| Author | Message | ||
     lumpynose Citizen Username: Lumpyhead Post Number: 816 Registered: 3-2002  |
Harps- You are probably correct since I have been posting since the summer of 2000 which is not reflected in my total. Unless of course you are referring to confidential information garnished from one of your gossipy inner circle parties. | ||
| Who? Citizen Username: Deadwhitemale Post Number: 708 Registered: 5-2001 |
Yes, we need to make changes, candidate. Let's just switch the levels, so that the lower levels are the new upper levels, and vice versa. That's my suggestion. What's yours? Not just wished for outcomes; how are we to get there, and at whose expense and at what cost? Good questions for all candidates. I will not be available for days, so, have fun on line. DWM | ||
| Who? Citizen Username: Deadwhitemale Post Number: 709 Registered: 5-2001 |
PS: Kudos for weighing in on line. DWM | ||
| harpo Citizen Username: Harpo Post Number: 1385 Registered: 6-2001 |
Lumpynose, You're losing track of the caricature. Remember? I never leave my castle! | ||
| harpo Citizen Username: Harpo Post Number: 1386 Registered: 6-2001 |
Mr. Gifford, I commend you for becoming a candidate. I look forward to learning more about your views. | ||
| guillermo Citizen Username: Guillermo Post Number: 14 Registered: 7-2003 |
How come in a thread called "Who's running for the BOE," no one's mentioned a candidate (except for Mr. Gifford's self-mention) in seven days. Can someone tell me more about the candidates? | ||
| mem Citizen Username: Mem Post Number: 2882 Registered: 5-2001  |
Mr. Gifford, How much experience do you have managing an $80 million dollar budget? Thanks in advance for your response. | ||
| bookgal Citizen Username: Bookgal Post Number: 513 Registered: 7-2001 |
Guillermo, The first candidate debate is tonight at the DeHart Center. Attending the debate is an excellent introduction to the candidates. I would imagine that all candidates will be distributing flyers, brochures etc over the next few weeks. There is also the upcoming debate organized by the League of Women Voters. Most if not all candidates will also be attending neighborhood coffees which is another great way to meet the candidates in person. | ||
| John Davenport Citizen Username: Jjd Post Number: 170 Registered: 2-2003 |
Finally, a few responses. Sorry for the delay, but I'm trying to swear off MOL, or limit myself to a couple posts a week! But I'm off the wagon again now... First, I must just say that Suzanne Ryan's post was one of the best I've ever read on Maplewood Online. It should be reprinted in the newspaper; I think I will print and frame a copy. I think the debate on the language arts issue has pretty much run its course. We are repeating ourselves at this point, and I think it is ready to put to a vote. Nan thinks there are lots of teachers who agree with her. I think that a strong majority would favor trying a real curriculum, with supplemental literature and the ability for teachers to tailor it, and see if we can make some improvement. After all, Mr. Gifford is quoted in today's News-Record as saying that we have quite a few students in Columbia who are next to illiterate. So at this point, significant change in our approach is worth a shot. Let's try it and see if we get anywhere, because it couldn't get much worse. That's always been my position, whatever ACE has said. Harpo, I'm sure that Suzanne did not say, or mean, that federal and state funds should not be provided to help with NCLB or other unfunded mandates. She is as mad as the rest of us (and Sen. Jeffords) that we get no federal money for Special Ed. That alone would make a huge dent in our budget problems. Her point is that NCLB provides some new leverage for making sure that no student comes through any school district remaining illiterate. You allude to "cultural changes needed for effective schools with diverse populations." I might have some sympathy with you here, but could you spell out what you mean in a bit more detail...? To answer Harpo's legitimate question: no, I do not have a particular published curriculum in mind (nor, to reassure Nan, am I on the payroll of anyone with a vested interest in this!). To determine this would take a lot of time reviewing them, and an expertise that I do not claim. I'm not sure what ACE has said about this (I'm not a member of ACE!) but I think everyone who favors a change imagines that this would be a substantial process. The Board surely would not pick a particular program; it would recommend that one be picked, and give experts within the district their chance to decide between published programs meeting the Board's criteria. Either Harpo or Nan could serve on that committee, perhaps. They might do a better job than some of our paid administrators anyway! But before we move on to other topics -- and I think we should -- a few misimpressions should be cleared up. First, as with Annette DePalma and David Fraser, Suzanne and Jerry Ryan should each be recognized as independent people with their own minds. There is no reason in the world why someone who may have opposed Jerry in the TC primaries last year could not agree with Suzanne about the directions in which the BOE needs to go now. I'm sure that Harpo did not mean to imply otherwise. It should also be repeated that this BOE election has virtually nothing to do with Republican or Democratic affiliation. Nan, it may even be the case that some people in the federal government who support phonics-intensive reading curricula have said crazy things. But so what? That is totally irrelevant to what we should do here in our district. I'm sure there is some nutjob criminal somewhere who also happens to agree with my views on the federal deficit, but that doesn't mean my views on that subject are wrong? Nan also asked "What about all those kids in California who don't have recess or social studies or art or music even some math bacause they are getting nothing but Open Court all day?" But this sounds like an intentional distortion of what proponents of LA curriculum reform in our district are proposing. No one -- ACE, myself, any school Board candidate I'm supporting -- is suggesting that we ought to cut music, gym, sports, foreign language etc. and just keep kids inside to drill them on phonics all day long! And you know that very well! For example, Bob Little is very strong on the arts, though he also thinks that our LA curriculum needs a serious review, not a whitewash. I am doing my best to convince everyone involved that we need to keep all sorts of enrichment programs in our district, as well as Project Ahead. Yet it is perhaps worth noting that if we do lose Project Ahead in non-Title I schools due to our extreme funding crunch, then reforming the LA curriculum will be even more vital. Second (this is particularly in reply to Nan): don't worry so much about the curriculum change. I think the emotional significance of this issue to you was brought out when you wrote "I had that kind of instruction when I was a kid and it made no sense to me then and it makes no sense to me now." It makes sense in this context why you would feel so strongly. I'm sure that whatever was wrong with the curriculum you had, we do not mean or want to repeat here. But you should not assume that starting with a published phonics-based curriculum has to imply this sort of drudgery. I don't think anyone involved in the diverse set of groups pushing for a change in our LA program is imagining that we dump a workbook and folder on each teacher and say 'now get to it.' Whatever published package we might adopt, it will surely be supplemented in all kinds of ways to assure that kids who don't need a particular piece need not be bored to death by going through repetitive exercises that are no use to them. As an analogy, I might start an elaborate cake with a simple vanilla spounge core, but add all kinds of fillings and toppings (and some kids will mostly eat only toppings...) By contrast, in case you don't realize this, many advanced readers in our elementary schools are bored by some of the strange and weird exercises that our current curriculum contains. I have tried to avoid personalizing this, but I know that my older daughter doesn't get a heck of a lot out of the bizarre word sort activity she has to do for homework every Wednesday. But this is not our teacher's fault -- she is excellent, but the materials she has to work with are certainly not! So boredom and being turned off are not the exclusive province of Open Court or any other published curriculum. So what we are proposing is a balanced curriculum, not one size fits all. The basic garment we hope to provide can be lengthened or shortened for each student by a skilled teacher. At the moment, however, our LA curriculum is more like the famous garments of the glorious Emperor who had no real clothes at all. | ||
| harpo Citizen Username: Harpo Post Number: 1401 Registered: 6-2001 |
John Davenport, As much as I am grateful to Suzanne's contributions to MOL, I don't think a newspaper would reprint what she wrote above, even if she corrected her misrepresentations of mammogram research. (I hope other people realize they are incorrect.) The core problem is Suzanne's belief that science has produced a "cure" for all argument about how to teach reading. It simply isn't so. It is not clear to me how many if any of the candidates share this belief. But if any of them do, I don't want them on the BOE. The people on the BOE should be able to tell the difference between what is supported by research and what is not. Amazing that Mr. Gifford (the 18-year-old) is suddenly a candidate you think is worth quoting. What a difference it makes when people agree with you! What Mr. Gifford hasn't said is whether those students are the product of our elementary school. I don't think you know the answer to that, do you? When I spoke of "cultural changes needed for effective schools with diverse populations" I was alluding to studies done in schools with similar racial make-ups as ours that indicate that the "achievement gap" can be attributed to differential treatment of students by teachers depending on the race of the student. Changes in curricula don't address that problem at all. At present, we don't know why SOMA schools have an acheievement gap. Do you? Do you know why? You are attributing everything to a curriculum you don't like, but changing that curriculum may not solve a thing. My remarks about the way Jerry was treated while on the TC weren't meant to say that the people who abused him then with incivilities shouldn't behave better now. It may be that BOE elections are officially non-partisan. But I think it is foolish for Maplewood taxpayers to elect BOE members who are unwilling to be openly criticial of the Bush Adminsitration's unwillingness to fund NCLB. And the McGreevey Administrations failure to address property tax reform. We need people who reject the the Bush Administration's willingness to manipulate supposedly "scientific data" to support bogus claims about reading "cures." That is NOT a a "So what?" issue. It goes to the heart of educational integrity. I am encouraging taxpayers in Maplewood to vote for people who apply consistent standards of intellectual rigor to matters of education and research. Otherwise, the schools here will rot intellectually from the top down, and millions of taxpayer dollars will be spent on bogus "solutions" to real problems. | ||
| lumpynose Citizen Username: Lumpyhead Post Number: 819 Registered: 3-2002 |
Harpo- Please do not take this as insult but why do you feel you are right and that Suzanne Ryan is wrong? Do you have a background in the educational field? | ||
| crabbyappleton Citizen Username: Crabbyappleton Post Number: 24 Registered: 1-2004 |
I feel a Hot Breeze. | ||
| ffof Citizen Username: Ffof Post Number: 2071 Registered: 5-2001  |
bookgal, where's your post? THose were good questions. | ||
| bookgal Citizen Username: Bookgal Post Number: 515 Registered: 7-2001 |
I know but I am trying to swear off posting here because I find wading through the vitriol, the idealogical rants and the character assassination too depressing..so I had a change of heart. I understand Nan's committment..she was previously a teacher, her child is in the district but I don't understand what experience or expertise Harpo brings to her posts and I would love to know so I can better evaluate those posts. I have a kid in the school system, I am in the school as often as possible, I've talked to lots of teachers in the district ...these are the factors that have helped me form my opinions of the district, of the issues we face, the strenghts and weaknesses but I am certainly no expert. I would like to know Harpo's direct experience with our schools to better understand her bias. But, as I said...I really didn't want to get into and thought better of it. | ||
| ffof Citizen Username: Ffof Post Number: 2073 Registered: 5-2001 |
deleted post. sorry. | ||
| bookgal Citizen Username: Bookgal Post Number: 516 Registered: 7-2001 |
ffof, now I am wondering....should I go back and delete my post? delete tag | ||
| ffof Citizen Username: Ffof Post Number: 2074 Registered: 5-2001 |
no! I responded and then thought that it didn't come out right. But I have the same concerns as you do and I think others do too. | ||
| Tom Reingold Citizen Username: Noglider Post Number: 2483 Registered: 1-2003  |
Bob Little gave me permission privately to post his URL: http://www.robertlittle.org Tom Reingold the prissy-pants There is nothing | ||
| viva Citizen Username: Viva Post Number: 392 Registered: 5-2001 |
how damaging is a culture that revolves around tv and video games? many children do not know how to think, problem solve, plan ahead. reading a book becomes a huge investment of time and effort -- a foreign concept to these developing brains, and reinforced every day for hours on end. even the best instruction can and will fail because of our video culture. i think that it is safe to say that homes that place limits on tv viewing and prioritize education will produce the most successful learners. unfortunately, we are fighting a rather large beast and a giant sized wake-up call is desperately needed. if you would like to read a fascinating book about the neurological consequences of our tv culture, i recommend Endangered Minds, by Jane Healy, PhD. http://www.newhorizons.org/future/Creating_the_Future/crfut_healy.html kudos to tuscan school librarian, janie van oss for her efforts in making "tv turnoff" part of the tuscan school culture. | ||
| bookgal Citizen Username: Bookgal Post Number: 517 Registered: 7-2001 |
kudos also to Arlean Lambert at Marshall School for implementing the same/similar program this year. |
