Tag Archive for 'Curriculum'

Work Hard, Be Good

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 29, 2009 in Curriculum and Education Practice. 5 Comments

Schools should stop telling children to be nice and start teaching them to be good.

So writes Diana Senechal at DoubleX.  Reviewing Charles Murray’s recent book Real Education, she seizes on an unremarked upon quote in which the controversial author observes that schools “tell children to be nice but not how to be good. It tells children to be happy but does nothing to help children think about what happiness means.”  When Murray is right, she notes, “he is awfully right.”

Being nice is something of a bromide in education.  It’s enshrined in KIPP’s “Work Hard. Be Nice” slogan, and is the focus of a lot of group activity that revolves around “pleasant, uncontroversial subject matter” with familiar social messages  “Being good is more complex than being nice,” Diana observes. “It requires that we recognize our own faults and complexities; that we forgive each other; that we say what we think; that we make difficult decisions and face the consequences.”

When we read literature and history, we begin to glean what it means to be good. We see how people with the best intentions can fail; how people struggle with conflicting desires and values and make the best choices they can; how people overcome their limitations when put to the test. From works like Antigone, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Chekhov’s short stories, we learn about selfishness, cruelty, cowardice, and confusion, as well as grace, generosity, and patience. We come to see elements of all these traits in ourselves.

When the curriculum has substance, “students learn not only how to behave, but how to think and feel deeply,” Diana writes. ”They come to understand what humans are made of, what choices we have, and what reason, artistic gift, and imagination can do.”  By contrast, when the emphasis is on group work for its own sake, ”it becomes more important for students to work together than to learn something important.” 

If we only teach children to be nice, they will be at a loss when life calls for more than niceness. They will be at a loss when faced with problems—intellectual, practical, or emotional—that they have to solve on their own. And when the niceness wears out, they will reach for the next thing they know, the knee-jerk reaction. Murray is right: There is a wide gulf between being nice and being good—and while no curriculum can produce goodness, an excellent curriculum can give students a vision of what it might be.

All Together Now….Sing!

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 16, 2009 in Core Knowledge, Curriculum and Education Theory. 1 Comment

If the signers of the Common Core missive want to consider a singing telegram instead of a letter, I humbly suggest the following, sung to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s “Love and Marriage” (that’s the theme song to “Married With Children” if you’re under 40):

Skills and content, skills and content
Go together like a nun and convent
Problem solving’s dandy
But content knowledge comes in handy!

Skills and content, skills and content
It’s a fact that you just can’t circumvent
Teaching innovation
Won’t work without a strong foundation.

Try! Try! Teach skills without content.
You’ll be frustrated.
You’ll just have to learn the hard way, it
Can’t be debated.

Skills and knowledge, skills and knowledge
Kids need both if they’re to get to college
Facts are thinking’s mother
You can’t have one without the other!

Saying “content is important”
Just makes me nervous.
Without a solid core curriculum
It’s just lip service.

Skills and knowledge, skills and knowledge
Kids need both if they’re to get to college
Facts are thinking’s mother
You can’t have one
You can’t have one
You can’t have one
Without the other!

Ask Your Child About Content, Not Grades

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 10, 2009 in Curriculum and Parents. 2 Comments

Don’t ask your kids about grades, test scores or homework, advises Kerry Dickinson of the East Bay Homework Blog.  Instead, focus on the content of the subject he or she is studying.

Instead of “What did you get on the test?” say, “What are you learning in science?” If you are connected to some school communication tool (like Schoolloop) you can look at homework assignments and grades privately. Benefits: you are teaching them to take ownership of their own schedules. You are letting them manage their own time. You are taking the focus off scores and putting it on learning.

Dickinson’s ”10 Tips to Start the School Year Off Right” offers a list of ideas from common sense to counterintuitive: Don’t overschedule your children; don’t sign your child up for academic tutoring unless he or she is in jeopardy of failing a class; and don’t attend every sports game or extracurricular activity (”your child will be participating for the love of the game or of the activity, not to earn your approval”).

(H/T: Kathleen Manzo via Twitter)

SAT Down and Cried Today

Published by Robert Pondiscio on August 26, 2009 in Assessment and Testing and Education News. 3 Comments

The Class of 2009, who were in 5th grade when No Child Left Behind became the law of the land, and were not yet born when A Nation at Risk ushered in the era of education reform, have posted SAT scores that summon to mind a flatlined EKG.  Math unchanged at 515.  Writing down a point to 493.  Critical reading, down a point to 494.  The results are of a piece with last week’s ACT scores, which showed only one of four high school graduates are prepared to do C level college work in English, math, reading and science.

“Completing a core curriculum remains strongly related to SAT scores,” the College Board notes in a news release.  ”Students in the class of 2009 who took core curricula scored an average of 46 points higher on the critical reading section, 44 points higher on the mathematics section, and 45 points higher on the writing section than those who did not.”

“The College Board, as always, hung a smiley face on it, but the latest SAT results are a real bummer,” writes Checker Finn at Fordham’s Flypaper blog.  Looking at years of stagnant NAEP results, last week’s dispiriting ACT scores and flat high school graduation rates, Finn says “please sing out if you’ve spotted any good news regarding the readiness of American adolescents to face successfully the challenges of higher education, the workforce, adulthood and citizenship. I can’t find it.”

Let me add a few verses to Checker’s refrain:  Please sing out if you see elementary schools creating a path to college readiness by favoring a rich, robust curriculum over of the deadening pabulum of test prep and ineffective reading strategies.  Please sing out too, if you can explain how changing the operative definition of well educated to “reads on or near grade level” has done anything other than cement in place this march of mediocrity.  

There’s no guarantee that a patient buildup of knowledge and language proficiency that pays dividends over time will show up in a single year’s standardized testing snapshot, so please explain too how any school or teacher can afford  to take the necessary long view, when we have essentially declared that a little bit of success every year is more important–and measurable–than great success over time. 

Please sing out if you see something–anything–that is going to change this dispiriting trend in the foreseeable future.  I can’t find it.

“Both Parties Are On the Same Side: The Wrong Side”

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 16, 2009 in Educational Policy. 2 Comments

Neither the Republicans or the Democrats understand what it takes to produce educated Americans, writes Mike Petrilli in the latest Education Gadfly.  Commenting on the image projected by Sarah Palin, he notes there was a time when Republicans “valued candidates who could demonstrate mastery of subjects like history, geography, and political philosophy.  But splitting the country politically between wholesome Joe Sixpacks in the heartland and “the oversophisticated, overeducated, oversecularized denizens of the coasts” has driven well-educated voters away from the GOP.

So naturally, the Democrats have rushed in to fill the void, right?  Wrong, says Petrilli, who wryly observes that so far the group “Liberals for the Liberal Arts” has yet to be founded.  “Democratic reformers seem just as enamored with the utilitarian and narrow drive toward ‘college and work readiness’ as their Republican counterparts, if not more so,” he notes.  If you need proof, take a look at Ed Secretary Arne Duncan’s speeches.

Over the past six months, he’s made nine major policy addresses that have been posted on his Department’s web site. And in those speeches, he’s mentioned “history,” “literature,” and “geography” exactly zero times. Meanwhile, there were seven instances of “accountability,” and “charter schools” left his lips an astounding twenty-nine times.  Duncan and his team are pushing for structural changes in the system; they, like most reformers these days, are ignoring the “stuff” of education–what students actually need to learn in order to become good Americans.

“But these Democratic reformers had better be careful,” Petrilli concludes.  ”An obsessive focus on nothing but basic skills in reading and math, which can be chopped into little bits of data with which we can make all manner of decisions, will result in a generation of students who will make Palin sound like Socrates.”

The Partnership for 19th Century Skills

Published by Diane Ravitch on July 6, 2009 in No category. 12 Comments

I for one have heard quite enough about the 21st century skills that are sweeping the nation. Now, for the first time, children will be taught to think critically (never heard a word about that in the 20th century, did you?), to work in groups (I remember getting a grade on that very skill when I was in third grade a century ago), to solve problems (a brand new idea in education), and so on.

Let me suggest that it is time to have done with this unnecessary conflict about 21st century skills. Let us agree that we need all those forenamed skills, plus lots others, in addition to a deep understanding of history, literature, the arts, geography, civics, the sciences, and foreign languages.

But allow me also to propose a new entity that will advance a different set of skills and understandings that are just as important as what are now called 21st century skills. I propose a Partnership for 19th Century Skills.

This partnership will advocate for such skills, values, and understandings as:

  • The love of learning
  • The pursuit of knowledge
  • The ability to think for oneself (individualism)
  • The ability to stand alone against the crowd (courage)
  • The ability to work persistently at a difficult task until it is finished (industriousness, self-discipline)
  • The ability to think through the consequences of one’s actions on others (respect for others)
  • The ability to consider the consequences of one’s actions on one’s well-being (self-respect)
  •  The recognition of higher ends than self-interest (honor)
  •  The ability to comport oneself appropriately in all situations (dignity)
  • The recognition that civilized society requires certain kinds of behavior by individuals and groups (good manners, civility)
  • The willingness to ask questions when puzzled (curiosity)
  • The readiness to dream about other worlds, other ways of doing things (imagination)
  •  The ability to believe that one can improve one’s life and the lives of others (optimism)
  • The ability to believe in principles larger than one’s own self-interest (idealism)
  •  The ability to speak well and write grammatically, using standard English

I invite readers to submit other 19th century skills that we should cultivate assiduously among the rising generation, on the belief that doing so will lead to happier lives and a better world.

(Ed’s Note:  Diane Ravitch wrote the above for the blog of Common Core, which advocates for comprehensive education in the liberal arts and sciences.  She is the organization’s co-chair.  It is published here as well, with her permission.)

Reading List Controversy in the Granite State

Published by Robert Pondiscio on June 30, 2009 in Curriculum and Education News. 0 Comments

A New Hampshire high school teacher has resigned after igniting a controversy over her choice of assigned reading materials.  Stories assigned by Kathleen Reilly included “The Crack Cocaine Diet” by Laura Lippman, and “I Like Guys” by David Sedaris.  Reilly, who also served as the head of the English Department at Campbell High School in Litchfield, New Hampshire, assigned the stories as part of a short story unit on “love, gender and family units.” 

In a June 19 email to a Union Leader reporter, Reilly explained that, “The first story, ‘The Crack Cocaine Diet,’ was not intended to glorify bad behavior; rather, it was chosen for its tone and point of view and to show the often devastating consequences of drug use. In addition to its tone and style, the message of the story ‘I Like Guys’ was respect and acceptance, not an advocacy for homosexuality.” In the email, Reilly added that the stories were not left up to the students’ interpretation alone because “we discuss them extensively.”  However, parent Sue Ann Johnson has said the stories promoted bad behavior and a “political agenda,” and they shouldn’t be incorporated into classroom teachings.

The school has permanently eliminated “The Crack Cocaine Diet” from the list of acceptable reading materials, says School Superintendent Elaine  Cutler.  “The reason the books were pulled was because I believe that there wasn’t enough parent notification about the topics that were being covered,” she said. “So, it was parent notification and the developmental age of the students and that varies; all 16-year-olds are not created equal.”  The short story course will be examined by a committee comprised of teachers, parents, students, the principal and the curriculum director.

I was unfamiliar with “The Crack Cocaine Diet,” and remain sympathetic to allowing teachers broad latitude in choosing literature.  That said, two paragraphs is about all one needs before it might occur to most teachers that assigning this story to teenagers might just be asking for trouble.

Mr. Holland’s Curriculum

Published by Robert Pondiscio on June 4, 2009 in No category. 0 Comments

Could a little Hollywood star power help further the cause of teaching history and civics? 

Actor Richard Dreyfuss has come up with a program he’s calling “The Dreyfuss Initiative” — a plan to create a civics curriculum and series mr-hollands-opusof videos “to engage, enlighten and empower students of all ages in an entertaining way.”  In an interview with the AP, Dreyfuss describes his project as “a nonprofit initiative to get K-12 grades back to civics, to give our children real-world knowledge and hopefully wisdom about how to run this complex governance system.” 

But Dreyfuss is loathe to use the c-word in describing his plan.   “Don’t call it ‘civics’ because ‘civics’ is easily the most boring word in America,” Dreyfuss says. “Call it what it is: political power.”

Channeling E.D. Hirsch, Dreyfuss tells the AP, “I stopped defining myself as an actor and I went to Oxford because I believe that America is a miracle.  And I think that there is nothing easier in the world than for us to lose this miracle and to be reduced to words on paper.”

4th Grade Science, 3rd Rate Answers

Published by Robert Pondiscio on March 16, 2009 in Core Knowledge and Education News. 1 Comment

How long does it take the Earth to revolve around the Sun? Did the earliest humans and dinosaurs live at the same time?  What percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water?  If you don’t know the answers to all three questions (1 year, no, and about 70%) then you have company.  Lots of company.  Only one out of five American adults know the answer to all three questions, according to a survey commissioned by the California Academy of Sciences.

Despite the low grasp of science knowledge, about 4 in 5 adults say science education is “absolutely essential” or “very important” to the U.S. healthcare system (86%), the U.S. global reputation (79%), and the U.S. economy (77%).  They would know. 

Take the quiz yourself at the California Academy of Science website. 

(HT: Joanne Jacobs)

Curriculum vs. Kumbaya

Published by Robert Pondiscio on February 27, 2009 in Core Knowledge and Curriculum. 16 Comments

If you want to promote tolerance and respect for Muslim students, perhaps teaching children something about Islam might help.  Teachers College has come out with a guide for teachers “designed to enhance understanding of Islam and promote tolerance of Muslim students.”  But EdWeek’s Mary Ann Zehr points out the guide ”gives only tangential treatment to religion in favor of focusing on the culture and identity of Muslims.”

The guide doesn’t discuss, for example, the five pillars of Islam, the significance of Ramadan, or the differences between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.  One of the most direct references to religion that I could find is a link to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life about the beliefs and practices of Muslims (search by “tradition”). But that survey tells you about as much about Islam as a religion as a survey of the beliefs and practices of Roman Catholics  in the United States tells you about Catholicism.

In contrast, the Core Knowledge Sequence introduces major world religions in the first grade.  In the fourth grade, the spread of Islam is examined along with Islamic art.  One of the lessons in the TC cycle asks students to examine and evaluate depictions of Muslims and Islam in the media.  Great idea.  Hard to do if you’re coming to the subject cold.  “There are still entrenched suspicions and profound misconceptions about Islam and Muslim culture,” the TC guide notes.  And there will continue to be unless you actually teach the subject.