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  1. postal code school funding discrepancies

    November 26, 2018 by Tunya

    If there ever was a case to be made for family choice in education it is now. In this second decade of the 21st Century — in a prosperous country such as Canada — we still see the hand wringing and agonizing about the blatant unfairness of education quality by postal code! Shameful, isn’t it?

    Of course, the ed honchos are right up front there with their turnaround formulas. The achievement gaps persist and the question is asked: “So, what can be done to break the cycle?” Can the life chances of currently underserved students be improved?

    How about flipping the whole mess over and let the self-interest of the consumer be the guide, not the self-serving producers? Bring in a GI Bill type of program where the family chooses which school or programs would best fit their child, without bureaucratic strings attached?

    Yes, the voucher idea has been around a long time but there is now a more appealing plan — Education Savings Accounts. Families vote with their feet to find the education programs or schools that fit the unique needs of their children. ESAs are now of growing interest in the United States and we should get to know more about this concept.

    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.” Poor parents are as capable of making choices for their children as their higher income neighbors — if they had some control over “their” education dollars!

     

    [to Educhatter]

    Category Absurdities, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Is it TABOO to ask if a school-shooter can read?

    March 27, 2018 by Tunya

    Why is the taboo question never asked? Why are these schoolboy-killers targeting schools? Do they have a particular grievance with schools?

    I think that the first thing that should be determined about these killers is if they can read. Not just read words, but also actually decode unfamiliar words. We have known for a long time that young students who cannot read by the end of Grade 3 start a downward slide in self-worth and start acting out. This is called in the education literature as the Matthew Effect. Unfortunately it is mainly a small percentage of boys who experience serious reading problems and these students really need dedicated decoding training in the alphabetic code, generally called phonics. There are tests that if applied early could be used to provide that special training if the school does not use it for all students, as they should.

    Such a reading test applied to delinquents or school-shooters would quickly determine if they could read. Plus, check their school records. What if a pattern emerges that these criminals suffered acute school failure in their early years simply from not having been taught to read?

    [Published as comment #180 https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/03/21/not-always-like-this/]

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

  3. Civics, SJW, Edina, Anti-Gun Student Protests

    March 7, 2018 by Tunya

    The weeks after Florida School Shooting, Feb 14, 2018 sees increasing student unrest and anxiety.  Some protests are being subsidized by self-interest groups. Concers about civics education are being raised.  See Joanne Jacobs – From anger to activism: is this civics education?

    http://www.joannejacobs.com/2018/03/from-anger-to-activism-is-this-civics-education/         My comment below, March 6, 2018

    I think civics education should be about government in general, how we are governed and how people, voting citizens and others (those too young to vote or others nor registered as voters), can participate in a democracy.

    Schools are expected to socialize students to live in a democracy and be active participants in their school life. I do not think they should be encouraged, directly from their lessons or their reading materials, to be social justice warriors.

    I find it disturbing that a good number of books have already been published in that regard. And, some are for the early primary years at that! Here are a few titles:

    • A is For Activist

    • A Rule is to Break – A Child’s Guide to Anarchy

    • Tales for Little Rebels, a collection of radical children’s literature

    Mind you, with a balanced approach, and with good discussion, I think these books can be part of valuable discussion. But, care should be taken that the curriculum does not bend that way. As it did in Edina.

    Joanne did mention Edina Schools in an earlier post about scores slipping when an ‘equity’ focus was adopted http://www.joannejacobs.com/2017/10/scores-slip-after-equity-focus/ That was last year.

    But Edina continues in its radical agenda with the latest story getting international attention: “a leading edge of a full-scale ideological reeducation campaign”. I wonder if they will be participating in these student protests currently in vogue? See the story: Inside a public school social justice factory http://www.weeklystandard.com/inside-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/article/2011402

    One Grade 10 student on the Rate My Teachers site said: ““This class should be renamed . . . ‘Why white males are bad, and how oppressive they are.’”

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

  4. Dumbing-Down the arts — constructivism’s spread

    March 4, 2018 by Tunya

    The hijacking of art education for political purposes was highlighted 6 years ago.
    Aristos is an online review of the arts and its April 2010 issue had an article entitled “The Hijacking of Art Education” by Michelle Marder Kamhi. This is the opening statement:
    “Parents and others who think that children are mainly learning about painting and drawing in today’s art classrooms should consider this: a movement has for some time been afoot to hijack art education for purposes of often radical political indoctrination”.https://www.aristos.org/aris-10/hijacking.htm
    After attending a convention of the National Art Education Association (US) she wrote her analysis. She describes some of the left professors who are forefront in the movement to use art education as a vehicle for social justice — a move linked to critical theory and critical pedagogy. This is not to be confused with critical thinking, she says, whose aim is to develop students’ powers of reasoning.
    An abbreviated form of the article was published in the Wall Street Journal, with strong responses, mainly in support of the author’s views.
    A follow-up Forum in Aristos months later provided a reasonable balance of opinions from teachers and professors in the field of art education. Some argued for integrity to art discipline and adherence to the understood principle that teachers should teach how to think, not what. Others saw them selves as “cultural workers” and felt that art could be used to “change the world”. (See Aristos archives.)
    The author concluded in 2010: “Though a social justice approach to art education is not yet widespread in K-12 classrooms, it would be inaccurate to suggest that it is non-existent.”
    Well, here we are now. Martin Robinson quotes from The Guardian that in the UK “in some schools, teachers are embracing . . . [the arts] . . . as a tool to teach the environment.” The children “learn the ‘compost and growing’ song and produce artwork in relation to it, too. The arts and other curriculum areas are continually connected. Teaching the children to be sustainable has nice science, humanities and responsible citizenship links.”
    This is an issue that needs broad discussion. Perhaps that august lineup (EDHirsch, DChristodoulou, GAshman, KBirbalsingh) that is to meet in Nov in Amsterdam (topic: Shift from social-constructivism to science-informed education) might touch on the issue raised here.

    [  My response to Martin Robinson’s blog post of Marco 03, 2018 https://martinrobborobinson.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/dumbing-down-the-arts/ ]https://martinrobborobinson.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/dumbing-down-the-arts/  ]

     

    Category Constructivism, Obstacles, Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Edina & Marxism

    February 5, 2018 by Tunya

    Re Edina story — It’s not just about equity, but “marxism” as well !
    Readers of this post, please click on the link provided.
    In the 7th paragraph the author states: “ . . . the equity agenda is the leading edge of a full-scale reeducation campaign. A course description of an 11th-grade U.S. Literature and Composition course puts it this way: ‘By the end of the year, you will have . . . learned how to apply marxist [sic], feminist, post-colonial [and] psychoanalytical . . . lenses to literature.’”
    NOTE in particular how Marxist (normal spelling) is now changed to marxist, which the author noted. But wait, this is probably not a typo at all, but a deliberate means to make the term appear “generic” and not a brand name for the ideology of Marxism. A parent reading this teaching objective might just glance at it and not realize its significance. Thanks to the author of this article, however, careful reading of the syllabus does indeed sound like “a full-scale reeducation campaign” !

    To Katherin Kersten of this newspaper

    Hi Katherine:

    Your post on Edina has been highlighted in many places.

    Good research on your part and good details.

    This is what Jordan B Peterson said: “If you don't think this is coming to Canada, you don't know anything about the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario or OISE. Parents beware.”   Look up the significance of Jordan B Peterson .

    In helping to broadcast your article I include the following comment: "See syllabus — 'By the end of the year, you will have . . . Learned how to apply marxist, feminist, post-colonial, psychoanalytic . . . lenses to literature.'  Indoctrination ? ? Note how Marxism has now become generic!  Students acquire a marxist behavioral view (lens)."

    Katherine: You used [sic] after marxist, which Spellcheck might do automatically or an editor or the author.  My feeling is that this is an intentional usage to make the term more generic — for example, Liberal and liberal — taking away the strong ideological flavor.  Check with your editors or some linguist if this is possibly some transitional phase for Marxism to also become a small "m" marxism — as I've seen some people say, "I'm not a Socialist but a small "s" socialist.

    Thanks for doing such an important article.

    This story has been highlighted in a # of places, including a comment by Jordan B Peterson http://www.weeklystandard.com/inside-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/article/2011402  who said:

    “If you don't think this is coming to Canada, you don't know anything about the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario or OISE. Parents beware.”  

     

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

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