tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post331526754309071116..comments2024-03-26T04:19:38.862-07:00Comments on kitchen table math, the sequel: Comment en est-on arrivé là?Catherine Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-47793435929863570712008-04-29T05:43:00.000-07:002008-04-29T05:43:00.000-07:00I believe that the ideological logjam will never b...I believe that the ideological logjam will never be broken. I picked up my copy of "Wrong from he Beginning" and discovered that a great deal of what we call constructivism goes back to Herbert Spencer as well as to John Dewey & Piaget. <BR/><BR/>It's not going away.<BR/><BR/>Parents (and taxpayers) are going to have to secede from the public schools.<BR/><BR/>The metaphor of "war," in other words, is correct!Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-51901369264920370822008-04-28T20:23:00.000-07:002008-04-28T20:23:00.000-07:00If the French Left becomes anti-constructivist we ...If the French Left becomes anti-constructivist we could only hope it jumps the Atlantic and shows up here as a trendy new idea of the left. <BR/><BR/>It will take something like that to break the ideological logjam.Ben Calvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03023097289417830674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-81144634774232883402008-04-28T20:18:00.000-07:002008-04-28T20:18:00.000-07:00so do SF public school teachers tend to be instruc...<I>so do SF public school teachers tend to be instructivists?</I><BR/><BR/>I would say that the good teachers are often "unconscious instructivists". They teach more of the phonics side of balanced literacy curriculum, and because California has good standards the math text books are at least acceptable.<BR/><BR/>But everyone passionately buys the party line -- teachers union good, schools should just have a ton more money, it's all Arnold's fault, Prop 13 impoverished the schools, etc, etc.Ben Calvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03023097289417830674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-1533722213533004802008-04-28T19:31:00.000-07:002008-04-28T19:31:00.000-07:00I did get the political orientation of nouvel obs....I did get the political orientation of nouvel obs.<BR/><BR/>It's "left-of-center mainstream."<BR/><BR/>Ed says it's not as left as The Nation; it's not really comparable to anything here - because it's left AND mainstream.<BR/><BR/>It's also a news magazine.<BR/><BR/>The fact that nouvel obs has now declared that constructivism is destroying French education (or has already done so) is good.Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-3726544527990743442008-04-28T18:56:00.000-07:002008-04-28T18:56:00.000-07:00I'm thinking there's another Howard Gardner book t...I'm thinking there's another Howard Gardner book that has the "smart" version of progressive ed....(Disciplined Mind, yes, but isn't there another one, too?? I skimmed it in Barnes & Noble a little while back.)Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-37920048466494509262008-04-28T18:55:00.000-07:002008-04-28T18:55:00.000-07:00If you click on the link to the other article from...If you click on the link to the other article from Nouvel Obs you'll see a short article saying dyslexia has skyrocketed in France due to whole language. (That article is translated.)<BR/><BR/>I WILL get this translated---Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-91910494691385301192008-04-28T11:18:00.000-07:002008-04-28T11:18:00.000-07:00Try The Disciplined Mind ISBN 0-14-029624-7, publi...Try <I>The Disciplined Mind</I> ISBN 0-14-029624-7, published in 2000, orLiz Ditzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03455722013211350247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-11616632839502219992008-04-28T11:01:00.000-07:002008-04-28T11:01:00.000-07:00"I think the fellow to read if you want to see sma..."I think the fellow to read if you want to see smart constructivism is Howard Gardner."<BR/><BR/>Is there a specific book you recommend?LSquared32https://www.blogger.com/profile/00858524638866166691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-20654297475773434712008-04-26T04:19:00.000-07:002008-04-26T04:19:00.000-07:00Language Log, March 2007, post title & first paras...Language Log, March 2007, post title & first paras (also a snarky & telling comic):<BR/><BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004261.html" REL="nofollow">The globalization of educational fads and fallacies</A><BR/><BR/>This morning, Fabrice Nauze sent a link to an Op-Ed piece from yesterday's Le Figaro about educational policy in France: Dr. Lucien Israel, "À quand une vraie réhabilitation de l'enseignement primaire?" ("When will there be a real rehabilitation of primary education?"). Fabrice was amused by this article's Gallic version of the Eskimo snow-words myth :<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/> Le registre lexical est pauvre et, par conséquent, la compréhension du monde, de soi-même et des autres bien moindre. Je prendrai l'exemple concret des Esquimaux : leur langue comporte une soixantaine de mots différents pour évoquer la neige : ils perçoivent, par conséquent, une foule de nuances que nous-mêmes ne voyons pas.<BR/><BR/> The lexicon is poor, and as a result, understanding of the world, of oneself and of others is even less. I will take the specific example of the Eskimo: their language includes about sixty different words for referring to snow: they therefore perceive a host of nuances that we do not see.<BR/><BR/>But I was more interested in something else. The article revealed to me that there is also a Gallic version of the "whole language" approach to reading instruction, known in France as "la méthode globale". I guess that I should have realized that globalization spreads educational fads just as efficiently as other aspects of culture.<BR/><BR/>[I need to note that "la méthode globale" is a general pedagogical philosophy, most of which has nothing to do with methods of reading instruction, and that it has a long tradition of independent development in France. The role of international influence in the spread of wholistic, anti-analytic reading-instruction methods during the last decades of the 20th century is not clear to me, though it seems unlikely to be an accident that such methods became widely adopted in the U.S. and in France during the same period. See the bottom of this post for some additional notes and links. ]Liz Ditzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03455722013211350247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-63600848677085299982008-04-25T17:51:00.000-07:002008-04-25T17:51:00.000-07:00really?that's interesting---so do SF public school...really?<BR/><BR/>that's interesting---<BR/><BR/>so do SF public school teachers tend to be instructivists?Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-14689956660383642692008-04-25T16:58:00.000-07:002008-04-25T16:58:00.000-07:00leftist teachers who bemoan this ed mumbo-jumbo an...<I>leftist teachers who bemoan this ed mumbo-jumbo and who believe that it is some sort of right-wing plot to keep the masses stupid for war and exploitation by capitalist pigs</I><BR/><BR/>That's a pretty common sentiment among public school teachers here in San Francisco.Ben Calvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03023097289417830674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-10146864026943158972008-04-25T16:32:00.001-07:002008-04-25T16:32:00.001-07:00He's also written a whole book arguing against int...He's also written a whole book arguing against interdisciplinary courses in K-12.Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-62955660720294247202008-04-25T16:32:00.000-07:002008-04-25T16:32:00.000-07:00I think the fellow to read if you want to see smar...I think the fellow to read if you want to see smart constructivism is Howard Gardner. He pretty much says, flat out, that constructivism can only be done by superb teachers & only with culturally advantaged kids.Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-4048740560363754792008-04-25T16:30:00.000-07:002008-04-25T16:30:00.000-07:00I had this funny conservation with leftist teacher...<I>I had this funny conservation with leftist teachers who bemoan this ed mumbo-jumbo and who believe that it is some sort of right-wing plot to keep the masses stupid for war and exploitation by capitalist pigs.</I><BR/><BR/>oh, that's hilarious!<BR/><BR/>well, if you WANTED to cook up a right-wing plot to keep the masses stupid, whole language and TERC would be a good way to goCatherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-66260513960122143822008-04-25T16:29:00.000-07:002008-04-25T16:29:00.000-07:00It WAS herculean! I had to get the accents in usin...It WAS herculean! I had to get the accents in using French spell check; then I had to check to see if the damn accents got put in right (some didn't...)<BR/><BR/>Still more to go.Catherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03347093496361370174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7691251033406320222.post-63824251077457992682008-04-25T16:25:00.000-07:002008-04-25T16:25:00.000-07:00OMG, you typed all that? Thank you for this Hercul...OMG, you typed all that? Thank you for this Herculean effort.<BR/><BR/>"It's true that political conservatives are (probably) never constructivists, and that all constructivists are (probably) liberal or left."<BR/><BR/>I've also come to the conclusion that educationist ideology is a world unto itself. In the realm of leftism, it's a case where one hand does not know what the other is doing.<BR/><BR/>I had this funny conservation with leftist teachers who bemoan this ed mumbo-jumbo and who believe that it is some sort of right-wing plot to keep the masses stupid for war and exploitation by capitalist pigs.Instructivisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01652458042291988959noreply@blogger.com