Reformer Vs. Deformer: Who Is Who?

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1. Hannah says:

   May 24, 2014 at 10:11 am

   Says. It. All.

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2. joseph says:

   May 24, 2014 at 10:51 am

   Both quirky in their own way

   from John Taylor Gatto.
   Mudsill Theory

   A prophetic article entitled “The Laboring Classes” appeared in The Boston Quarterly Review in 1840 at the very moment Horace Mann’s crowd was beating the drum loudest for compulsion schooling. Its author, Orestes Brownson, charged that Horace Mann was trying to establish a state church in America like the one England had and to impose a merchant/industrialist worldview as its gospel. “A system of education [so constituted] may as well be a religion established by law,” said Brownson. Mann’s business backers were trying, he thought, to set up a new division of labor giving licensed professional specialists a monopoly to teach, weakening people’s capacity to educate themselves, making them childlike.

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   • Laura H. Chapman says:

     May 24, 2014 at 11:37 am

     Thanks for this perspective on the continuing claims that “govment” run schools are a monopoly.

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3. Danielle says:

   May 24, 2014 at 10:59 am

   As always, students say it best: From a “high achieving,” suburban Philadelphia high school newspaper on the topic of Pennsylvania’s controversial Keystone exams. Tom Wolf, are you listening? We sure know Corbett is not.

   “Today in class, we are going to commit a standardized test. When you fill in your answers, make sure not to leave any stray marks outside of the bubbles. If any stray marks do escape from your bubble, you should capture them and neuter them before they can reproduce – this school already has a big enough stray-marks problem as it is.

   This is a standardized test that assesses how well you will perform on standardized tests. You are permitted to have a ruler with you on this test, but you are not allowed to use it. You are permitted to use a calculator on this test, but you are not permitted to have one with you.

   You may begin… now. You have a while (until the sun expands and swallows the earth in an apocalyptic supernova that will destroy all mankind) to finish the following test.

   1. When you get the test, you should __________________.

   a. Start filling in every bubble, because then you are guaranteed to fill in all the right ones

   b. Panic

   c. Sit quietly and wonder what the meaning of life is and whether it has anything to do with using a painted stick to fill in miniature circles with graphite for hours on end

   d. Did I mention the panic option?”

   Read it here:
   http://www.hhsbanner.com/top-stories/2014/05/20/keystone-testing-questions-that-matter/#sthash.pYmCcF9e.dpuf

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   • Bob Shepherd says:

     May 24, 2014 at 11:19 am

     LOL

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4. Bob Shepherd says:

   May 24, 2014 at 11:18 am

   http://bltm.com/blog/2014/05/04/is-this-the-most-stupid-article-ever-about-common-core-math/

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   • 2old2teach says:

     May 24, 2014 at 12:51 pm

     Thanks for the link.

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   • Michael Paul Goldenberg says:

     May 24, 2014 at 1:13 pm

     Bob, I was really annoyed to find a rather stupid shot at Dan Meyer in that otherwise good piece:

     “There are also quotes from Dan Meyer, a one-man publicity machine who believes he speaks for all math teachers, despite the fact that he spent exactly 5 years teaching in an actual classroom.”

     Worse, it follows the mention of Khan Academy, as if Meyer’s work were of a piece with Sal Khan’s.

     My comment: “Hmm, what’s your gripe against Dan Meyer, exactly? Too well-known for your taste?

     I’ve never gotten the impression that he thinks he speaks for anyone but Dan Meyer. You have evidence to the contrary? Love to see it. Otherwise, you border on libel, not that I imagine he will view it that way or choose to act on it even if he does. I just don’t get the gratuitous name-calling.

     It’s hardly Dan’s fault that this P.O.S. article quotes him. Yes, it’s a horrid little hatchet job, has awful examples of the abuse of statistics, and has a link on the site to a more recent article called, “Why a Florida lawmaker thinks Common Core tests will make kids gay.” Is that, too, Dan’s fault?

     You make a lot of fine points about the crappy article. Why ruin it with this silly swipe at Dan, who has contributed a remarkable body of work to the mathematics education community, regardless of whether you feel five years in a high school mathematics classroom is an adequate basis for him to have built a practice or not. Unless you have on-point criticism to offer of his actual practice, his ideas, or something else of substance, I think you should delete that paragraph from your blog or at least edit it to make it less snarky.”

     By the way, I think the author, R.M. Berkman, and I probably see eye-to-eye on math education and the Common Core more than not. And despite my defense of Dan Meyer’s work, he has had me on his shyte-list for a year or so for something I did he found, apparently, unforgivable. (I was acting in good faith, but since he took it badly, I apologized and asked him to forgive my presumption. Thus far, it appears he hasn’t). I just find it difficult to understand what about Dan’s actual work has set off Mr. Berkman. Perhaps, if he publishes my comment, he’ll tell us.

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     • Bob Shepherd says:

       May 24, 2014 at 1:16 pm

       My apologies, Michael. I should have vetted that piece more carefully before posting a link to it.

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     • Michael Paul Goldenberg says:

       May 24, 2014 at 1:19 pm

       No apology necessary. I think it’s a good article. I was going to link to it here but you beat me to it. I just found the shot at Dan Meyer puzzling and likely will continue to do so unless Mr. Berkman chooses to enlighten us about his concerns with Dan’s work. Merely being quoted in a bad article seems like a non-crime. After all, Diane was quoted thrice in the SPLC article that had everyone abuzz last weekend. 😉

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5. Jean Rodgers says:

   May 24, 2014 at 2:22 pm

   Thank you darling!!!!!!!

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6. nittany89 says:

   May 27, 2014 at 10:22 am

   I just clicked the link, and the website is down. Coincidence, or is someone not amused?

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   • dianeravitch says:

     May 27, 2014 at 11:51 am

     Nittany89, I tried the link and it is working.

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