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  • From: "Josep L. Guallar-Esteve" <jlguallar AT maduixa.net>
  • To: "InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Public Education
  • Date: Fri, 10 May 2002 16:12:34 -0400


El dia Divendres 10 Maig 2002 15:45, no tenies res mes que fer i vas i
m'envies aquest e-mail:

> (...)

> As you can tell, I think that this approach, while very politically
> correct, is also very wrong-headed. The research is not particularly
> impartial, but done generally by educators who are advocating a
> particular stance. This is the stance of this decade. Remember open
> classrooms in the 70's-80's, where students were supposed to wander
> freely throughout the educational institution and when they were ready,
> they would sit down and learn to read. There was lots of research on
> that. Thousands of schools were built; thousands more remodeled to be
> completely open. Twenty years later, there is barely an Open School in
> existence.

I kind of agree and disagree at the same time with you.

While keeping bright students in a level that does not encourages their
advance in any subject is bad for them (they become lazy and uninterested in
whatever the teacher says), it is good for them. In a way. Yes, it lets them
develop "society awareness". They learn that not everybody is like them, so
they must learn to live with everybody else.

While just grouping bright students is good for their performance as
students,
and their intellect is challenged with plenty of input, it is not all good
for them: they do not learn basic skills needed to live with regular people.
They become socially handicapped.

Both approaches are not 100% right. A mixed approach could be a better
solution: bright students would learn to live among regular people, and their
minds will have enough challenge so they do not become lazy.

The same goes with, say, autistic kids. Although it can be convenient to
school them with an aide at all times, they will need to live in the real
world. They will learn to interact with other people, in the long term, yes.
But it is necessary for them to be exposed to the real world.

And the reverse is true: having a bright kid in the class can have two
different effects, if the class is not handed properly: Either the class
learns that there are people smarter than them, but it is OK and, in the end,
is just another kid that also enjoys playing baseball... or they will hate
and try to bully this kid-know-it-all. See, you have to teach the class (and
make it clear to the parents, so theymust know and help with this) that some
kids are brighter... and teach as well to bright kids that showing all the
time how smart they are is not a good thing.

The same thing with autistic kids in class: Either the class learns awareness
that some people in the society are, in a way, handicapped and have special
needs, and that they need us to smile to them and play with them... or they
will bully and laugh at the weird kid. Again, is in the teacher's hand (with
parent help and close monitoring of the kids' learning) to put some
compassion, love and understanding at an early age.

> What education needs is not to swing drastically from one trend to the
> next, but to follow a gentle evolution of tradition and experimentation.

What education needs is resources. As a teacher, pay is mediocre-to-bad,
workhours are extensive, teachers must cope with violence, irrespectful kids
and some stuff that you won't believe. And usually, the parents have no clue
(tell me, how many hours a day they have to be with the kids?)

So, unless there's more money into education (so teachers get paid better,
brighter people seriously think into going for teaching and more schools can
get better teaching materiel) **and** parenthood is understood (by parents
and corporations alike) in a way that need more hours with the kids, things
will not change.


Salut,
Josep
--
Josep L. Guallar-Esteve, QA-Test Engineer, Red Hat, Inc.
http://www.ibiblio.org/sinner/




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