|
|
Re: Martin Bickman On The Needless War Between Traditionalists And Progressives
Posted:
Aug 31, 2012 3:29 PM
|
|
On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 5:38 PM, Robert Hansen <bob@rsccore.com> wrote:
>
> On Aug 30, 2012, at 8:05 PM, kirby urner <kirby.urner@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> There's a huge amount of disagreement on "what's the best way" but
> also on "what's best to include?"
>
>
> No, there really isn't. With teachers that have been tasked to teach every
> living soul algebra, there is disagreement, and I can understand that. They
> have been thrust into bizzaro world. But when you get to the places where
> all of this stuff bears fruit, there isn't a lot of debate. As I said
> earlier, the sequence and order is just natural. You are good at these
> things, or you are not good at these things. Too bad for all those children
> who were not good at these things but were good at other things. Too bad
> indeed.
>
> Bob Hansen
Well, I say there's a huge amount of disagreement, and I see
manifestations of that daily. The disagreement is across the board,
not just in "maths" (whatever that means).
I do think it's distressing to big publishing houses, accustomed to
trucking books by the ton to various states, to not have broad
consensus, such that their wares might be approved and accepted on a
massive scale, such that North American students could be somewhat
uniformly lobotomized to think a certain way.
They had a glimpse of that possible future and don't want electronic
publishing to disrupt it.
Getting those common core standards approved and then marketing on the
basis of "standards aligned" was an attempt to grab back that sense of
secure markets and large volume wood pulp supply chains.
However, I don't think this grabbing at straws will prove successful
in the long run. Learning is moving to the personal workspace, where
more concentration / less distraction / better access to resources is
available. It's becoming more and more urgent to bypass average high
school academics completely, if wanting a real education. No civics,
no digital savvy to speak of, few services, decaying infrastructure...
this is not a future-oriented nation in this chapter. The people
exult in their ignorance and broadcast it aggressively on radio and TV
channels, finding plenty of sponsors for such fare.
I can see why thinking like yours, taking the status quo for granted,
would be such a comfort. I'd call it a serious case of denial, but
that's a popular coping mechanism in the face of a need for rapid
adaptation.
Kirby
|
|
