Some Good Reading (Also Some Odious Reading)

If all who are engaged in the profession of education were willing to state the facts instead of making greater promises than they can possibly fulfill, they would not be in such bad repute with the lay-public.
[Isocrates, 436-338 B.C. Against the sophists]

 

Professor Plum may be critical, but he's not a Gloomy Gus.  [Ooops, blew several fluid oz of Sundrop out of my nose.]

He merely thinks that eduquacks need nothing so much as a harsh and repeated kicking down the street.  "Gee, let's see what happens if we don't teach kids ANYthing!  There's at LEAST a book deal in that!"

Following are some resources that Prof. P. has found useful.  Maybe you will, too.

Here's the link to the summary of a new book on qualified teachersFrederick Hess and others.

http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/papers/misapplied.html A critique of constructivism applied to math instruction.  John Anderson and others.

Review of experimental research on effective math instructionBob Dixon and others.

Critique of block scheduling
.  Jeff Lindsay. 

Part of the huge research base on Reading Mastery.  [I have no financial interest in the company.  I've just seen it teach kids to read pronto.]

Beautiful article on "developmentalism."  John Stone reveals the philosophical roots (if you can call nonsense philosophy) of progressivism, and how it came to infect schools.

Lots of instructional resources at Rory Donaldson's site.  Rory's a class act.

What schools could be like if they were run by bright, tough-minded folks; were insulated from the edubabble that surrounds them; and could select materials and create a unified curriculum. [In other words, there's not only reason to hope, but models for achieving this.]

Ditto the Princeton Latin Academy.   [An education that doesn't HAVE to be only for "certain" kids.]

"Looking for an Echo" (soundtrack).  Contemporary doo wop.  Haunting.

"Dion.  New Masters." 
Rerecordings of his music from the 50's and 60's.  When we cruised the summer nights in Lester's black '57 Chevy con

One of the most important papers you’ll read.  “Who benefits from failing urban schools districts?"   Martin Haberman shows how the central office bureaucracy sucks up the funds and then uses a variety of techniques to prevent serious reform.  [Take your blood pressure meds and use your yoga breathing when you read this.  This one could stimulate some important reporting.  Imagine comparing the waste, delays, and maldistribution of resources in regular public schools vs. charter and private schools.]

Some other papers by Haberman are here and here and here.

All sorts of edyfying papers at No Excuses.
Their main contention, as foreshadowed by their name, is that schools refrain from whining.

Teach Now--a website about alternative certification.
If you've majored in, say, history, or math, or biology, and you know how to read and write, do you really need to take three lame courses in "literacy," courses on "methods" (the proper way to string Cheerios on a string as a "math manipulative"), an "ed psych" course where you learn to chant the mantra of progressivism ("drill and kill drill and kill  drill and kill")?  Professor Plum thinks not.  How about ONE course in logical design and clear speaking, one course in classroom management, and a year apprenticeship in a successful school?  Worth a pilot test??]

I'n no mathematician, but the California math "standards" look pretty serious to me.  (What do y'all think?  If you agree, write and TELL them so.  You KNOW that the folks who made these were fighting the constructivist establishment.)

See esp Chapter 4 (The others are good, too).  But Ch. 4, on instructional strategies, puts direct instruction first and clearly advocates model (show  'em), lead (guided), test (students do it).

A person could COPY this and do a bit of politicking at a school board.  "Hey!  California is making us look like rubes (what, by the way, IS a rube?) Their math standards are detailed, comprehensive, and based on experimental research.  Ours are childish in comparison.  No offense!  Now, what are you donna doaboudit?"

Fifty bucks says that California's standards and the tenets underlying them become the basis for "Math First." 

Thomas Fordham Foundation. They like to poke and prod the establishment.  Excellent analysis of current issues.

Quackwatch.  They watch quacks.   Business is real good.

More on math, by David Klein

Arthur HuLexicon Moronicon.  Your compete guide to edubabble.  [We don't agree with all of Art's definitions, but then he no doubt finds some of my ties to be an offense to theology and geometry.]

National Council for Teacher Quality.  A leader in the ed wars.  Great papers AND alternative certification.

Fine paper from the always fine Education Consumers site. 

A Few Good books (and a lot of mind slop) here.  Please send book reports. 

The best of the lot (important reading, rational) in my op, are by Martin Gross, Wendy Kopp (what a tough woman can accomplish), Martha Nussbaum (no tolerance for rhetoric-rich bilge), Thomas Sowell (explodes edumyths right and left), Martin Rochester (how schools resist necessary change), Thernstrom and Thernstrom (disadvantaged kids are the victims of the schools), Chester Finn (the big picture), Dianne Ravitch (a historian's close look at inevitable failure in reform, trivial instruction in history, and the stupifying effects of political correctness in textbooks), Michael Maloney (good sense applied to teaching), Elaine McEwan (distillation of decades of wisdom from the frontlines), and Frederick Hess (socio-economic analysis applied to edumyths).


Cheri Pierson Yecke, The war against excellence, Praeger, 2003

Rita Kramer, Ed School Follies, Authors Guild Backinprint.com, 2000

E. D. Hirsch, The schools we need and why we don’t have them, Anchor Books, 1999

J. Martin Rochester, Class warfare, Encounter Books, 2002

Diane Ravitch, Left back, a century of failed school reforms, Simon & Schuster, 2000

Laurence Steinberg, Beyond the classroom, Touchstone, 1996

Maureen Stout, The feel-good curriculum, Perseus Publishing, 2000

Charles Sykes, Dumbing down our kids, St. Martin’s Griffin, 1995

Martin L. Gross, The conspiracy of ignorance, Perrenial, 1999

Elaine McEwan, Angry parents, failing schools, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1998

Melanie Phillips, All must have prizes, 1998

Chris Woodhead, Class war, Little, Brown, 2002


Books to avoid--unless you want a good laugh, want to raise your blood pressure, or want further evidence of the prevalence of cognitive and moral depravity in American education--are by Darling-Hammond (chief apologist for the teacher ed establishment), Allington (anti-reading reform), Glasser (helped to cause some of the problems in American education but still in there pitching), Kohn (Puckish Alfie appeals to the manyheaded"Punished by Rewards."  What does the title even mean?), Krashen (whole language), Meier.

 



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