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‘Opinions in media’ Category

  1. Effective Schools for all

    November 21, 2016 by Tunya

    Consciousness, guilt and shame should tell us it's inappropriate for some children to be disproportionately left behind from education.  One fact stands out as particularly outrageous:  2.3 million Americans are behind bars and 40 % are blacks (mostly males) and blacks make up just 13 % of the population.  Here is an article which shows how black teachers feel disrespected — they who should be especially encouraged and celebrated in trying to help this left-behind population.  Black teachers feeling tolerated, not celebrated http://citizen.education/index.php/2016/11/21/black-teachers-feeling-tolerated-not-celebrated/  I sent a comment to this article as below:

    I Like Your Bottom Line

    That you commit to not giving up is so heartwarming!

    I subscribe to your blog and also to a lot of other education sites. You’re one of the best! Your insight comes across as very enlightened and informed by much experience. Please keep asking these questions, bringing forth good research and keeping up-to-date on the statistics. I’m sure there also must be good news about how black children and black teachers and black families can achieve the best possible results from good education opportunities.

    I’m a granny now but when I was active in school reform it was on behalf of parent rights. We used to quote Ron Edmonds often, especially his 1978 quote: “We can whenever, and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need in order to do this. Whether we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far.”

    He developed an 8-point checklist, which if it were seriously applied, would, I’m sure, have contributed much to good schools for everyone. Perhaps the one point most seriously ignored was the one about avoiding pitfalls: “Retain awareness of good educational practice plus keep current in the field concerning promising and discredited practices.”
    Much of today’s schooling deviates from proven practices. Perhaps Edmonds can again be an inspiration today! We do need to celebrate good teaching!

    Category Malpractice, Opinions in media, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Education shakeup — way overdue

    November 20, 2016 by Tunya

    Contradiction Between Knowing & Doing In Education

    Much is known about what works and what doesn’t in education. The biggest problem — at least in relation to the goal of at least equipping students with the basic skills of reading and math — is the huge gap between certain populations exhibiting or not exhibiting those skills. Consistently, poor and minority students are left behind. And, they disproportionately are the clienteles of the criminal justice systems.

    No need to look for neuroscientific magic bullets in reading and math. There is considerable research and evidence to correct those lags now.

    Our popular BC radio broadcaster and economist, Michael Campbell, pointed out these contradictions this weekend in face of the US election results:

    • 2.3 million Americans are behind bars, 40% are black, while they are only 13% in the general population.
    • That inner city schools are a disaster is a failure of the establishment elites to drop politics and work on behalf of these forgotten and dispossessed.

    While Campbell rages about education contradictions here and in the US he is completely stumped as to why there is no uprising against the education elite. Over the last year of his broadcasts he correctly foresaw both Brexit and the Trump election as reactions against political establishments. What will it take for a shakeup and correction in the education establishment?

    [posted in Educhatter, https://educhatter.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/crap-detection-in-teaching-how-do-we-separate-the-good-brain-science-from-the-bad/#comment-20960]

    Category Absurdities, Opinions in media, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  3. where does truth stand today?

    November 18, 2016 by Tunya

     

    Where Does Truth Stand Today?

    I think this SINNer is protesting too much. Self-identifying non-neuroticism is probably not in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition — yet. But as the saying goes, it takes one to know one, or, it’s the pot calling the kettle black . . .

    Caplan points to the two tribes, left and right activists. They both use sadness, anger and fear to try and sway some reform or change. Both try to evoke guilt as a method to work for change.

    There’s another way that’s going the rounds in expressing polarities of thought — authoritarian or libertarian — either of which also tries to evoke guilt in persuading others to their side.

    But Caplan belongs to a tribe that claims objective truths and evidence-backed research to bolster their field. But, here again, there is no agreement. The famous quote by George Bernard Shaw still holds — "If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion."

    Thankfully we live in our Western cultures, which allow competition of ideas to flourish and for surprises (Brexit/Trump effect) to happen.

    Thanks for the opinion-piece, Bryan Caplan, and hopefully we can grapple more effectively in this, our post-truth world. In case it’s not widely know, Oxford Dictionary has just proclaimed “post-truth” as the word of the year and perhaps the defining word of our time!

    https://www.theguardian.com/bo…

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/15/post-truth-named-word-of-the-year-by-oxford-dictionaries

    [comment to FEE — Bryan Caplan — How Neurotic People Abuse The News}

    Category Absurdities, Opinions in media, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  4. G&M editorial – “class struggle”

    November 17, 2016 by Tunya

    Does A Leopard Change Its Spots?

    At the time in our lives when Oxford Dictionary is defining “post-truth” as the international word of the year, those of us who do care about truth owe it to our values and the validity of “truth” itself to challenge post-truth narratives. I found this Globe & Mail editorial seriously stretching believability.

    Why, for example, say that this was a “long-drawn-out conflict” that started in 2001? In the very next sentence it is stated that “normal” is a “series of skirmishes”. Yes, normal is just that. It has been well chronicled by historian, Thomas Fleming ,in his book Worlds Apart: BC Schools, Politics and Labour Relations Before and After 1972. These disruptive skirmishes have been going on for over 4 decades!

    And why does the editorial make it sound like the government started this “bitter class struggle”? On page 76 of Fleming’s book we read: “As the federation’s militancy intensified in the 1970s, its willingness to confront the provincial government increased. Election of the ‘radical Marxist’ Jim MacFarlan, to use Johnson’s description, as federation president between 1973 and 1975 brought a new class-consciousness to the BCTF’s executive office . . . MacFarlan and his supporters believed schools should be used as instruments of social change . . . “ Just who is provoking whom? Fleming describes in his short little book how the BCTF has engaged in battles with whichever political party was in charge, regardless of political stripe, be it Social Credit, NDP or Liberal.

    It is time for us to re-read this terse history of our incessant school wars. Sure, there may be a lull while Supreme Court instructions are being worked out. But, does a leopard change its spots? The book, Worlds Apart, is in its second edition and available from info@deepcovebooks.ca.

    G&M editorial, Nov 15, Bad faith, bad form, in BC school politics — http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/bad-faith-bad-form-in-bc-school-politics/article32865951/comments/

    Category Absurdities, Opinions in media, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Reading Wars & US Election

    November 13, 2016 by Tunya

    Watch English Classes As A Possible Battleground

    Wente notes that one Trump voter says that immigrants should pay back taxes and learn English. Well, that is definitely an important point — the English part.

    However much we may agree, we should also become aware that some of the most insidious undermining of a population could happen via the teaching of reading and literacy. Look up “Reading Wars” and you’ll get some inkling of the battles and polarized divisions. The entire political continuum has been involved — from right-wing to left-wing — from kindergarten to adult education.

    Both the methods used plus the reading materials have been blamed for producing socialists or capitalists. This scuffling has gone on for over a half century. Not always evident to the general public, it’s hard to know the current status. Many people in the field of education will tell you there is no longer a problem and that a mix of tools are being used to good effect. That may be true, however, we still remain alarmed at the high illiteracy figures that abound, especially within prison populations.

    While English for all is a good policy we should be aware that problems might arise due to the politics of reading. A recent report to the World Bank, which is promoting world literacy. has this caution: “The reading ‘wars’ are alive and well in many low-income countries, often miring ministries of education and teaching centers in seemingly endless debates between the ‘whole-language’ and ‘phonics-based’ approaches.” Being aware of pitfalls should help make the language teaching more true to the results intended and English should not become yet another divisive issue in America.

    [Sent to Globe & Mail, Margaret Wente column “Trump voters deserve respect.” Sun Nov 13, 2016]

     

    Category Opinions in media, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

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