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Through a glass darkly
In a comment to yesterday’s blog, fromEurope drew our attention to a very interesting discussion over at Kitchen Table Math. The topic is the widespread dominance of “fuzzy math” even in charter and private schools. This is unfortunately all too true and, of course, the phenomenon extends to subject areas other than math.
Sadly, charter schools and private schools are being dragged down by the same handicaps as conventional public schools. Most of their teachers have been trained at the same woefully-inadequate faculties of education. They draw from the same pool of dreadful textbooks and other teaching materials. They are constrained by many of the same cloying provincial or state policies and regulations. And, inevitably, they are influenced by the same erroneous philosophy and a culture of low expectations.
Worst of all, charter and private schools have little incentive to do much better than conventional public schools, since the conventional schools practically hand deliver students to them. Private and charter schools are in competition with a very weak competitor, and all they have to do is offer a service that is just a little bit better than lousy. And, for the most part, that is what they do offer.