SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Reading - the future

Considering the revolutionary influence of digital technology on most human endeavours, it’s surprising that the delivery of education has changed so little. Kids still sit in classrooms, in classes of 25, with one teacher, and these classes are still in big box buildings. Computers and telecommunications are mostly add-ons, to the extent they’re used at all. 

So it’s interesting to note that McGraw-Hill has just launched its first all-digital textbook for the K-12 market. Of course, there remains the question of whether the content of this textbook will be better than the generally lousy textbooks inflicted on students in the past. However, the whole new world opened up by digital textbooks may mean that the big textbook publishers will lose their virtual monopoly - and that is always good news for consumers. We await developments with great interest.

For a very limited time only!

I just found out that Funnix Beginning Math was available for free download from June 1 to June 26. I know that this is June 27, but iit looks as if it’s possible you can still do it for the next few hours at least. Funnix is a 100-lesson computer program for children who have not learned beginning math operations. Designed by the folks at the Association for Direct Instruction, this is a fabulous program that would normally cost hundreds of dollars. I hope you can manage to download it before they pull the plug!

Sunday at the Movies (Oregon)

Oregon has recently made some moderate improvements to its education system (improvements to the charter school authorization law, an open enrollment law, and improvements to the online learning law) but, judging by this video, much more is coming. It’s badly needed, as Oregon students score below the national average despite their demographic advantages.

Compulsory education: how is it working for you?

Things have been a bit quiet around here lately, and so I thought I’d throw a provocative idea into the pot. This article takes educational freedom to the next level: giving parents not just the ability to spend their educational dollars freely, but also giving them the ability to decide whether or not to even send their kids to a school period.

We all take the necessity for and benefits of compulsory schooling laws for granted, without really thinking about it but, as the author points out, there are a number of downsides to compulsory schooling - not least of which is the reality of hundreds of thousands of kids who are inexorably forced to return, day after day, year after year, to continue the torture visited upon them by their failing schools. There are some other issues around compulsory schooling as well, and readers with an open mind are invited to read the whole article.

I am not necessarily convinced by these arguments, but they are ideas worth thinking about - not least the question of the extent to which the state should be allowed to dictate its citizens’ private actions.

Good teaching matters

As parents instinctively know - and the research strongly supports them - it’s hugely important that their kids get a good teacher. Of course, there are lots of good teachers out there but, for the most part, they have become good teachers by trial and error, feeling their way and talking to other teachers, that sort of thing - as opposed to learning the tricks of their trade at their faculty of education. The sad truth is: most faculties of education provide an abysmal (or even no) grounding in how to teach well, focusing more on political correctness and leaf collections. 

In recognition of this fact, the US Senate is proposing a bill that would punish bad education schools and encourage alternative routes such as Teach for America. This approach is badly needed in Ontario, as the province’s faculties of education enjoy a monopoly on teacher certification and their problems are deeply entrenched, as explained in this essay by the former dean of an Ontario faculty. 

Why the Ontario teachers’ unions are on the warpath

About three weeks ago, I blogged about the Ontario Conservatives’ apparent hope that their bland education policy would appease the province’s teachers’ unions and ward off their usual anti-Conservative political activities during the election campaign. In light of the fact that the election is the Conservatives’ to lose, I wondered whether the teachers’ unions would take the bait and start building bridges to the Conservative Party.

In this column in the Toronto Sun, former education minister John Snobelen reveals that the answer to this question is a resounding no - and the reason doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the education file, which may or may not have contained enough soothing promises to call off the attack dogs. However, the Conservative labour file - with its promises of secret ballots in certification votes and the prohbition of unions using their members’ dues to support unpalatable political causes - makes the Conservatives’ insipid education policies irrelevant. There is no way that any union in the province of Ontario is going to back off now.

Now, I just want to make a little disclaimer here about the rest of John Snobelen’s column. I’m a little sensitive by now about being called a teacher basher (even though I used to be one and some of my best friends are teachers). Read my lips: I’m not endorsing Mr. Snobelen’s sentiments - I’m just reporting the facts here.

Something tells me they’re into something good

I must be getting soft, but here’s another good news story, this time from a group of Toronto schools using an approach called “3 to 3” (meaning from the age of three to Grade 3) to good effect. 3 to 3 is a program that develops children’s language skills through storytelling. 

Here are a couple of articles from our archives (here and here) that discuss the importance of giving young children rich vocabularies (and how to go about it) and the importance of learning how to speak to heterogeneous audiences.

Khan Academy tutorials have teachers flipping out

 The free online tutorials posted by Khan Academy are impacting on teaching – and not always in ways that its founder Sal Khan anticipated.  In this presentation to TED, Khan notes that some teachers are “flipping” what’s going on in their classrooms.  Teachers are forgoing their in-class lectures and assigning the Khan videos as homework and then using their class time to work on assignments.  This is dramatically increasing the teachers’ one-on-one time with the students who need extra help.

Full many a rose is born to blush unseen

There's a continuing good news story going on in an obscure school board in western Ontario, the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board. Here's a local news story on the results of the latest Grade 10 literacy test. Once again, the board's students score among the best in the province. And here's an article from our newsletter archives showing that the board started rocketing to the top not quite ten years ago. The school board's success has been recognized by parents: its schools are packed to the rafters (non-Catholics can enroll in their schools) and none of its schools have been closed.

There is nothing remarkable about the Huron-Perth catchment area - no special demographic factors or brain transplants going on. Indeed, the contiguous public school board, the Avon-Maitland District School Board, typically scores around the provincial average. So what's going on here?

I know just a few things about the Huron-Perth Board: they didn't move to the Balanced School Day like other school boards; they still offer JK-8 under one roof; and they teach beginning readers using systematic phonics. Are these factors in the school board's astonishing success? Who knows. But somebody should be asking these questions.

Sunday at the Movies (Kindergarten Geniuses)

This is an oldie but goodie, and eye-opening in terms of what disadvantaged kindergarten-age students can learn. As you watch the children show off their math skills, ask yourself if their creativity has been stifled by direct instruction or their higher-order thinking skills ignored. Don't let the poor sound quality at the start discourage you from watching.