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January, 2014

  1. Diversity Makes Room For Tall Poppies

    January 6, 2014 by Tunya

    Alberta, Canada’s TALL POPPY, Had To Be Cut Down To Size

    That Alberta education scores have suffered the deepest relative slide in Canada and within the longest time span is significant — statistically AND politically.

    The ingredients that contributed to Alberta’s high academic school scores over the last decades were — choice, charters and professional attention.

    The Edmonton Model, in particular, is written up in a number of economics books for the cause and effect relationship.

    But this became intolerable to factions of The Blob, particularly the teacher unions and some academics — egalitarians no longer tolerant of rhetoric only. The air-miles added up briskly as consultants were brought in to shape a “levelling”. It happened. PISA 2012 shows it.

    But will there be a backlash or will Alberta accept being put in its place?

    This all fits in with the conspiracy theories about dumbing down of public education for the nefarious reasons attendant to the theories. The Internet is replete with references and blogs. Scads of books have been written. One of the latest is well researched, written by a beady-eyed lawyer, and while focusing on the US common core picture has a lot to say about 21st Century Learning efforts worldwide (as is the Canadian experience).

    If the title seems too far out, coincidentally, it’s the “math” experience that brought forth the apt title — Credentialed to Destroy: How and Why Education Became a Weapon. Check out Amazon.com reviews. Here is the anecdote on the title.

    Pages 34-35 explain the story. It seems that there was a serious need to improve math, so when finally a PhD Math scholar took over this department, there were great expectations.

    But those hiring either failed to check credentials or were profoundly ignorant. The successful candidate’s PhD was based on study and thesis work on Equity Pedagogy, something “widely divergent with what parents and taxpayers and maybe even school board members would assume they were getting”. They didn’t realize the degree was geared “to move the course work away from the transmission of math knowledge, skill, and practices.”

    Thus, the title — Credentialed To Destroy.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Parent Involvement & The Political Principle

    January 5, 2014 by Tunya

    Book Review:

    Parental Involvement and the Political Principle — Why the Existing Governance Structure of Schools Should be Abolished, Seymour B Sarason, 1995 Jossy-Bass Pub

    Sarason was a psychologist whose many books about education reform leaned heavily on motivations for people's actions.  

    From the cover of the book:  "For school to change, not only must a new school governance replace the old, it must also confront and answer the question: Governance for what educational purpose?"

    Those of us in the trenches of ed reform bemoan, tear our hair out, and wail: the system runs for the conveneince of "the system", for those who run the system and exploit it for their own vested interests.

    In Economics this is various called producer capture, provider capture, or elite capture.

    I will provide a lot more material on the book's important insights later as this site, and the Parent Tribal Memory project gets rolling along.

    Category Book Reviews, Education Reform, Parent Tribal Memory | Tags: | No Comments

  3. Camille Paglia and cultural “immaturity”

    January 4, 2014 by Tunya

    Posted on a # of sites:           Tunya Audain January 3, 2014

    Is The Cultural Shift Intended?

    Camille Paglia says that all this huge public controversy about Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty and his negative views of homosexuality “is a sign of immaturity, juvenility.” That his views should not be suppressed in a free society.

    She goes on to say: “What you’re seeing is how a civilization commits suicide.” She despairs because victories of the 50s to strengthen free speech have been for naught.

    Paglia is seen as one of the world’s shrewdest cultural critics. But I think she has not finished connecting all the dots. What if this state of “immaturity” was intended?

    Let’s consider that oft quoted saying — “If you’re not a socialist at 20 you have no heart; if you are still a socialist at 30 you have no head.”

    Now, what if there actually was a deliberate project to petrify a culture at a juvenile and immature state — at 20 or so? Wouldn’t the project honchos be so delighted to hear this world expert announce their socialist achievement?

    Well, isn’t that what critics of the common core curriculum in the US are saying: That the traditional curriculum in schools is being watered down; that skills, content and knowledge are being replaced by soft competencies such as collaboration and creativity? That a general dumbing-down has been happening for a long time?

    It seems that an “incrementalist” strategy might have successfully achieved a wholesale cultural shift. I would really like to see Camille Paglia apply her analytical skills to sort out whether the common core deserves all the negative fears it is generating.

    Category Opinions in media, Parent Tribal Memory | Tags: | 1 Comment

  4. Back to the basics

    January 4, 2014 by Tunya

    In Defense Of “Salt-of-the-earth-parents”

    As a descendant of prairie pioneers and further back yet of Russian peasants and serfs — I am keenly self-conscious of highbrow town folk talking down.

    To tell a parent to lay off “the basics” is the ultimate put down.

    I would hazard this projection — universally, EVERY parent in the world knows what he or she means when they say they want “the basics” for their kid in school.

    It’s not just town folk but the teacher establishment that can make a well-meaning trustee feel “inferior” and put-down.  When our new Minister of Education, Peter Fassbender, was announced after the last provincial election, it wasn’t long before a “JOB” was done on him — a reminder of who’s who in the zoo, so to speak.

    As a 70s trustee Fassbender was caught up in the “back to the basics” movements of the time when “fads and frills” started creeping in.  Reminders of that time when “status quo” won over reform efforts are brought up to this day.  If you read the story, note one parent comment — “As for Fundamental Schools…they are going strong in Langley and are no longer a joke but have looooooooong wait lists and once you do get in … well, you have pretty contented families.”

    http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/06/09/peter-fassbender-and-the-back-to-basics-education-movement-in-the-70s/

    I can say that what parents mean by “the basics” is why early schooling — in most areas of the world —  to this day is either called “primary”, “elementary” or “fundamental”.  It’s seen as a foundation, the crucial first building block.  When will “the system” commit to this?

    This is the Wikipedia take on the topic:

    “The major goals of primary education are achieving basic literacy and numeracy amongst all pupils, as well as establishing foundations in science, mathematics, geography, history and other social sciences.”

    I simply cannot understand why teacher unions object to our “Foundation Skills Assessments” in BC and why all teachers can’t commit to “the basics”.

    Category Education Reform, Obstacles, Parent Tribal Memory | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Edcamps For Parents ?

    January 3, 2014 by Tunya

    Parent resistance is something no edationist wants to see.  Their worst fear is that parents will find alternatives to their public subsidized schools 

    Category Education Reform, Obstacles, Parent Tribal Memory | Tags: | No Comments

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