Boston. The Massachusetts Department of Education chose him in 2002 as its 2003 Teacher of the Year.
Associated Press
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nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1191
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, March 6, 2004 - 9:00 pm: | |
Some more responses to Rod's remarks:
"... whether said seriously or in jest, this illustrates-in crystal clear terms the misplaced values of this administration. When they roll out the red carpet for the big drug companies, HMOs and insurance companies in recent Medicare legislation, and then slap our nation's teachers in the face with this unacceptable language, Mr. President, I say they are wrong.
"Secretary Paige owes our nation's teachers and the American people an explanation -- and then a full apology."
--Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) in remarks made on the Senate Floor
"If he had planned to say the stupidest possible thing when he entered the room, Paige could not have chosen better words. Not only was it wrong, inaccurate and an inexcusable application of the adjective 'terrorist,' but it enabled his political opponents to recast his slur as an assault on teachers. 'We are the teachers, there is no distinction,' said NEA President Reg Weaver. Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe accused Paige of 'hate speech, comparing those who teach America's children to terrorists.'
"Secretary Paige and, by association, President Bush, will take a justified rhetorical beating from NEA and the Democrats from now until Election Day over this. In referring to the union that way, Paige tossed the pin and held on to the hand grenade. Whatever damage he sustains is self-induced and well-deserved."
--NEA critic Mike Antonucci Item posted to his Education Intelligence Agency site
"I know President Bush wants to run as a wartime president, but this is ridiculous. Our public school teachers protect millions of children from the terrors a lack of education brings. They are not terrorists.
"Secretary Paige is clearly confused. He is attacking the NEA because the teachers are outraged that the Bush Administration is failing to fund education adequately while imposing mandates on schools across the country. But the NEA isn't alone in that. Republicans in Utah condemn the lack of funding too. Are those Republicans terrorists? The only terrifying thing in education is the Bush Administration's budget which projects huge education funding cuts in the next five years."
--Robert Borosage, president, Institute for America's Future
The Bush Administration has crossed a shameful line by calling an organization of our nation's school teachers a "terrorist organization," as Bush's Education Secretary Rod Paige labeled the National Education Association today in a meeting with governors. President Bush should apologize to the nation's teachers.
-- John Sweeney, president, AFL-CIO
"North Carolina's education professionals add our voices to those appalled at the grossly inappropriate comment made Monday by U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige. How offensive for an Education Secretary to liken the association of the nation's educators to a "terrorist organization." The explanation that it was no more than an unfortunate joke does nothing to
reduce the offensiveness of the remark.
"This is symptomatic of the deep disrespect the Bush Administration harbors against education professionals. This insight into the Administration mind set raises suspicion about education reform proposals supported by President Bush and Secretary Paige."
--Carolyn McKinney, president, NCAE
"I am deeply troubled by Secretary Paige's comments. These are men and women who get up every day to teach our kids how to read, write and add and subtract. We should have the utmost respect for our teachers who are entrusted with one of the greatest jobs in our nation: educating and guiding the future leaders of our country. To equate our teachers with terrorists is grossly offensive, and I hope that Secretary Paige and President Bush apologize for this crass statement."
--U.S. Sen. John Edwards, North Carolina
"Secretary Paige should apologize for his remarks calling the National Education Association a terrorist organization. These remarks are inappropriate, particularly at a time when our nation has experienced the devastation caused by terrorism.
"The 2.7 million teachers represented by the NEA work hard every day to help prepare America's children for the future. Teaching is one of the most important professions in our nation and we should celebrate- not chastise those who make such heroic contributions."
-- Kerry campaign spokesperson Stephanie Cutter
"They're not a terrorist organization any more than the National Business Organization is a terrorist organization."
--Gov. Ed Rendell, Pennsylvania
"It is outrageous for anyone, let alone a cabinet secretary of the federal government, to characterize the NEA in this fashion.Whether you agree with the NEA or not, it is highly irresponsible and dangerous to use inflammatory language to describe that organization. I strongly disagree with many of the NEA's views about No Child Left Behind, but it certainly has
every right to criticize that law if it so chooses and to work against if that is what it considers to be in the best interest of
teachers and children. The fact is that NEA has a long history of working on behalf America's teachers and school children,
and even if we happen to disagree now about certain aspects of No Child Left Behind, it is unconscionable to attack the NEA
with this kind of language.
"I am very disturbed by the lack of tolerance for dissent shown by numerous members of the Bush Administration. The freedom to dissent is one of the hallmarks of American democracy. At a time when terrorism is all too real for Americans, there is no room for irresponsible characterizations of organizations that have nothing to do with violence or terror."
-- Rep. George Miller (D-CA)
"While this particular remark far exceeded the bounds of civilized debate, it is not the first time that Paige has made unwarranted categorical denunciations of organizations that differ from the Department's ideologically driven views on
education. The National Education Association has both the right and the duty to speak for its teachers and other members whose interests it represents."
--Sandra Feldman, president, American Federation of Teachers
"At a time when our nation faces the very real threat of terrorism, it is both unconscionable and irresponsible for any public figure, let alone a U.S. cabinet member, to undertake this kind of name-calling. There is no excuse for such crude and inflammatory hate speech.
"While this particular remark far exceeded the bounds of civilized debate, it is not the first time that Paige has made unwarranted categorical denunciations of organizations that differ from the Department's ideologically driven views on
education. The National Education Association has both the right and the duty to speak for its teachers and other members whose interests it represents. This is a tradition that the AFT is proud to share.
"Paige's remarks are more than an 'inappropriate choice of words.' As a U.S. government official, Secretary Paige should know that the hallmark of the world's greatest democracy is the right of U.S. citizens to speak freely about government
policies. He should apologize for a statement that betrays this great heritage."
-- Edward J. McElroy, Secretary-Treasurer, AFT
"NEA members working in New Jersey are the teachers, education support professionals, and county college faculty who are making our democracy strong. They educate and care for America's children. They have built this country and made it the envy of the world. They begin every morning with the Pledge of Allegiance. For the remainder of the work day, they teach American values and ideals. For succeeding generations of children, they have explained what it means to be an informed citizen, a loyal
patriot, and a true hero. Because of their work, America is strong and proud."
--Edie Fulton, president, NJEA
"To compare the men and women who educate our children to terrorists in any context is unacceptable."
--Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Michigan
"Secretary Paige and the Bush administration have resorted to the most vile and disgusting form of hate speech, comparing those who teach America's children to terrorists. President Bush and the Republican Party should immediately renounce
Secretary Paige's hate speech. Secretary Paige has demeaned America's teachers and denigrated the men and women in uniform who are fighting a deadly enemy. It is a revolting attack on America's teachers to suggest that it is an act of terrorism to disagree with President Bush and to be outspoken advocates for students and teachers."
--Terry McAuliffe, chairman, Democratic National Committee
"Maybe Rod Paige has been spending time with John Ashcroft. Up until now, the Attorney General has been the master of the Bush administration's strategy of trying to bully dissenters into silence by equating them with terrorists. It is a shameful political tactic that Paige should definitely leave behind."
-- Ralph Neas, president, People for the American Way
"Secretary Paige's comments to governors meeting in Washington, D.C., were outrageous and demeaning. He attacked teachers and education support professionals throughout the nation who teach the ideals of democracy and America to students in every community. He displayed a gross lack of respect for the dedicated people in the classrooms of America who make sure every child attends a great school.
"When you attack the union, you attack the members and their dedication to your children's opportunities. For a member of Bush's cabinet to use the term 'terrorist' so lightly is completely irresponsible. No doubt Paige's comments are an attempt to mask the Bush administration's unwillingness to back up its education scheme with resources to help the very students it claims to support. In Wisconsin, this funding failure by the Bush administration will result in higher property taxes. Secretary Paige's hyperbole will surely backfire on him. Such an attack was beneath his office."
--WEAC President Stan Johnson
"President Bush must fire Secretary Paige and replace him with someone who can tell the difference between a teacher and a terrorist. On his way out of town, Secretary Paige owes the teachers, students, and parents an apology.
"Every day Paige continues to serve as the top educator is an insult to the millions of teachers who have dedicated their lives to students across the country. It's time for President Bush to leave Secretary Paige behind."
--U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
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nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1211
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 15, 2004 - 7:36 pm: | |
Am I the only one who thinks this is nuts?
Time May Be Up for Naps in Pre-K Class
By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 15, 2004; Page A01
After lunch and snacks, alphabet and story times, the lights go off. Sixteen tiny bodies sprawl on a sea of red foam mats, the sounds of classical piano coaxing them to sleep.
And there they stay, tucked under Spider-Man and Powerpuff Girls blankets, until teacher Chantay Wynn switches on the lights 45 minutes later. "Come on, get up," Wynn chides 4-year-old Steven Dieu, lifting him from his mat. "Open your eyes."
It's a daily ritual for the pre-kindergarten students at Hoffman-Boston Elementary School in Arlington, as it is at countless schools across the country. But in the increasingly urgent world of public education, is it a luxury that 4-year-olds no longer can afford?
By asking that question, a few leaders of Washington area school systems have begun to challenge one of the pillars of the early school experience: afternoon naps.
"Nap time needs to go away," Prince George's County schools chief André J. Hornsby said during a recent meeting with Maryland legislators. "We need to get rid of all the baby school stuff they used to do."
Hornsby wants to convert his pre-kindergarten classes into a full-day program. If he secures the funding to begin that next fall, there will be no mats or cots allowed, he said. In Anne Arundel County, where full-day pre-kindergarten is in place, Superintendent Eric J. Smith also has opted not to build nap time into the schedule.
Educators including Hornsby and Smith find themselves under growing pressure to make school more rigorous -- even in the earliest grades -- in the belief that children who are behind academically by age 6 or 7 have a difficult time catching up. "The time is very precious," Smith said. "When they come into first grade or kindergarten for the first time, they learn within a few weeks of the school experience that they're not as capable, and that's a burden that is extremely damaging."
Critics of eliminating school naps say the reality is that many 4-year-olds don't get enough sleep at home. There are piano lessons, soccer practices and other scheduled activities during the day, and many kids stay up past their bedtime because their parents come home late from work and want to talk or play.
"Kids are often kind of overscheduled even as toddlers, even as preschoolers," said Kenneth A. Haller, assistant professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
"We are a sleep-deprived society," agreed Stephen H. Sheldon, director of the Sleep Medicine Center at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Typical 4- and 5-year-olds need 10 to 12 hours of sleep, and if they don't get that at night they will likely fall asleep during the day, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The amount of sleep a school-age child needs decreases each year, and the need for naps diminishes after age 3, pediatricians say.
Most evenings, Adrian Moreno tries to get his son, David, to fall asleep by 9 p.m. The goal is to wake David at 7 a.m. to get him ready for pre-kindergarten at Hoffman-Boston, where administrators continue to support naps. But David, who recently turned 5, has a 3-year-old sister, and the two often keep each other awake playing games until 10 p.m. or so, Moreno said.
It's no wonder that on a recent rainy day, David was fast asleep soon after Wynn switched off the classroom lights.
"I think they need to sleep a bit," Moreno said. "They're small. They have to rest their minds."
Nia Baker, 4, wakes up around 6:30 every morning to get ready for day care and later spends almost three hours in pre-kindergarten at Seabrook Elementary School in Prince George's, said her mother, Aisha Baker. Then she goes back to day care until 6 p.m., when Baker, a single mother and a cashier at a D.C. restaurant, picks her up.
The rest of Nia's evening usually goes like this: She eats dinner, reviews what she learned in school for about 20 minutes, plays a little, then watches TV for 10 minutes. Bedtime is 7:30 p.m.
"You get tired," Nia said, reflecting on her schedule.
Nia gets a 30-minute nap at day care, which her mother appreciates. "They need a break to take a nap and get rejuvenated," Baker said.
But support of naps is hardly unanimous.
"Do all 4-year-olds need nap time? The answer is certainly no," said Ari Brown, a pediatrician in Texas and author of the book "Baby 411."
Smith, who came to Anne Arundel County in July 2002 from Charlotte, is a firm believer that pre-kindergarten students don't need naps. His teachers and principals urge parents to make sure the children get enough sleep at home. In place of nap time is "quiet learning time," during which students look at books or play with puzzles, said Barbara Griffith, coordinator of the county's early childhood programs.
If they do fall asleep, the teacher doesn't wake them. But the message is clear: "This is not a child-care program. It's an educational program," Griffith said.
In effect, kindergarten is becoming more like first grade, teachers say, which makes preschool more like the kindergarten of yesteryear. "When I was in preschool, I remember learning socialization skills," Wynn said. "By the time they get to kindergarten, they have to hit the ground running."
Wynn followed a recent "quiet time" -- what many schools now call any break in the school day -- with a rhyming drill. By the end of pre-kindergarten, Wynn's students have to master seven skills, from writing their names to memorizing words in a sentence to matching words that rhyme. She tests them each fall and spring to track their progress.
Zahava Johnson teaches two pre-kindergarten classes at Seabrook Elementary, each almost three hours long, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Johnson said her students stop paying attention to her lessons after 15 minutes. So she offers an occasional respite with fun activities, like singing a song about trains.
If she teaches a full-day class next year, she said, she wants the students to take a nap. Or at least take a break from the learning. "This is an introduction to school, and to have them work like a 6-year-old, I don't think that's going to work," she said.
Seabrook Principal Marvel Smith is more supportive of Hornsby's move to eliminate naps. "They can't be babied," she said. "These are young minds. We have to take advantage of this early stage when they grasp everything."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company |
marie
Citizen
Username: Marie
Post Number: 981
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 15, 2004 - 8:37 pm: | |
I recently had a discussion on the necessity of naps in children and a dults with one of the leading neurologists in the country. He specializes in sleep disorders. His name is Dr. Dan Wagoner from The Columbia-Presbyterian Sleep Study Center in White Plains.
According to Dr. Wagoner a child should NOT need a nap. If your child is a napper, there is probably a pathologically based reason for that child's need to nap.
Adults on the other hand, DO require a nap, or basically a 20 minute period in which the brain can actually cool down. Warmer climated cultures tend to be napping/siesta practioners. Scandinavian countries on the other hand are not known to nap because their brain temperatures do not physically rise to a "danger" zone.
Children - NO
Adults _ YES
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nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1214
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 5:00 am: | |
What do the neurologists have to say about intensive academics for pre-schoolers? Is that something that is good and developmentally appropriate for children? |
ashear
Citizen
Username: Ashear
Post Number: 1054
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 9:42 am: | |
Marie - he said it was pathological (i.e. related to an illness) for a four year old to nap? How about a two year old? I agree that once you hit grade school a nap should not be needed. But all agree that small children need naps. The question is where is the line. I suspect the answer is different for different kids. |
ashear
Citizen
Username: Ashear
Post Number: 1055
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 9:44 am: | |
Oh, and the whole academic thing for four year olds is nuts. Can we let them be kids and just play for a minute. Please. |
ashear
Citizen
Username: Ashear
Post Number: 1056
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 9:45 am: | |
I realized I need to expand on that. My 4 yo (actually he turns 5 today) is in the Y preschool. They do practice writting and they have a weekly theme and the actually learn a lot. But there are no drills and nothing that I would call structured acedemics like what is being described in the WaPo article. I would not want anything more than that for preschool. |
shoshannah
Citizen
Username: Shoshannah
Post Number: 409
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 11:05 am: | |
My question is this: Why are the teachers waking them up after 45 minutes if they are still sleeping? In my experience, that causes even more crankiness. Let them sleep till they wake up! |
sportsnut
Citizen
Username: Sportsnut
Post Number: 1009
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 4:38 pm: | |
"Oh, and the whole academic thing for four year olds is nuts. Can we let them be kids and just play for a minute. Please."
AMEN!!!
We are blessed with a bright, energetic 5 y.o. who learned to read at an early age. We listened to suggestions to place him in a kindergarten program at his fourth birthday. He was such a good reader at that age that he was encouraged to read stories to the other kids in his class which he did willingly until they laughed at the story and he misinterpreted it as laughing at him. He was devastated and went around denying the fact that he could read. We were so excited that he could read (it seemingly came from nowhere) that we almost forgot that he was a kid. While academically he excelled, socially he regressed. That is why I think the Y is perfect for him now. He still has a long way to go but he enjoys being a kid. We let him dictate to us what he wants to learn. For example last night he asked if he could practice writing - as he called them, "my capital letters and lower case letters." He was concerned about entering kindergarten in September because he didn't know math and he took it upon himself to thumb through the Y's program guide until he found "math blast." Now he is all worked up about taking math blast. The academics will come, lets let them have fun.
I can tell you all from experience that to see your child not having fun at the age of 5 is heartbreaking. |
nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1222
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Friday, March 19, 2004 - 9:52 pm: | |
And think how heartbreaking it will be to see your child not having no fun through high school.
http://homepage.mac.com/penguin48/Education1.html
An Open Letter to Colleges and Universities
from Counselors & Teachers
This Open Letter will be sent to academic leaders around the country. It asks them to reconsider the use of standardized testing in college admission. We believe it is important for college presidents, chancellors, and provosts to hear from those of us who deal with students every day about how their institutions' policies regarding testing can affect our students' educations for the worse.
We would like to gather at least 300 signatures before we begin to send this letter. If you would like to add your name, please send email to
highered04-notest@yahoo.com
and put "Signature" as your subject line. Your names and addresses are not for sale to anyone and we will not use them for any purpose other than that stated here.
An Open Letter to College and University Presidents, Chancellors, Provosts, and Deans of Admission
We, the undersigned high school teachers and counselors, believe that the time has come to end the dominance of standardized testing in the college admission process. Daily, we see firsthand the distorting effects these tests have on our students: For those who can afford it, more and more time, energy, and money are being devoted to preparing for college admission tests at the expense of academic subjects and meaningful extracurricular activities. Those who cannot afford coaching must endure further erosion of their educations and more seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their pursuit of higher education as reliance on a mysterious number continues to take precedence over more substantive educational characteristics.
Our schools have come under increasing pressure to teach to the tests rather than focus on academic subjects. As a result, the very qualities that colleges prize, including the ability to be fully engaged with learning and community life at the highest levels, have been devalued. Our students have become test takers, worrying more about their scores than what they can learn. (In some states, for example, the results of the testing emphasis are already being seen in severe cutbacks in science and history classes in favor of test prep courses, shrinking rather than expanding educational opportunity.)
College and university admission officers say that test scores are only a small part of the admission process; however, we know that the SATs and ACTs preoccupy the public to the exclusion of nearly every other element. Even if we grant the tests' validity in predicting freshman GPA (demonstrated to be significantly less than testing companies would like us to believe), the educational costs far outweigh this tiny organizational benefit. Add to this the demonstrated correlation between students' scores and families' incomes and educational backgrounds, information readily available in other forms, and there seems little to justify the tests' dominance.
Testing companies claim, for example, that new writing sections on the tests will send a message that colleges value writing, which supposedly will improve the way writing is taught in high school classrooms. We know from experience that the effect will be exactly the opposite: Teachers and school administrators will feel compelled to teach to the test, not expand writing curricula, and test prep companies will reinforce only those aspects of writing needed to pass the test. Students will learn to write to a mechanistic scoring rubric, not to think, plan, edit and rewrite to produce thoughtful essays. American education is already suffering as a result.
We believe that standardized testing adds nothing valuable to the conversation about a students' abilities or chances for success. Instead, it encourages a reliance on a pseudo-scientific shorthand that does a disservice to a student's true potential and puts non-wealthy non-white students at a particular disadvantage.
We believe the time has come to end standardized testing's distortion of education and college admission and to reestablish the prominence of genuine and demonstrable academic effort and success as the main criteria for higher education. Many colleges and universities have already done so and have benefited from the change.
We believe that when colleges and universities re-emphasize actual student learning and accomplishment instead of testing numbers, high schools will be encouraged to revitalize their own curricula and help students study and learn in more valuable and constructive ways.
We believe that colleges and universities, by ending the dominance of testing, will find their new students better prepared for genuine college-level work in both ability and outlook.
In order to accomplish these goals, we ask colleges and universities to end their reliance on standardized testing and lead the effort to:
1. Re-examine the role of testing in admission by conducting independent institution-based (as opposed to testing company sponsored) studies of the correlation between test scores and freshman year success, and of the true influence that testing has on the decisions themselves.
2. Ensure that admission requirements do not involve minimum ACT/SAT requirements (cut-off scores) either explicitly or implicitly.
3. Lessen or eliminate testing's impact on admission decisions by adopting portfolio-style or other methods of evaluation that rely primarily on a student's demonstrated long-term performance, not on test scores.
4. Eliminate SAT/ACT requirements for applicants who demonstrate academic excellence through grades, class rank, rigorous course work or any combination of appropriate elements. (Several colleges have already adopted this method.)
5. Work with American high schools to establish substantive admission criteria that will encourage them to emphasize studenthood not testerhood.
6. Take a leadership role in American educational policy by speaking out against the vagaries of standardized testing as a measurement of student accomplishment or as a predictor of student success.
Respectfully submitted,
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cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 1153
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 2:36 pm: | |
Respectfully submitted.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Students in the largest urban public-school systems showed improvement in reading and math in the first year under the federal No Child Left Behind law, according to a coalition of inner-city schools.
The study by the Council of the Great City Schools reviewed test scores from 61 urban school districts in 37 states. It compared 2002 and 2003 test results.
The council's executive director, Michael Casserly, said the gains in fourth-grade reading were especially impressive.
"It's one of the first signs that the major cities are making substantial headway at the elementary school level in teaching students to read," he said.
The report, being released today, found that 47 percent of the fourth-graders in the study scored at or above proficiency in reading — a gain of almost five percentage points from 2002.
For math, 51 percent of the students tested at or above proficiency, nearly seven percentage points higher than the year before.
For eighth-graders, 37 percent scored at or above proficiency in reading, about one percentage point higher than in 1992. In math, there was a gain of three percentage points, to 39 percent proficiency.
The scores covered the first year of No Child Left Behind, a centerpiece of President Bush's education agenda. The law requires states to test students in grades three though eight in math and reading annually, beginning in 2005. It also calls for all children to be proficient in both subjects by 2014.
Education Secretary Rod Paige said at the council's annual conference yesterday that the law "has now begun a process of reform that will make the educational system more inclusive, fair and just," according to prepared remarks provided by the department.
Mr. Casserly said the law deserves some credit for the progress, but not all of it.
The law, he said in an interview, "has been an important way of focusing our attention on reading and math performance, but people have been hard at work on these issues for the last couple of years."
Sorry about not just linking to this, but that's the theme on this board.
Competition brings out the best in us. In that vein, vouchers and the competition and demands they inspire RULE!
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nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1229
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 7:22 pm: | |
Really? Well, cjc--I'll believe you when you agree to send your child to one of those schools. Here's what you are likely to find there:
Federal Mandates Limit Classroom Ingenuity
She had three children of her own before she earned her bachelor's degree in education and secured a teaching credential. She wanted to teach the children most in need of eager, energetic teachers.
In the fall of 2002, she took a job in a second-grade classroom in a Bay Area elementary school in which 98 percent of the students qualify for a free lunch. The families are poor. Many are immigrants. Few of the parents have had much schooling themselves.
The teacher, who talked openly on the condition her name not be used, had lived too long to be naive about what she was taking on. But she had plans for science projects and murals and story-telling and clever games that would engage the children in arithmetic and reading.
Now, a year and a half later, she wonders how much longer she will last.
"I can't keep testing like this," she said, sitting in a classroom filled with shelves of books and alphabet posters. "This year, testing is everything. Eight days of every month I'm testing. About a third of our time is testing."
Under President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" bill, her district received a three-year grant worth nearly $5 million to implement a literacy program in kindergarten-through-third-grade classes. Similar grants totaling $900 million went to thousands of low-income, low-performing schools across the country.
The plan made sense: Pour money and effort into helping kids learn to read by third grade, and they will have a solid foundation on which to build the rest of their education.
"I was excited we were getting the money," the teacher said. "I actually was welcoming more testing because I felt it would tell me more about my students."
But policies that are so impressive on paper inside the government offices of Washington, D.C., can look quite different when brought to life inside a classroom. This second-grade teacher follows a prescribed lesson plan every day from a program called Open Court Reading. It takes the first 2 1/2 hours of every morning. The teacher spends 10 minutes on one area, such as grammar, then moves on to, say, verb tenses for 20 minutes, then maybe vocabulary for another 10, and so on.
Despite the pace and rigidity of the program, the teacher likes it. She taught it last year, too, and saw improvement in her students. "I love the reward of getting kids from not reading at all to getting them to read at grade level," she said. And she still had time in her day, after math, for science, social studies and a few art projects.
But this year, because of the new "Reading First" federal grant money, schools have to show more accountability, another word for lots of testing. The teacher gives a literacy test every Friday that reviews the week's lessons. Then she gives three tests during the year that review material from the weekly tests. Then there are the three standardized math tests. And the California standards test. On top of those, she now has to administer six Reading First tests through the year.
Two weeks ago, the second-graders at the teacher's school spent three solid days in mandated Reading First literacy testing, Monday through Wednesday. The teachers were supposed to have Thursday to teach, then spend Friday morning giving the weekly Open Court reading test. But on Wednesday, a school administrator reminded them that the quarterly math assessment had to be administered by week's end. So there went Thursday.
One of the teacher's colleagues, a first-year teacher, broke down in tears.
"She's cracking," the teacher said of her young colleague.
There's another problem with the testing besides the hours it consumes, the teacher says: Reading First tests often are not aligned with what students are learning in the Open Court program. One test had a section on antonyms and synonyms though the teacher had spent only 10 minutes during the previous four weeks focused on them. The students had been learning punctuation for greetings and closings, but the test focused on punctuation for lists and dialogue.
In one test I saw, students were asked to write a letter about a gift they had received. They were given a checklist that included such prompts as, "Did you include sensory words that describe your gift?" These are second-graders. Sensory words?
Just the directions for certain sections of the test I saw were so multi-stepped and confusing that struggling readers -- the population that the Reading First program is targeting -- surely had little chance of figuring out what was being asked of them.
"Kids are given tests so far over their level that it's demoralizing for me to give it to them and demoralizing for them to take it," the teacher said. "The results tell me almost nothing about my students because they're not being tested on the material we're covering."
This teacher rarely has time to teach science or social studies, much less art. She still squeezes in fun games that reinforce spelling, phonetics and grammar. But with the breakneck pace of the literacy program and the endless, often nonsensical testing, the teacher is finding the job radically different from the one she imagined when she walked through the door.
"What's putting me over the edge is there's no joy in teaching," she said.
Thousands of miles away in Washington, D.C., Bush recently talked about his "No Child Left Behind" plan.
"It's an exciting time for American education," he said. "We're facing challenges, but we have the blueprint for success."
I know a teacher who would like that blueprint. The one she has now isn't working so well.
E-mail Joan Ryan at joanryan@sfchronicle.com
— Joan Ryan
San Francisco Chronicle
Federal Mandates Limit Classroom Ingenuity
http://www.susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=160
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cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 1157
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 11:55 am: | |
Since I'm a real rich guy, I can send my kids to any school I want to -- so I, in effect, have a 'voucher.' Don't worry -- know I'm still subsidizing mediocrity for the rest of you poor saps.
Speaking of ingenuity, how much ingenuity is Philadelphia missing with NCLB? let's see from today's Philly Inquirer.
Posted on Tue, Mar. 23, 2004
Teachers come up short in testing
By Susan Snyder and Dale Mezzacappa
Inquirer Staff Writers
In Philadelphia, students aren't the only ones struggling to pass tests.
Half of the district's middle school teachers who took tests to become certified as highly qualified under the federal No Child Left Behind law failed, district results show.
Math teachers did the worst: Nearly two out of every three failed that exam, while more than half flunked the science test, 43 percent the English exam, and 34 percent the social-studies test.
The results are for 690 of the public school district's 1,346 seventh- and eighth-grade middle school teachers, who took the tests in September and November. Teachers have until June 2006 to take the test and meet the mandate.
Philadelphia teachers failed the test at a far greater rate than those in the rest of the state. Excluding Philadelphia, 77 percent of the 2,905 teachers statewide passed, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. One-third of the teachers statewide who failed work in Philadelphia.
"It's obviously very discouraging," said Betsey Useem, a research consultant who has studied Philadelphia teacher staffing. "People should be able to pass this test if this is the subject they're teaching. They shouldn't be skating on thin ice in terms of content knowledge."
Paul Vallas, chief executive officer of the Philadelphia School District, said in the teachers' defense that the test "is in no way a wimp test. It's a tough test."
But he supported the testing mandate: "Look, we're holding the kids to higher standards. We need to hold our teachers to higher standards, too."
The district plans to run a test-preparation program for teachers to help them pass next time, he said. The test is scheduled to be given again in the next couple of months. Results from January and March tests were not available.
The federal law specifies that seventh- and eighth-grade teachers need to demonstrate content knowledge in every subject they teach to be considered highly qualified, but it allows each state to set its criteria.
Pennsylvania requires that teachers pass exams in the subjects they teach. Some other states, such as New Jersey, also offer alternate routes for veteran teachers to meet the requirement, taking into consideration years of experience and college courses as well as outside training in the subject.
Pennsylvania is considering allowing alternate criteria, although no decision has been made, said Brian Christopher, an Education Department spokesman.
But Ross Wiener, a policy analyst at the Education Trust, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, said eliminating the test requirement did not solve the underlying problem.
"There's a very commonsense statement that teachers cannot teach what they do not know," he said. "Middle school is when students are expected to transition from basic calculations to algebra and advanced math skills. They need teachers with strong content knowledge.
"To eliminate the test is a little bit like shooting the messenger. Obviously these teachers need support," Wiener said.
The testing requirement matters to parents, such as Dolores Shaw, who has a seventh grader at Roberto Clemente Middle School. She said it would "bother [her] a lot" if her child was being taught by someone who had not passed the test.
"It's like sending people to the front lines to teach without the proper weapons. This is an educational war," said Shaw, president of the Roberto Clemente Home and School Association.
In Pennsylvania, elementary teachers are certified through sixth grade and secondary teachers from seventh through 12th grades. But for schools that span both elementary and secondary grades - middle schools - the state has allowed elementary-certified teachers to teach all grades.
Most middle school principals in Philadelphia have preferred elementary-certified teachers to maximize scheduling flexibility; for instance, a math-certified teacher could teach only math, while elementary-certified teachers could teach all subjects.
More than 90 percent of Philadelphia middle school teachers are elementary certified.
The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers says it is pleased that the district plans to offer a test-preparation program for teachers, but questions the fairness of the testing requirement.
"We have so many middle school teachers who have been doing a terrific job all along. They've been doing it for years," said Arlene Kempin, chief personnel officer for the teachers' union.
Many instructors at the middle school level teach more than one subject, which means they might have to pass multiple exams, she said. As the district converts middle schools to kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools, it will become even more difficult because seventh- and eighth-grade teachers in those schools likely will be teaching all subjects, she said.
"That's going to be a real issue in terms of staffing those schools," she said.
Lisa Haver, a social-studies and science teacher at Harding Middle School, agreed. Haver, who is elementary certified, has been teaching since 1987.
"It doesn't make sense to put in less-experienced teachers who happen to pass this one test," she said.
Haver had taught sixth-grade math for several years before switching to other subjects this year. She would not need the certification to continue teaching sixth grade, but because she has only five years of building seniority, she was concerned that she would be bumped up to seventh and eighth grades as other teachers avoid taking the test.
So she took the math exam - and failed it by three points.
"There was stuff on there I've never seen," Haver said, adding that some of her colleagues were equally perplexed. "When it was over, we just put our pencils down and looked at each other, like: 'What was that?' "
Michael Geraci, a math teacher at Penn Treaty Middle School - who got a perfect score on the math test - said seventh- and eighth-grade teachers needed to know the material on the test. He said the test mostly included seventh- and eighth-grade math and touched on high school math.
"I want to be able to let my students know what to expect going into high school, where this is leading to," said Geraci, who has taught in the city for six years.
But Nick Perry, a science teacher at Conwell Middle School, said one test was not an accurate measure of a teacher.
"Content sometimes is really overrated. A teacher is like an artist, a coach. He has to be able to inspire children," said Perry, a seventh-grade science teacher, who has a master's degree in environmental science and the necessary certification."
See, nan -- I have a voucher to get out of a mess like that. Other kids are stuck -- and that's just tough for them, I guess. Let's tell them it's all about funding, and we'll pledge more money -- like in, oh, Newark -- and we'll tax the rich, and their kids will be really, really smart next year, after we teach the teachers about what they say they're good at teaching. "I'm a math teacher." Really? Please take this test. "Whoa....you have to teach me how to pass it." O...K! Perhaps you'd like to head the department? Are you, possibly, from the intellectual slums of the Education Department more than from say....anything to do with math? Just curious. Perhaps you'd be better at studying, analyzing, and programming failure rather than teaching math.
Let's pay them based on seniority, not according to expertise or accomplishment --- that's how you reward excellence.
Yesterday, the NY Post had the headline "The Age Old Problem -- 17 year old Ninth Graders." The answer, obviously, is to get more money.
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bobk
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 5031
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 12:45 pm: | |
Cjc, knowin' how you feel about taxes and everything, how do you feel about the proposed 9% school tax increase this year, a good part of which is to pay for the NCLB mandates?  |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 1163
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 1:17 pm: | |
Taxes in this state are based on property values, and those are the rules as it stands now. They should be changed.
As for NCLB, I think it may be the first time that spending is tied to accountability -- at least in my memory. That's how it should be done, and is done in just about every productive area of society.
And jeez, bobk -- you just can't spend enough for education! Ask anyone! Just like the War on Poverty -- we just haven't spent enough. |
harpo
Citizen
Username: Harpo
Post Number: 1449
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 4:01 pm: | |
At least the science teacher figured it out and got it right:
"But Nick Perry, a science teacher at Conwell Middle School, said one test was not an accurate measure of a teacher.
'Content sometimes is really overrated. A teacher is like an artist, a coach. He has to be able to inspire children,' said Perry, a seventh-grade science teacher, who has a master's degree in environmental science and the necessary certification." |
nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1230
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 7:48 pm: | |
cjc,
This article illustrates how NCLB punishes and humiliates teachers who have stepped up to the plate and made an honest effort to help out and fill in gaps. It's very hard to find math teachers, especially those that want to teach in the inner city. Often, teachers from other subjects get drafted and may be trying very hard to fill a role they would not have normally chosen. Right in the article it says that most of the teachers are certified for elementary, not secondary levels--but are allowed to teach all subjects middle school. This says more about the system than it says about the teachers.
I've never even pretended to be a math teacher, so I don't know what all that gobbledygook you have after the article is supposed to be about. I guess as a self-proclaimed rich person you feel entitled to your repulsive rant. It's a free country; have a party. Sounds like a palace next to the slums kind of vision to me. Is that the kind of world you want to live in?
And what makes you think the teachers at the private school you brag about sending your kid to can pass those tests? Private schools don't have to fill any of unfunded mandates of NCLB and no accountability requirements either. If you believe so strongly that tests are needed to ensure productivity, why are you letting them off the hook?
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ffof
Citizen
Username: Ffof
Post Number: 2087
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 9:10 am: | |
nan- don't bother with cjc. |
Montagnard
Citizen
Username: Montagnard
Post Number: 514
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 11:57 am: | |
An honest effort is not enough if it results in a child being taught misleading or flat-out wrong concepts in math and science, or being turned off permanently because their teacher can't make the material comprehensible.
The teachers themselves are responsible for a good part of this problem, because their collective agreements have typically made it difficult for school districts to pay higher salaries for the harder-to-get math and science specialists.
As for passing the test, I'd say that a teacher must be able to score 100% on any test that might reasonably be set for their students, and to do so in an exemplary manner that illustrates multiple solution techniques. Anything else would be a travesty.
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cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 1172
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 - 12:49 pm: | |
nan---I'm funding your public schools and your slums. What more do you want? I mean...besides 'more.' I'm funding them and I'm not even sending my kids there -- a three-fer for you.
The school I send my kids to does have standards and accountability measures to meet. They are mine. And if the school fails, I yank my kids and their funding away from them -- a great impetus for that school to perform. Not so for the public schools. You get paid based on seniority rather than expertise and accomplishment. An idiot gets paid as much as a genius. And here's the kicker -- if you're really bad, they INCREASE the money you get. I wish that was the way my job worked.
They tried hard, they failed, and they feel bad. Great, but it's not enough. Try to take that to the bank, or take that to a job interview, or have the student take that to a literacy course when they're 17-year old 9th graders. |
nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1263
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Friday, April 9, 2004 - 3:50 pm: | |
Here's an interesting comparison with our approaches to education. Wonder what the Fins think of NCLB?
Educators Flocking to Finland, Land of Literate Children
SUUTARILA, Finland - Imagine an educational system where children do not start school until they are 7, where spending is a paltry $5,000 a year per student, where there are no gifted programs and class sizes often approach 30. A prescription for failure, no doubt, in the eyes of many experts, but in this case a description of Finnish schools, which were recently ranked the world's best.
Finland topped a respected international survey last year, coming in first in literacy and placing in the top five in math and science. Ever since, educators from all over the world have thronged to this self-restrained country to deconstruct its school system - "educational pilgrims," the locals call them - and, with luck, take home a sliver of wisdom.
"We are a little bit embarrassed about our success," said Simo Juva, a special government adviser to the Ministry of Education, summing up the typical reaction in Finland, where boasting over accomplishments does not come easily. Perhaps next year, he said, wishfully, Finland will place second or third.
The question on people's minds is obvious: how did Finland, which was hobbled by a deep recession in the 1990's, manage to outscore 31 other countries, including the United States, in the review by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development last September? The rankings were based on reading, math and science tests given to a sample of 15-year-olds attending both public and private schools. United States students placed in the middle of the pack.
Finland's recipe is both complex and unabashedly basic. It is also similar to that in other Nordic countries. Some of the ingredients can be exported (its flexibility in the classroom, for example) and some cannot (the nation's small, homogenous population and the relative prosperity of most Finns, to name two).
If one trait sets Finland apart from many other countries, it is the quality and social standing of its teachers, said Barry Macgaw, the director for education at the O.E.C.D.
All teachers in Finland must have at least a master's degree, and while they are no better paid than teachers in other countries, the profession is highly respected. Many more people want to become teachers after graduating from upper schools than universities can actually handle, so the vast majority are turned down.
"Teaching is the No. 1," Outi Pihlman, the English teacher at Suutarila Lower Comprehensive School, said about a recent survey asking teenagers to name their favorite profession. "At that age, you would think they would want anything but to go back to school."
The Suutarila school - cheerful, well lit, nicely heated - is typical of Finnish "comprehensive schools," which run from first to ninth grade. The students, who number about 500, pad about in their socks. After every 45-minute lesson, they are let loose outside for 15 minutes so they can burn off steam. Others are allowed to practice their music, and they file into classrooms, sling electric guitars across their chests or grab drumsticks and jam.
Children here start school late on the theory that they will learn to love learning through play. Preschool for 6-year-olds is optional, although most attend. And since most women work outside the home in Finland, children usually go to day care after they turn one.
At first, the 7-year-olds lag behind their peers in other countries in reading, but they catch up almost immediately and then excel. Experts cite several reasons: reading to children, telling folk tales and going to the library are activities cherished in Finland. Lastly, children grow up watching television shows and movies (many in English) with subtitles. So they read while they watch TV.
So long as schools stick to the core national curriculum, which lays out goals and subject areas, they are free to teach the way they want. They can choose their textbooks or ditch them altogether, teach indoors or outdoors, cluster children in small or large groups.
While there are no programs for gifted children, teachers are free to devise ways to challenge their smartest students. The smarter students help teach the average students. "Sometimes you learn better that way," said Pirjo Kanno, the principal in Suutarila.
Students must learn two foreign languages - Swedish is required by law, and most also take English. Art, music, physical education, woodwork and textiles (which is mostly sewing and knitting) are obligatory for girls and boys. Hot and healthy school lunches are free. There are also 90 computers scattered about the school, and students are free to attend homework clubs staffed by assistants after school.
Despite the accolades, Finnish officials say they are far from perfect. Boys, for example, perform much worse than girls in reading, and with so many wanting to become teachers, too few are willing to leap outside the social service sphere. "We're trying to get them to start their own businesses," said Kirsi Lindroos, the national board of education's director general.
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.html?id=58
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knak
Citizen
Username: Knak
Post Number: 53
Registered: 5-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 12:07 am: | |
I read this in the NY Times today and hoped someone would post it.
I told my daughter about the school, and she said "that's not fair!" (why can't we get up and run around after 45 minutes?)
Some especially striking motifs: respect for teachers, leading to high desirability of the profession. Waiting till children are 7 to formally teach reading, at which point they learn quickly and catch up to their international peers. Movies with subtitles as a learning tool! (I've often thought they were too much work unless a film was truly excellent.) And of course, the expectation in the national curriculum that education will include not only math and reading but "two foreign languages - Swedish is required by law, and most also take English. Art, music, physical education, woodwork and textiles (which is mostly sewing and knitting) are obligatory for girls and boys." And they don't even have small classes. I'm a little jealous too.
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michael
Citizen
Username: Michael
Post Number: 535
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 1:37 am: | |
Let's not forget LNHB- "Leave NO Holiday Behind" !
NO SCHOOL- as there is some holiday on every day of the year to be found in some religion.
I say- let's move forward on this.
Solve the whole budget mess. No school, can't teach, don't need a budget. A Holiday every day.
Who are WE to pick and choose which "holidays are more important than others? How imperialist of us. Blahh !!
Tuesday April 13 Keep your children home it's
The Day of the Iconoclast 'Baisakhi' a very important Hindu holiday.
Also :Songkran is a Thai traditional New Year which starts on April 13 every year
National Day in Chad
Be considerate. Keep your child home. Show some respect
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nan
Citizen
Username: Nan
Post Number: 1289
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 5:25 am: | |
From Bill Harshbarger, Illinois history teacher
Published in Education Week
To the Editor:
Commentary writers Michael Cohen, Chester E. Finn Jr., and Kati Haycock want students to fear that there is no job future for them unless they do better. But after 20 years, it’s an old story. Any fool can raise standards. That simple solution doesn’t work anymore, if it ever did. Those who do the real work of education don’t need to be driven by fear to improve. No matter how frightened teachers and students might be, the question still remains: How can teaching and learning improve?
Global competition did more than require new skills for employees—it took away from many middle-class and working people the financial flexibility to invest in education. Now parents must carefully calculate how they spend the education dollar. They can’t afford the field-of-dreams delusion that if they spend $40,000 for a college degree, "the job will come." Now they can only afford to prepare for jobs that will actually exist.
Your essayists declare that there are "jobs that pay enough to support a family above the poverty level." Great. What are they? How many are there? Are we training a hundred students to fill 10 job slots? They don’t say.
Thoughtful critics can drive a truck through that hole in their argument—and truck drivers aren’t required to have a high-standards education or an expensive college degree to earn an above-poverty-level income. They are required to know a great deal about driving trucks—a skill that is not taught in any public, K-12 school today.
A recent U.S. Department of Labor study projects that by 2008, only 20 jobs out of 100 in America will require a college education. Yet, Ms. Haycock and Messrs. Finn and Cohen seem to be pushing more students, rather than fewer, to get a college education. Investments in high standards for student work and rigorous preparation for college must do more than feather the nests of college professors, universities, and education foundations.
Parents and students, like others, expect a return on the educational dollar they invest. It’s a family economic disaster to invest in a college degree for which a foreign competitor has already taken the job. The large amounts of money spent must lead to something other than the unemployment line for those with high expectations.
New injections of fear won’t help parents and students get the unemployment message. They got it. They don’t need another round of high standards to prove that they are failures. What they need is a direct line to employment in existing jobs. What they should expect is a commitment from business to support their efforts to continue their education while they are working.
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Chris Prenovost
Citizen
Username: Chris_prenovost
Post Number: 59
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 8:25 am: | |
Until someone can show me a better way, standardized testing is the only way to find out if the children are learning anything.
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