Posts from — July 2006

A couple of days ago I posted an article that shows kindergartners being kept from play time so they can spend more time learning to read and write. Here’s an article that says the exact opposite – that research shows the arts actually help improve literacy skills.

Guggenheim Study Suggests Arts Education Benefits Literacy Skills
By RANDY KENNEDY
Published: July 27, 2006
In an era of widespread cuts in public-school art programs, the question has become increasingly relevant: does learning about paintings and sculpture help children become better students in other areas?

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From the posts I’ve made previously to this one should be able to discern my point of view about all this. There are currently 49 million k-12 students in the US in public education (an additional 5.1 million in k-12 private schools). If there are 49 million students then there are 49 million different ways of learning. The education system needs to account for variety not remove it as it currently does.

My father lives in Los Angeles. On a recent trip to visit him he asked me if I had heard about the Mayor of LA wanting to take over the public school system. I hadn’t heard about it.

It seems the mayor isn’t happy about the school system (one of the largest in the US). It appears the Mayor tried to take over and that got some people upset (OK – more then upset). In a compromise proposal the Mayor suggested he take over the budget for the school system and leave the curriculum and instruction part in the hands of educators.

What is really going on here? What could the mayor do to help the school system? And what would having control of the purse strings do to help?

Maybe the Mayor wanted to get in there before something like this happened:

California’s Low-Income Schools to Get High-Tech Windfall
More than $400 million from a 2004 settlement of an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft will be used for technology education.
By Arin Gencer, Times Staff Writer
July 27, 2006

Maybe the Mayor wanted to get his hands on the money from the Microsoft settlement?

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Seriously, the education system is in trouble. But what makes things worse in my mind is people that can actually make a difference seem to find ways to become even more adversarial then they already are. What if the Mayor went to the school system and the teachers union and tried to find a way to work with them to overcome the challenges they all face?

Maybe the mayor’s recent appointment of a ‘deputy mayor for education’ will help?

Mayor set to appoint new schools aide to ease takeover bid
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES – In his bid for more power over public schools, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is set to appoint a veteran educator to a post designed to ease tensions between City Hall and public school officials opposed to the plan, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Seems to me if the Mayor is going to be the leader he wants to be he needs to get everyone to work together as if they are on the same team.

Recently I visited with a relative who has been a professor at UCLA for many years. She has researched intelligence and has several letters after her name. She asked me how I would teach reading.

My response was simple. No one taught us to talk. No one taught us to walk.

Learning is a natural and intrinsic part of begin a human being. The way I would teach reading is to have a rich environment for young people to be in. A rich environment that includes lots of stimulus, multi-aged people, and of course, in this context, people reading. In other words, I would start by taking advantage of the natural inherent desire that exists in all young people to want to learn and to be curious about the world around them. With this natural curiosity ignited there would be plenty of opportunities to read with lots of tools around to keep the curiosity at a high level AND at the same time to give young people an opportunity to experiment, to make mistakes and to experience of success.

The environment we now call school are not learning environments. They are designed to limit the natural curiosity and desire to learn in a person (of all ages).

In a recent article in the NY Times we see the extreme of where this current system has come – 180 degrees from what I suggest above.

Less play for kindergartners
Pressure to teach reading and math to youngsters as soon as possible is forcing many kindergartners to forego play, to the dismay of teachers and parents who say the unstructured time allows children to learn social and other skills. At one academically demanding Brooklyn charter school, kindergartners no longer have time for naps, recess or show-and-tell.

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The absurdity of this is beyond comment and yet well meaning and well intentioned people make these rules.