According to an article in The Progressive, Dr. Ben Carson likes to say that American children were better educated in the 1830s.
As “proof,” he offers questions from an exam given to children in Kansas, which asks obscure questions that few college graduates today could answer.
Carson then identified the following questions from the test:
· Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
· Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865.
· Show the territorial growth of the US.
· Name and locate the principal trade centers of the US.
· Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
· Describe why the Atlantic Coast is colder than the Pacific at the same latitude.
Impressive questions! Kids really knew all that?!? Dang, they really were smart! And we are really dumb!
Well, it is true that the few schools that existed at all in those days emphasized fact-memorization. This is a good example of the kinds of facts considered most important (along with the height of various mountains, the names of the biggest oceans, etc.).
Most such questions today would likely be part of “Trivial Pursuits.”
Similar exams and questions from 19th century textbooks have been used for decades just as Dr. Carson is now using these test questions.
These are not examples of the decline of American education, for many reasons.
First, because so few children were in school at all in the 1830s. Most schools were in session for only a few months a year. Most children who were in school ended their education at grade 8 or earlier. There were very few high schools, except for private schools for the children of the elite.
Second, because the ability to memorize what you were taught and parrot it back on a test is not an example of the decline of American education.
My bet: 99% of the student in the 1830s who took a Common Core test today would fail. Maybe 100%.
– See more at: http://progressive.org/news/2015/10/188346/debunking-ben-carson-we-werent-better-educated-1830s#sthash.0nLGdqFU.dpuf
Diane Ravitch's blog 
From this Ravitch proclaimed trolls point of view, memorization does have a place in education. This ranges from knowing (and remembering ) that 5 X 5 equals 25, through middle school French vocabulary and on into medical school. No, it is not the basis for education, but certainly an integral part of it.
Read the link. The issue is not whether memorization is a valuable skill or not. That argument is entirely separate and deals more with the ” to what purpose” and “to what end” as well as the “how to.”
Yes
Are you telling me students shouldn’t memorize anything??? 😉
**** SPECIAL BULLETIN ***
**** WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING to bring you the latest on the pedophilia scandal swirling around Kevin Johnson, the current Mayor of Sacramento and prominent proponent of school privatization and union-busting … oh yeah, and the husband of Michelle Rhee.***
BELOW is the recently-released police interview video — conducted during the 1996 investigation — with the alleged victim Mandi Koba herself. Here she recounts the horror of being molested by Michelle Rhee’s husband Kevin Johnson, the current mayor of Sacramento and a prominent proponent of busting teacher unions, and replacing public schools with privately-run charter schools.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is the same man who has no court-mandated limits on his access to the two daughters of his current wife Michelle Rhee (who are also, of course, the daughters of her ex-husband and former Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman.) Conceivably, these two daughters, when visiting their mother Michelle Rhee and their step-father Kevin Johnson in Sacramento, could be left alone with this perv, without any supervision whatsoever.
Scary stuff. (Mr. Huffman, if you’re reading this, what are you going to do about this?)
Watch the video and judge for yourself.
Keep in mind, folks, that this is a sixteen-year-old girl, recounting events of a few months prior when she was just fifteen. The video is even dated July 19, 1996 ( “7-19-1996” )
———————————————————————-
( 00:37 – 01:35 )
( 00:37 – 01:35 )
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: “What … what specific areas (of your body did Kevin Johnson fondle)?”
MANDI KOBA: “My stomach. My breasts. My butt… ”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: (almost whispering) “Anywhere else?”
MANDI KOBA: “As it progressed.”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: “Where ELSE did it progress?”
MANDI KOBA: “Between my legs.”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: “Okay, and what do we call that area?”
MANDI KOBA: “My vagina.”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: “And – and I know some of the questions sound stupid. Okay? And I apologize for it, but there are certain things I’m looking for. Unless I know these things, then…
MANDI KOBA: “I understand.”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: ” … then I don’t know what’s going on.”
— (PAUSE)
“He (Kevin Johnson) had HIS clothes off?”
MANDI KOBA: “Yes.”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: “What happened after the fondling?”
MANDI KOBA: “That’s … we didn’t have intercourse… It was… just a lot of THAT. I don’t know how long it lasted, and then… ummm ”
CLIP ENDS
———————————–
(ONE SIDE NOTE: what’s up with choosing a male detective to conduct this incredibly sensitive and delicated interview? Wouldn’t this be better handled by a female detective? Just askin’.)
There’s so much to be asked here.
If this video were about the predations of a prominent teacher—especially one in the anti-corporate reform movement, or perhaps a prominent teacher union leader…
—what do think Campbell Brown would be doing in response to this video?
What would Ben Austin would be doing in response to this video?
What would Michelle Rhee be doing in response to this video?
The same question goes for Eli Broad, Mike Petrilli, Wendy Kopp, Richard Barth and the rest.
Before she went on her campaign to take away all teachers’ rights and job protections, Campbell Brown first came to prominence with her accusations that among the unionized teachers of New York City were hundreds of pedophiles on the loose, thanks to their being protected by their union. When all of that was proven to be nonsense, she simply moved on to her current crusade.
Now that Ms. Brown and the rest of the corporate reform world have video proof that one of their pro-charter, union-hating allies Kevin Johnson (and also the husband of one of their most prominent allies) is a pedophile, the question must be asked:
What is Campbell Brown doing now? SILENCE
Where is Kevin Huffman doing now? SILENCE
From this shameful silence, they communicate to the world that they apparently view this girl in the video above — and Johnson’s other victims — as collateral damage in the movement to bust unions and privatize the public school system. Now that Kevin Johnson has successfully pulled off a hostile takeover of that Black Mayors’ association, he will be instrumental in privatizing hundreds of schools in those cities run by black mayors in the organization. Since the ends justify the means, someone like Johnson who is that key in the anti-union movement to privatize public schools must be given a pass for his fondness of teenage female flesh.
To watch the entirety of this video in context, watch here:
There’s more about Johnson rubbing his … against her leg. I’m not doing any more transcribing, as this is seriously creeping me out.
ONE MORE THING: the reason for “SPECIAL BULLETIN” parody at the top of this post is that this in actually four-days old, having been released by DEADSPIN four days ago… and there has been ASBOLUTELY NO COVERAGE OF THIS WHATSOEVER FROM THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA.
Jack…this “seriously creeps me out” as well as it does you. It could not be more inappropriate for a real rape victim to have a middle aged male interrogator. This is far from a fair questioning.
And Kevin Johnson has so many charges on file similar to this report that it is amazing he could run for mayor of Sacramento, and win. And that now that DeadSpin has also reported on his use of public space in the State Capitol for his a Rhee’s own ‘for profit’ adventures, why hasn’t any media picked up on all this? And why haven’t state agencies such as the AG’s office initiated an investigation of Johnson and Rhee?
Can it be that this Broad-protected and nurtured pair are so insulated that they can get away with anything they wish to do, that would get ordinary people indicted?
“Can it be that this Broad-protected and nurtured pair are so insulated that they can get away with anything they wish to do, that would get ordinary people indicted?”
BINGO!
I should have given DEADSPIN more credit, plus a link to the article:
http://deadspin.com/police-video-shows-teen-girl-graphically-accusing-kevin-1735279363
There are details in her full video testimony that are simply beyond bizarre.
After each time Kevin Johnson would molest Mandi Koba, he would then tell Mandi, “Now, we have to pray for God’s forgiveness for what the sins we’ve just committed.” Then he would lead the pair in prayer.
WTF????!!!
Excuse me, but what’s this “we” sh#@ that Kevin tries on her? EXACTLY what does SHE have to ask forgiveness for? She’s the victim here…and a passive one at that. She says that throughout these molestation sessions that she was too scared sh#%-less to do anything. Is Kevin claiming that Mandi is a Jezebel-Delilah-like temptress who acted as a Lolita and used her 15 year-old nubile body to drive him to sin?
Again… WTF???!!!!
Kevin also makes the counter-argument that it could have been worse; they could have been kissing. Kevin maintains that kissing is far more sinful and intimate to what he was doing… so good thing we’ve never kissed.
Again… WTF???!!!!
http://deadspin.com/police-video-shows-teen-girl-graphically-accusing-kevin-1735279363
ONE MORE THING: People have been asking the question for the last year:
“How could Bill Cosby have gotten away with raping women for so long?”
Well, here’s why. Just as with the Bill Cosby’s behavior, the mainstream media is TOTALLY IGNORING THIS RELEASE OF VIDEO. They are acting like it never happened.
That’s why he and Kevin get away with this stuff. They’re celebrities who get a free pass. Kevin allegedly molested girls in Sacramento from his St. Hope charter school. Their silence was allegedly bought off by lawyers under the direction of Kevin Johnson’s wife, Michelle Rhee.
OH… AND ONE LAST THING: Later this week, ESPN Sports Network is broadcasting a totally positive and glowing documentary portrayal of of Kevin Johnson. This will be total hagiography. The folks at ESPN know better — they almost certainly have watched the video of the police interview — but they’re still running the piece.
Think how painful that must be for Mandi Koba and Kevin’s other victims.
The film is called: DOWN IN THE VALLEY. Here’s a preview.
http://espn.go.com/30for30/film?page=downinthevalley
To Ellen Lubic’s question re: an AG investigation. There was an AG investigation & scathing AG report of Johnson in 2009 by Inspector General Gerald Walpin after allegations of financial mismanagement of St. Hope’s Charter school surfaced. Walpin was fired by the Obama Administration soon after Congress started asking questions about the report.
http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2010/05/st-hope-academy.html
There had been early sexual misconduct allegations against Johnson when he ran St. Hope Charter. Interestingly, Michelle Rhee was on the board of St Hope in 2006 & 2007 & was appointed chair last year
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article2605643.html
Rhee had an active role in Johnson’s damage control PR when allegations first surfaced. There’s a bad smell around this couple.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/11/20/what-was-michelle-rhees-damage-control-for-kevin-johnson/
Thank you ! I was just researching this sack of evil a few weeks ago. This is the cherry on the cake. His hostile takeover of the Black Mayors Association is a very close second. The man has no integrity and no honor.
And where is the media and the AG? I wouldn’t let that creep alone with my dog.
I remember being in a workshop on teaching math, and one of the things discussed was that it didn’t matter if students had basic operations memorized, and that memorization wasn’t as important as “understanding” the material at a “deep” level. LOL – I walked out. I felt terrible due to feeling rude, but I couldn’t listen anymore.
In fact, my calculus teacher wouldn’t allow us the use of calculators if we couldn’t answer 100 basic skills questions in 60 seconds. The amazing thing is that we all went home and freshened up on those facts so we could use the calculator haha. I tried to do this in high school algebra 2, but my principal didn’t allow me to do it because I was setting my kids up for failure (apparently) by not letting them use a calculator if they couldn’t pass the 60 second math facts test.
Are you sure it wasn’t 60 problems in one minute? It seems reasonable to expect that it might take a whole second to read and write the answer to each problem. God help you if your hand cramps! While I understand the need for fluency, using speed as the defining factor can be counterproductive.
I agree, I didn’t agree with the speed portion. An yes – it was 100. My professor was a maniac. It was so crazy that our four exams for the semester had to be schedules on Saturdays. It would take 6 hours to complete his exams. Hardest “B” I’ve ever earned in my life.
I agree, though – fluency is one thing, timing can be counterproductive.
Oh – come to think of it, there was a cutoff. Perhaps 100 were there and we had to answer 80. It was very difficult and we took them over the first three class period. After that, you had to do it during office hours.
Quite honestly, these are all questions that were asked of me when I was in school. Most of my social science courses were memorization-based, which has importance. It would have been nice to have had questions that made us think, infer, etc. Basic facts are needed, though – I don’t teach social sciences, so that’s where I stop 😎.
In mathematics, I could ask students many high level questions, but they aren’t going to answer them if they don’t understand the basic definitions/axioms/etc.
There is nothing wrong with memorization as part of education. There IS something wrong with memorization as ALL of education. Standardized testing tends to favor rote memorization above all else.
If less than 7% of children age 17/18 graduated from high school in 1900 and less than 3% went to college, how could 1830 have been a better year than today when more than 90% of our children earn a high school degree and the U.S. is ranked 4th or 5th in the world for the ratio of college graduates compared to the rest of the world’s almost 200 countries?
Ben Carson might be a great surgeon but when it comes to history he is an ignorant fool, and he might be the GOP’s candidate for president in 2016, once the even bigger fool, Trump, is eliminated from the competition.
I don’t know anything about education but even I knew that everyone didn’t go to school in 1830. Wikipedia says the US only had 70% enrolled in school in 1910. I imagine the other 30% were rural and/or poor.
Chiara,
Enrollment was very high in elementary grades. In 1910, most students ended their education by eighth grade or earlier.
The most glaring omission by Dr. Carson is that enslaved African-American children were forbidden learning and their descendants were required to attend segregated schools which were underfunded until 1954. We live with this legacy politically and socially.
I find it extremely disturbing that an African-American is romanticizing an era of education where it was against the law to teach enslaved black children how to read. There weren’t many educational opportunities for free black children, either.
Ben Carson knows NO history, nor does he care to. From his horrific comments blaming Jews “giving up their weapons” causing the Holocaust, to this inanity. He’s worse than Trump, because he’s charming and doesn’t attack the way Trump does, but still has the same stupid ideas. And he’s leading in the polls. I weep for this nation, and for the world.
The scary thing is this: Will African American voters turn away from the Democratic Party and vote GOP in the 2016 presidential elections if Carson is the GOP candidate for President? Will they vote for the man or the color of his skin?
Lloyd, that is one of the more blatantly biased and ignorant comments I’ve read on this blog. Did Jews vote for Joe Lieberman BECAUSE he is Jewish? Did Catholics vote for Kerry or JFK BECAUSE they are Catholic? Did black people vote for Kwame Kilpatrick BECAUSE he is black (hint: so were all the other candidates)?
Your suggestion is that black people may be so bloody stupid that they’d vote for Carson simply because he’s black, regardless of anything he says, does, or advocates. Shame on you, Lloyd.
That is not a racist comment. Racism is practiced by every racial group: Asian, Black, White and Brown. How many whites did not vote for Obama because of his skin color?
Racism is not exclusive to whites. If Carson runs for President under the GOP ticket, we can compare the number of Blacks who voted for him after the election compared to how many vote democratic in every election. Then we will know if Blacks are also influenced by race.
Why is it that if anyone questions or mentions that blacks might be racists too, it’s considered racist by some—politician correctnes, I think?
Have you, if you are white, ever been a victim of what’s known as reverse discriminator/racism?
I have and it was just because I was white and in a black part of a city where we were warned that if we didn’t leave, we would die. This happened when I was serving in the Marines and in Okinawa, and we went to an area known as Four Corners in the capital city of Naha. There were four of us from the same unit and one of us was black. The bar was full of black service men—there were no whites until we walked in—and one of them talked to the black Marine with us. He was scared when he told us we had to leave because he was warned he would die first because he was hanging around with whites and was accused of being a sell out to his own race. That was early 1966 before we shipped out to Vietnam where the color of skin doesn’t matter.
With all due respect, I read the comments above mine—with lots of questions clearly indicated by question marks—as precisely that, questions to provoke discussion, none of them demeaning or degrading.
If the questions above can’t be posed, then discussion is dead.
IMHO, I see what Lloyd Lofthouse wrote as pointing to the possibility of a type of political “affinity scam.” While it is uncomfortable for many to admit, affinity scams have been around a lot longer than any of us, affect all sorts of people in all sorts of situations, and—again, as I see it—is literally a part of the rheephorm playbook.
For affinity scams to fail, they first have to be exposed and words are vital in doing that.
If we can’t use words, then this online living room, and others like it, cease to exist.
That’s the way I see it.
😎
Michael Paul Goldenberg – a completely understandable proposition from Lloyd as I see it; women voted for JFK because they found him visually appealing. Would you not agree that many young people, and many black people, voted for Obama because he’d be our first black president? Some women support Hillary simply because she has a vagina, and nothing more. Some people just vote a party they picked for whatever reason whatsoever. I once heard someone say the’d vote for Charlie Manson if he was leading the democratic ticket.
Who better to trust than Obama – who went on to cause more destruction to public education than anyone could have imagined?
So, why not Carson for the same reasons?
MPG…I can understand your refuting Lloyd’s comments in support of progressive views, but as a lifelong Californian, and a progressive Dem who supports Bernie Sanders, and understanding voting patterns and demographics, which are viewed by academic professionals specializing in public policy such as I, I believe there is a strong element of history supporting Lloyd’s view.
In our last LAUSD BoE election, as an example, the well known group Latino SouthWest Voters Education and Registration (run by Chamber of Commerce and well-to-do highly educated business people) did exactly what many here feel is reprehensible.
The Latino surnamed candidate, a multi millionaire charter school owner (16 PUD schools under investigation due to two recent audit reports), presented himself as a regular guy, a Mexican from the ‘hood’ as his campaign fostered lies about his incumbent opponent, calling him a racist. Then the Voters group, within weeks of the election, offered big cash prizes of $25K to the inner city poverty area of this large district, targeting potential voters only in that sub district area of generally non-English speaking uninformed residents, to go to the polls, and of course vote for the candidate with the Latino surname. This was Refugio Rodriguez v. Bennett Kayser, a Jewish candidate, incumbent, and a teacher. I repeat….This offer was only made to the poorest and least educated area residents of this particular district. It worked…based on this bribery Rodriguez won.
As of the last few days, because this was successful subterfuge which many feel was actually bribery, this same organization announced it will be using “Voteria” cash prizes in the next election. They have made it de rigeur for uninformed people to go vote for cash.
This is what California is up against and with a Latino population that is now over 50%, and with the touted motor/voter law, how can we ever again have democratic elections that are not FIXED?
This is actually to Michael Paul Goldenberg who chastised you, Lloyd, for being racist. Lloyd makes a valid point. That is not racism. The fact is I’ve read plenty of comments by women who are Hillary supporters because they think its time to have a woman in office. Same thing.
He is gaining his attention by making disturbing and offensive comments(i.e., People born into Muslim culture have little or no rights; millions of Jews could have been saved from the hell of Holocaust should they be granted the Second Amendment) in a calm manner–
which is perplexing.
I agree with the Lloyd on practice of racism. It’s not exclusive to whites only. Nor is it the phenomenon occurring in the western society, either. Carson’s remarks throw race card to anyone he thinks as a national threat. It’s similar to some ignorant small business owners who put a discriminatory sign like “Japanese Only” at the door so that they deliberately refuse any foreign nationals(yes, that includes white Americans!) entry–based on phenotypes or skin tone. If worse, its maliciousness could amount to the level of a former nationalist/racist Tokyo governor named Shintaro Ishihara, who said Chinese, Koreans, Taiwanese are those coming from “the Third Country.”
Those questions are irrelevant to life in today’s society. That’s the trouble with some tests – they are rooted in the past. I got to sit in on an IQ test given to my then four year old daughter and I questioned the school psychologist on some of the outdated questions. He admitted that this test needed to be revised (and yet they still used it as an evaluation tool). The correct answers were preselected and did not allow for variance.
For example:
What do you find in a bottle?
The correct answer is milk – even though it’s been years since the milkman brought bottles of milk to the door. The question should have been – What do you find in a carton or jug? And even then there are numerous correct responses.
Oh, and what was my daughter’s incorrect response?
She said you find a note in a bottle. That’s right, we bring our children sailing on our boat and they are always looking for floating bottles which might contain a note – perhaps from someone stranded somewhere on an island. (Although not possible in Lake Erie – Nor will we ever be attacked by a Great White Shark.). Even so, a correct answer in my book.
Here is why I do not score well on standardized tests. I may have answered “note” as well.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but if these questions are for Kansas schoolchildren in the 1830s, how could they identify a significant event that occurred in 1865? Perhaps a small error, but I would bet that most of those poor Kansas children would miss that question.
Exactly what I was going to point out. Therein lies the clue that the whole thing is fake.
And whatever “schoolchildren” in the 1830s would have known, it’s highly unlikely that Dr. Carson himself would have been among that group at the time. It’s all but impossible that he would have been “Dr. Carson”.
Kansas wasn’t a state in 1830, so I don’t understand the assertion that these are “Kansas school questions from 1830.” But, remember, Ben Carson doesn’t care about history.
“if these questions are for Kansas schoolchildren in the 1830s, how could they identify a significant event that occurred in 1865?’
That’s easy: schools back them were much better at training psychics than they are today.
The fact that he’s trying to compare 2015 to the 1800’s is enough to know he’s completely out of touch.
The fact he is Republican is enough to know.
What a nonsensical claim from Dr.Carson! A shame this distinguished physician doesn’t do his homework.
According to the National Center on Education Statistics, in 1870 (when the Federal government first started collecting these numbers), just 2% of 17-year-olds had a high school diploma. Today 69% do — and of course that figure does not count 18- or 19- year olds. Follow attached link for historical table: http://www.edweek.org/media/34gradrate-c1.pdf
This is one of many outrageously ridiculous statements from this brilliant brain surgeon. He is seriously flawed, but then again most of the candidates are equally as flawed.
My mother was born in 1925. Her 2 sisters and herself didn’t finish school b/c they had to work to support themselves. One of them died in Boca Raton having done very well for herself, while the other two lead low to lower/middle class lives. I didn’t realize we were poor until I started working myself — and by poor, I mean working poor – we had an apartment, clothes and food…but we were poor. Anhow, how much of the population back in 1830 was getting educated?
“Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States, was born near Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. His family moved to Indiana when he was seven and he grew up on the edge of the frontier. He had very little formal education, but read voraciously when not working on his father’s farm.”
When these politicians makes these stupid comments, there are two explanations. Either they are ignorant or they are counting on the rest of us being ignorant.
Or both
Wow. Read the linked article. My estimation of this politician just dropped to the bottom of the barrel. In one speech he managed to (a)quote from a Limbaugh-used chain email I could have debunked myself by snopesing [hint: the test is from an 1890’s Kansas county 8th-gr test; only 25% passed], (b)revealed by referring to his book that he was nervy enough to publish it w/o clarification, and (c)passed along for the umptieth time a fictional ‘DeToqueville’ quote which was actually lifted from a bit of 1949 right-wing propaganda.
As The Progressive concludes: “By day, he’s a gifted neurosurgeon who relies on evidence-based science before performing delicate operations on a children’s brains; by night, he’s a howling mad, anti-intellectual, Tea Party doofus.”
b5,
“only 25% passed”–Who set the cut scores?
LOL!
They must have been really smart if they could answer these questions in 1830. Name events connected with the following dates: 1849, and 1865.????
Are you and I the only ones who caught that?
Ben Carson is living proof that just because you are smart in your area of expertise you are NOT necessarily smart at other things. Well I respect him as a surgeon (one of the best as far as I’ve heard), he just sounds plain dumb when he tries to pass himself off as smart about other things.
It is the same with Bill Gates. Yes you know a lot about computers, but PLEASE don’t pretend you know a lot about other things. Your hobby experiment with education has caused so much damage, but you still insist on trying untested, horrible ideas to deal with this “education thing”.
While I have had occasion to be grateful for the services of talented surgeons, too many people forget that the surgeon is NOT god. They practice the mechanics of medicine, not the art.
I tried to imagine myself teaching in 1830 and I realized that Dr. Carson is, like, totally right. Schools were better then because they did not have computers, standardized tests, charter schools… They got even better with public high schools, the 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th Amendments, non-company employee unions, the New Deal… Then along came corporate education profits.
Teachers are not encouraged to promote memorization. On Bloom’s Scale that would be the lowest level of Recall. Still, we teachers know that memorization is important. Regular thinking precedes “Critical Thinking.” The standardized tests that students must pass test neither regular not critical thinking. Some questions are straight-forward (yay grammar and punctuation) but some are just a guess. I’m guessing Carson is a self-proclaimed expert on education without having actually taught.
Couldn’t have gotten thro Sp, Fr & German w/o it 😉
Sp & Fr Freelancer
African-Americans vote for Democrats about 90% of the time, so that’s why they voted for Obama. As a group we do happen to be savvy enough to know who is on our side (for the most part) and who isn’t. Republican politics have become even more openly racist towards non-whites during this cycle and it’s just going to get worse. But sadly, Carson might get a handful of Black Republican votes–we have crazy uncles too!
Nice spin, but if you actually READ Dr. Carson’s book, you would discover that he does not claim that the questions quoted are from the 1830s, but the 19th century. He does reference Alexis de Tocqueville arriving in America in 1831 and that he was impressed by the abilities American schoolchildren demonstrated by the end of second grade. That is the reference to the 1830s you are clinging to. I would strongly suggest that you take the time to read just one of Dr. Carson’s books and you might find yourself enlightened. It’s astonishing that a man who strongly believes in giving schools, educators, and children the tools, funds, and other resources needed to rise from poverty – which, I might add, is one of the points repeatedly driven home by those advocating for education today as one of the primary issues facing today’s students and the education system – is criticized so heavily by those in the field of education.
The fact that your original source comes from The Progressive should have been your first clue.
Laura K,
The point I made holds true whether Dr. Carson was speaking of the 1830s, when most children did not go to school and there were very few schools to go to, or to the 1890s. In the last decade of the 19th century, only 2% or so of American students finished high school. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf
But you miss the larger point. Dr. Carson does not say in America the Beautiful that children were better educated in the 1830s or even the 19th century for that matter. His point is that education is extraordinarily valuable and was once something that America could pride itself on – those that went through schooling demonstrated an ability to engage in enlightened, intelligent conversation, something that the average man in other parts of the world most often could not do. He advocates for the empowerment of America’s citizens through education and education as a tool to lift people beyond their circumstances and out of poverty. When you remove and twist bits and pieces of a larger argument to inaccurately further an agenda based solely on partisan ideology without reading and comprehending the message, it demonstrates am inability to see the forest for the trees, as you argue against your very own beliefs and desires without even having an awareness that you are doing so. Again, I STRONGLY urge you to take the time to read just one of Dr. Carson’s books and I believe you may find yourself with an enlightened mind and, perhaps, a shifted attitude. Commenters here are speaking of gross omissions, yet they fail to understand that they, themselves, are making a gross omission by taking “facts” – facts which are in fact inaccuracies – at face value without conducting their own research or fact-checking. It’s this type of blind following of a partisan ideology that will harm the future of America.
Laura, it doesn’t take a genius to throw out golden proclamations of the “good ol days.” The point is that the good ol’ days were not, in fact, good ol’ days. Carson is the spin doctor here.
There are only so many books we have the time to read. I won’t speak for others, but I’m not sure why I should spend the effort to read his book, when the things he says out loud tell me enough.
Everyone on this website believes that poverty should be confronted, and students empowered. Dr. Carson is not making prophecies here. And I sincerely doubt someone like Diane, a PhD of education history, would be “enlightened” by Dr. Carson’s uninformed speculation.
Yes, why read a book? That would be a travesty and a colossal waste of our precious time. Seems to me that any PhD – any high school graduate, for that matter – should realize that one should not argue against that which she has not read and understood in entirety – with her own eyes and mind. But of course, should we actually read the material against which we are forming an argument, we would have to actually form an argument against claims that were actually made, not inaccuracies presented by a third party, who also clearly did not read the material against which the argument was formed.
Oops. And these are the people educating our children…and we wonder why we have a problem.
Laura – we pick and choose and many of us have chosen not to bother with Dr Carson, we just aren’t that interested. I’m sure he has many fine ideas, but there are also some quirky oddities which, in my mind, disqualify him from any consideration to be a candidate as President.
And, no matter what Carson did or did not say, it is important to point out how far we have traveled in educating our children from the days of the one room schoolhouse where young unmarried women taught the youngsters to modern times when a public education is provided to all at least through high school.
Many of us on this blog see the current policies as a step backwards (actually a leap in the wrong direction) which is why there is such an outcry. Ironically, the only Republican Candidate who has said anything against CC was Trump when he chastised Bush for his education policies at the last debate. Go figure!
You are right, Laura. We should be careful to vet the information we believe, and if I was writing a paper on the thoughts of Carson, I would certainly have to research him carefully. If someone is going to publicly question the validity of my beliefs, at least they should rely on accurate information. Unfortunately, social media does not rise to those standards. It is more like a virtual coffee house.
So let’s look at the de Toqueville statement about how impressed he was by the knowledge of young school children in the U.S. A couple of thoughts come to mind. One, I’m not sure we should be equally impressed since I doubt de Toqueville’s educational standards were even remotely similar to ours today. I am guessing that he was impressed that we were trying to educate a class of people that still did not have access to education in most of the world. Secondly, Carson’s statements really don’t advance the discussion about public education and don’t represent any deep study of the issues on his part, which is unfortunately true of most of the political candidates. However, given his other rather far right statements, I am not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Education most certainly has come a long way – and thank you for your intelligent reflections on this subject. (I mean that sincerely.)
However, I also don’t think we can argue that America’s educational system played a big role in making the United States the powerhouse that it once was globally. I don’t think anyone is advocating to go back to the “gool ol’ days,” but there’s certainly nothing wrong with placing greater value on our educational system and working towards solutions that once again put American education at the forefront of our country’s strengths. It seems to me that the readers of this blog would agree with that sentiment.
Being indifferent to a candidate is one thing; what I find unacceptable is using a straw man argument to portray someone in a negative light, as Diane has done with this post. Such misguided discourse is not productive to the goal of enabling citizens to make informed decisions based on factual information, and such habits reflect poorly on the person making these arguments. That is my key point and my primary issue with this post, regardless of anyone’s personal feelings about Dr. Carson as the next POTUS.
Cx: de Tocqueville
“Yes, why read a book? …”
Laura, you don’t have to read a book to respond to specific arguments that people have made outside of their book. This blog post was in response to something Dr. Carson said: “an example of questions in a sixth grade exit exam from the 1830s. I doubt most college graduates could even come close to passing it today.”
Did he not say that? If so, you might have a point. If he did say that, as well as the other things quoted in the “Progressive” article, then it reveals a lot about his beliefs and knowledge on the topic. We are free to criticize his speculation, especially since a lot of people will hear his misinformation and take it seriously.
Your accusations against us who “teach the children… and no wonder our country has a problem” are hardly well founded. Can you please at least read our books before attacking us like that? 😉
The Pacific Coast is warmer? Is that the US, Costa Rica, or Panama? Air or Water?
I’d rather jump in the ocean in Virginia than in San Francisco..
I think his tragi-comic tale of America’s ‘Better Day’ in the 19th century is derived from his conflation of lyceum with public education for ordinary school kids.
We hope they came to their senses. Maybe holding the original filtered story was a form of blackmail. If one of the oligarchs gives them a million dollar plus grant and they run the story as it was, then we’ll know.
Interesting, because Dr. Ben Carson almost failed out of pre-med at Yale, according to his biography. He only passed Chemistry because he had a dream in which a shadowy figure showed him several chemical equations and how to solve them. When he went in to take the final – imagine! – the exact same questions were on the test. The fact that this – unquestionably- gifted surgeon is criticizing modern day education is ironic to say the least.
Regarding Ben Carson criticizing modern day education—anyone who criticizes public education and public teachers, who did not teach for at least 10 years or more—in addition to working with many high risk, difficult to teach children—-doesn’t know what they are talking about and is an ignorant fool, BUT I have discovered from the few very successful people I know that becasue they are successful, most of them think they can apply their success to any other field without knowing anything about that other field.
Dang, Lloyd! You mean I can’t pontificate on perceived shortcomings of any other profession? Does that include sports? What will that do to sports bars? Everyone knows how to play sports better, or at least you would think so during a big game. 🙂
I have nothing against pontificating as long as it isn’t all hot air. But Bill Gates isn’t pontificating. He, and the other frauds and fools, is waging war against public school teachers and the public schools.
Too bad Bill Gates, and the other frauds and fools who are the engine of corporate education reform, isn’t just pontificating.
Instead, they are meddling where they shouldn’t be.
I was only referring to myself, Lloyd. There is nothing like a good rant against someone or something that in my mind has done or is something really idiotic, self serving, or cruel. I do have my moments of righteous outrage although I like to think I know the difference between justified outrage and just plain arrogant self interest. Generally I do most of my ranting in relative privacy. Too bad Bill Gates couldn’t find some book club type social organization where he could go and listen to people debate each other and leave the rest of us alone. I really don’t like being part of one of his thought experiments.
I enjoy ranting. Holding it in only builds a pressure cooker that might explode. Not ranting when you want to rant can lead to lost sleep. :o)
Here’s a link for Bill Gates where he can debate his ideas without spending a cent.
http://www.debate.org/
Thanks for the link. Now how does we suggest it to Bill Gates as an outlet that would protect the rest of us from his philanthropy?
How do we protect public education from Bill Gates? We don’t. As long as he refuses to quit, he will keep on doing all the damage he can as if he were an angry rhino in a glass factory.
There’s a quote credited to General Sheridan, one of Grant’s Civil War generals, who said, “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead.”
Who said we can’t learn from history. All we have to do is change one noun in that sentence. I didn’t say proper noun.
how does we!!? cx; how do we
“anyone who criticizes public education and public teachers, who did not teach for at least 10 years or more—in addition to working with many high risk, difficult to teach children—-doesn’t know what they are talking about and is an ignorant fool,”
Really? I’m not defending Ben Carson here, but in order to have a genuine complaint you must first teach at-risk students for 10 years?
Honestly, if this were the qualification, we would lose at least half our good ideas in the educational realm. Most 20th century critical thinkers would be out.
Direct experience is often useful. But sometimes, it creates a blind spot, and blocks new ways of thinking. Sometimes problem solving requires a party outside the immediate situation. Some of the best ideas I’ve heard for improving school have come from students who have obviously never taught…
Read my comment again—teaching for ten years in addition to working with at risk kids. Where did I say the teacher had to work with those at-risk kids all ten years?
I worked with kids from both ends of the spectrum for 30 years in schools with poverty rates of more than 80%—from at risk kids who lived in poverty to college ready who lived in middle class homes—and I know firsthand that most people, even many of the parents of at-risk children who live in poverty, have no idea what the challenges are for teachers—daunting challenges that drive a significant number of teachers out of the profession before hitting the five year mark.
In fact, it is so challenging that most of those “fantastic” (do you hear my sarcasm dripping with venom) TFA recruits, who stay in teaching past the mandatory two years, transfer to affluent schools and flee the schools with high rates of at risk children living in poverty. Of the total number of TFA recruits about 3% stay in the schools that needed them the most.
It’s the at risk kids, who mostly live in poverty, who drag the test scores down that the psychopathic, greed worshiping, power-hungry corporate education reformers use as their excuse to destroy the pubic schools.
“Poor ranking on international test misleading about U.S. student performance, Stanford researcher finds”
“U.S. PISA scores are depressed partly because of a sampling flaw resulting in a disproportionate number of students from high-poverty schools among the test-takers. About 40 percent of the PISA sample in the United States was drawn from schools where half or more of the students are eligible for the free lunch program, though only 32 percent of students nationwide attend such schools.”
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/january/test-scores-ranking-011513.html
And when did criticizing something mean the same as innovation? An innovator in education doesn’t have to criticize and bash public education and teachers to come up with an idea that might help. Real innovation should be positive not critical.
And I taught my students what constructive criticism was and forbid the use of negative criticism.
For instance, Bill Gates rank and yank method of using flawed and rigged high stakes tests deliberately designed to fail up to 70% (or more) of the students and then use those results to fire teachers and close public schools is not an innovation. It’s authoritarian driven terror and punishment.
Innovation is where someone comes up with an idea, a concept, and then introduces it to teachers who then decide to use it or not. If the teachers who try it out like it, they will spread the word. If it doesn’t work out, they will not recommend it.
But few if any people who do not work with at risk kids as teachers know what those challenges are and how to overcome them as best as they can. For most teachers who stay with those kids, it takes time to develop the management skills.
I was one of those at risk kids as a child. I came from a family living in poverty. I was sick as a child and almost died from my illness. My father was a chain smoker, gambler and an alcoholic. I also had extreme dyslexia but with help from a stubborn mother, I overcame that handicap that made me highly at risk as a child.
The odds were against me ever going go college, but I did—after the Marines and Vietnam.
I know what it was like to be one of those children and then what it’s like to teach children like me. Why did I work with those kids for thirty years? Because I identified with them. I was one of them when I was a child. I was more comfortable working with those kids than affluent children, and I had a taste of that too for three of those those 30 years, and I didn’t like it. While some affluent kids are nice others are arrogant jerks with parents who are arrogant jerks, who made teaching difficult in different ways that made my blood boil as a teacher.
You said “anyone who criticizes public education and public teachers…”
To me, criticism is simply pointing out something that is wrong. I don’t believe you need 10 years of teaching experience (in addition to working with at-risk students) to do that.
I agree that constructive criticism is generally a better idea, and more effective. Still, any criticism may contain validity.
It’s true, most critics do not know what it’s like to be a teacher. Oh yes, it’s difficult, and they don’t understand how difficult. Still… they could be right in some aspect of their critique. How many students and their parents complain that they are given too much homework… but according to their 20 year veteran teacher, they don’t understand how important homework is… because they aren’t a 20 year veteran teacher?
What if the kid is right? What if their parents are right?? They have a perspective that the teacher does not have — which is the greater impact of homework on their own lives. They saw something the practitioner didn’t, or couldn’t. Sometimes this is what it takes. The people who suggested differently than the experienced teacher were not idiots. In fact, in this case they are backed by common sense, and as it turns out, lots of research that most teachers seem to be unfamiliar with. (homework is more pointless and harmful than it is helpful from K-8, and only slightly less bad from 9-12)
It’s only a short skip from the argument you made to the “argument from authority.” I worry because this kind of argument automatically shuts down discussion from any declared “outsiders,” who happen to be the vast majority of people.
I apologize for being so picky, but I think this is important to talk about. As I have to say every now and then, I am not “anti-teacher” at all, nor do I believe experience has no value. But I believe that anyone can have a good suggestion, and a good theory can often be molded into practice, no matter where it originated from. I see a lot of “veteran” teachers who are stuck in their ways, and could benefit from new suggestions, even from people who were never teachers. I don’t want those teachers to think that basically everyone else is an idiot when it comes to good ideas for education.
I sympathize with the rest of your post. I certainly do not think Bill Gates knows what he’s talking about. I don’t judge him by his credentials though. I judge his ideas by their own merits (or lack thereof).
“criticism is simply pointing out something that is wrong”
I think criticism is just an opinion—one person’s opinion AND that doesn’t mean it is valid, and if it has any validity or value, then teachers can always think about it and talk about it in teacher support groups. During my thirty years in the classroom, we always had teacher support groups in our departments and we met regularly as a department and then again in our grade level groups. And we didn’t sit around gossiping. We focused on classroom management skills, curriculum, enriched material, etc.
Teachers are not babysitters. They are highly trained professionals who first have to know how to manage a diverse classroom and deal with an unending array of two legged challenges that walk in the door each day before they can teach, and just because a teacher is great at teaching, doesn’t mean every student in a class is willing to learn.
Some of the challenges I faced were kids coming to school who’d had a family member or close friend murdered or raped. Then there was a boy who came to school one day with a dazed, glazed look on his face. I found out later from his girlfriend who was in another class of mine that he’d almost been raped by two men but had managed to fight his way free, escape and outrun them and still make it to school on time—I filed the police report and later his family thanked me because he probably would have kept that incident to himself and carried it as a burden. We also got him counseling.
Then there was the straight A, perfect in every way ninth grade girl who was obviously depressed about something one day. I talked to some of her friends and told them I was concerned so I asked them to keep a close eye on her. It turned out that she was considering suicide and her friend intervened. In her senior year, she wrote me a thank you letter because she said her friends saved her from taking her own life. I also referred her to a HS counselor but kids don’t always open up to adults but they will with their peers and friends.
For instance, in Finland, the state does not force the teachers to teach to the country’s standards. The teachers may select what standards they want to teach without fear of a test getting them fired and the public schools closed.
In Finland, almost 100% of the teachers belong to a teachers’ union.
In Finland, teachers are respected and treated like they know what they are going
In Finland, the teachers collaborate in teacher teams to discuss and plan curriculum and work on specific challenges.
In Finland, teachers are treated like the educated professionals that they are, and as professionals they are trusted to keep up with education research and innovations and then apply what they learn in the classroom, but they are not forced to do it like teachers are in the United States.
In Finland there is no mandatory high stakes tests that the schools are forced to give. The only test is near the end of HS and it is voluntary.
During the thirty years I was in the classroom (1975-2005), every year the teachers in my district were required to take workshops or attend seminar on education research and innovations in education to improve our teaching and classroom management skills. The district I worked in even had its own staff development center on one of the grade school campuses where teachers would go after school several times a year to be introduced to new stuff.
Then in 1999, California’s legislature enacted its own standards with the goal to get test scores up to measure student growth. If scores didn’t improve, then schools could be taken over by the state.
Suddenly teacher development was not the focus. Instead, we were forced to attend workshops on how to get test scores up. I even taught test taking strategy lasses during summer school to the kids who had the lowest test scores to help them get their test scores up, because in California there was also high school competency exams where the students had to reach a 9th grade level in reading, writing and math or they would not graduate from high school—that was the first high stakes test in California, the state competency exams, and the district offered tutoring after school in math and English in addition to summer school classes to boost literacy and writing skills. I taught those classes during the summer too. One class I taught was supported with a grant from the Los Angeles Times and the daily newspaper was our textbook and that daily paper came with scripted lessons from the Los Angeles Times. I used the scripted lessons for about three days and then trashed them. They were horrible. They were scripted down to the minute, step-by-step. I continued to use the newspaper but came up with my own lesson plans. To do that, I had to arrive about two hours early, carry the bundles of newspapers to my classroom and read the paper to pick out the stories we’d read together as a class in addition to me coming up with enriched lessons that would increase my students writing and literacy skills. The step by step crap from the LA times was STUPID idiocy that obviously was written by someone that had no idea what it was like to teach at risk kids who mostly lived in poverty in an area dominated by violent street gangs.
Lloyd – I used to also teach test taking strategies, but they only work on tests which are reasonable. There’s a good explanation for why the current assessments have such low scores – they aren’t fair or valid – and no special test taking skill is going to change that.
I had one student I recall who finished a 90 minute test—-one of the state’s high risk standardized tests used to rank schools—-in less than 5 minutes. He marked C for every answer and then he was done. He never opened the test booklet. He didn’t care. Once he finished, he folded his arms and rested his head on those arms and went to sleep. He belonged to a street gang and was often up late at night running around spray panting walls and freeway overpasses with his gang’s sign thinking that would make him immortal. I sent a memo to the 9th grade counselor alerting her to the fact. I never heard back.
Lloyd – I think we’ve all had that experience.
How about this one. I had a student who could barely read. She guessed on all the multiple choice questions, just bubbled randomly, and ended up with an 83%.
That 83% was random chance. It happens. Another reason why high stakes tests are FLAWED.
Well, Lloyd, you’re preaching to the choir now 😉
The only thing I have to say in response is that just because teachers get together, that doesn’t mean they will come up with all the best ideas. Classroom teachers do not have a monopoly on good ideas.
My point is simply that we need to keep our ears open. Sometimes the biggest ideas can come from the unlikeliest of places. Say, a 15 year old who is merely “complaining.”
I wonder if all the programmers who work for Google, Microsoft and Apple are all equally the best there can be with no one out in front of the pack.
The evidence, even from the frauds who call themselves reformers, says that 97% to 99% of teachers in the U.S. are qualified, but how does someone with a job that eats them alive with its demands have time to run around listening to say, a 15 year old who thinks she has the magic pill that will revolutionize education?
After several thousand years of developing an education system, I don’t think there is any magic pill that will get 100% of the children to love learning, love reading, and love writing.
There is a smorgasbord of teaching methods. We learned all this when working toward our credentials and a lot of the new stuff that is forced on teachers almost always makes the job harder with worse results. I witnessed this several times when the top decided what the rest of us HAD to do—no discussion—or else.
Due Process rights designed the protect teachers does not protect them from being fired when they refuse to do what they are told even when all the teachers know what they are being forced to do is wrong.
Who said anything about a magic pill? Is it difficult to consider a new suggestion from someone who is not a teacher?
I always listened to the FEW suggestions that came from students, parents and fools like Bill Gates and David Coleman, but so FEW of those FEW suggestions offered anything new that I had not already heard or been taught or used.
Most of the suggestions that were different came from other teachers after they thought them up and tried them out with their students—but they only shared them if they worked.
It’s not like children and adults lined up outside of my classroom to offer me suggestions that MIGHT improve my teaching, and I turned them away.
In fact, anyone making a suggestion of any kind was rare—extremely rare. Instead on parent conference night about 15% of the parents showed up and most of them were the parents of children earning good grades and not causing problems. In addition, for too many of the parents of children who didn’t cooperate and didn’t study and didn’t learn, I would be blamed because that’s what America has been hearing in the media for decades—blame the teacher?
Ed Detective, are you a public school teacher?
Unfortunately, Lloyd is sharing a universal truth which occurs in schools all over the country.
Yes, Lloyd, and it is similar to the schools you describe.
That’s good you listen to suggestions, not everyone does. I was originally responding to your statement that people who dont have the experience you described are disqualified from being taken seriously. I just don’t think that’s true and we need to be careful about that. Yeah, not all those opinions will be good, but better to judge them based on substance rather than who said it. Like I said, some of the best ideas — that many educators ignore — have come from people who do not meet your credibility rating.
Ed Detective claims that “some of the best ideas — that many educators ignore — have come from people who do not meet your credibility rating”
I find it interesting that you allege that MANY educators IGNORE some of the best ideas that come from people who are not educators.
Since you made this statement so easily without providing a scrap evidence other than your opinion, it’s time for you to support your claim—and please provide links to every bit of evidence you cough up.
How do you know what or how many of the more than 3 million public school teachers in the U.S. ignore or pay attention to when it comes to ideas that would improve how they teach?
And for the SECOND time, are you or have you ever been a public school teacher and if so for how long?
“I find it interesting that you allege that MANY educators IGNORE some of the best ideas that come from people who are not educators.”
I find it interesting that you seem to believe most educators do already know all the best ideas, or spend a lot of time trying to find them.
“Since you made this statement so easily without providing a scrap evidence other than your opinion, it’s time for you to support your claim—and please provide links to every bit of evidence you cough up.”
Feel free to go to my website and click on database. There are hundreds of links for you, sorted by category. When educators consider half the ideas I have posted on my website, you won’t need to let me know… because schools will look very different.
“How do you know what or how many of the more than 3 million public school teachers in the U.S. ignore or pay attention to when it comes to ideas that would improve how they teach?”
The nice thing about schools is that there are so many of them, and you can attend them, observe in them, and then work in them. You can also read books, blogs, and articles by researchers and teachers who tell what is happening in schools around the nation and around the world. Then you can compare the practices you see and read about, that are happening in schools, with the various ideas that educational theorists suggest. Some of these theorists are brilliant researchers who have never actually been teachers (and some who have been, but may not fit your specific criteria), yet their research focuses on what actually happens in classrooms, and involves working closely with teachers. Much of this research is unknown, ignored, disregarded, or only considered by individuals or implemented on a small scale. Do I know what every single teacher is doing? Of course not. I made a generalization. What I do know is what the typical school and classroom look like, and it is not close to what the educational sciences suggest as “best practice.” To suggest that most educators are on the envelope of research and practice would be silly. Most if not all educators can learn a lot, even from non-educators.
“And for the SECOND time, are you or have you ever been a public school teacher and if so for how long?”
You must have missed the first time, where I said: “Yes, Lloyd, and it is similar to the schools you describe.” It’s disappointing that you demand to know this after my entire point in our conversation is that it shouldn’t matter who proposed an idea, rather, the idea itself is what matters. Fortunately for my argument, and now that you ask how long I’ve taught, I will say that I have not taught in a classroom for 10 years. What this means is that you must now foolishly discard everything I say on the topic of education, or admit that you were wrong about what you said. In fact, my alias was created for this purpose. If you don’t know who is saying something, you will have to actually look more closely at what they’re saying, and decide whether it is good or not. If you only disregard what I say after learning how long I’ve been a classroom teacher, you prove my point, which I hope will be realized because there’s no more time for me to waste on this conversation.
My first thought was, “How arrogant this guy is, if Ed Detective is a guy, who thinks he/she has all the answers to fix a system that was NEVER broken.”
Do you actually think I read every comment you have made on this Blog? I don’t. In fact, I don’t read a lot of the comments made on this site. There isn’t enough time in the day to read them all and have time left for breathing. I don’t know how Diane does it.
Even for the Blog posts, I scan most of the long ones and read the short ones and even that takes from one to three hours a day. And I don’t scan or read them all even though I try.
I leave comments for some posts but not for every post, and when I am notified of comments left in posts that I left comments for, I search for my name to see if anyone addressed me in that thread, and then I sometimes respond—or not, but I have never read an entire thread for one post.
In fact, the only thing I have ever read from you are claims without facts or links. Then you tell me to read your Blog where all of these amazing innovative ideas exist—that you as ONE person think are amazing and innovative—and yet you don’t provide a link, and I’m talking about the previous comment addressed to me—not some comment you made to someone else in this thread or another post or even to me that I might have missed.
You said, “Fortunately for my argument, and now that you ask how long I’ve taught, I will say that I have not taught in a classroom for 10 years.”
You actually didn’t say anything in that last quote. You could have substitute taught for one day in your life 10 years ago and somehow fooled yourself to think that you are an expert who, for instance, could learn how to do brain surgery or fly a 747 across the Pacific to China and land it by watching a 15 minute video or reading a pamphlet about how to do it.
The last time I taught was August of 2005, more than ten years ago, but I taught full time for thirty years before that date, and I know for a fact that teaching is only a third of the equation for an education and the biggest factor—more than two-thirds of it—is outside of school, and that is the environment where the child lives. What innovation, that would cost nothing and not add more time to a teacher’s workday, do you suggest would solve dysfunctional homes in dysfunctional environments?
It takes a village to teach a child. Teachers can’t do it alone. For students to learn what a teacher is teaching them, the child must be engaged 100% of the time, and the parents/guardians must be supportive 100% of the time, and the average child in the U.S. has between 40 to 50 teachers K-12, and at least 36 of them in middle and high school.
So all the innovative ideas in the world that don’t cost money and add more time to a teachers workday aren’t going to teach a child to learn what’s taught if the child is not part of the process and that child’s parents are not supportive.
What innovative magic that would cost nothing in time or money do you suggest exists out there that teachers ignore from novices that will bring 100% of all children and parents/guardians on board so every child grows up to be college and career ready—something, by the way, that no country or civilization on this planet has achieved in recorded history?