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The philosophical and pedagogical basis of the U.S. educational system was developed in the early twentieth century by the powers-that-be in response to the large numbers of immigrants and the rapid expansion of industrialization of that era.
In short, the ruling class needed to quickly train immigrants in at least minimal proficiencies in English and reading, writing, and arithmetic so that they could man the factories and offices of the corporations. Just enough history and "civics" was to be taught to indoctrinate the students in "patriotism".
I went to middle class public schools in a large city many years ago. They taught reading using the "look-and-say" method. We used the "Dick and Jane" readers.
"See Spot. See spot run. See Dick. See Dick run. See Jane. See Jane run..." Over and over again until your mind turns to mush.
I was fortunate to have, for my second grade teacher, a wonderful women who was planning on retiring at the end of the school year. She taught us phonics, which provided me with the opportunity to be able to read books, newspapers, and magazines beyond "grade level", as well as enable me to spell many words correctly without having to look in a dictionary.
Unlike many American children today, I enjoy reading, and developed skills in many areas of life through reading books and other types of reading matter, and applying what I read to problem solving.
In addition to the book "Why Johnny Can't Read: and What You Can Do About It" by Rudolf Flesch, there are the books of teacher John Taylor Gatto including the titles "Dumbing us down : the hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling" and "The underground history of American education : a schoolteacher's intimate investigation into the prison of modern schooling", among others.
Another set of books I read a few years ago are "How Children Fail" and "How Children Learn" by John Holt.
There are some book reviews of these books at a web site called LibraryThing.com, which I accessed through a local library web site.
A few short excerpts from reviews of Holt's books can explain better where I am coming from.
(snip) *************** {A} quote attributed to William Hull (Educator). "If we taught children to talk they would never learn."...The author and Mr. Hull shared a 5th grade classroom. The book is a series of observational memos from Mr. Holt to Mr. Hull. The author intricately describes the communication gap between the school system and the child. Children want and need to learn. School systems want to teach. But the lessons often never meet in the middle." ***************
(snip) *************** John Holt summarizes perfectly the problem with contemporary education: it emphasizes right answers rather than learning, production rather than thinking. Read this book to understand this problem and its results, as seen through his experience as a collaborative teacher and thoughtful observer. The rewards for "right answers" over thinking even persists at higher education levels. "What would happen at Harvard or Yale if a prof gave a surprise test in March on work covered in October? Everyone knows what would happen; that's why they don't do it." (p. 232) ***************
(snip) *************** Holt blames the current system, pointing out that if a system consistently fails, the problem is with it, not its inputs or participants. In the summary section, he forcefully points out the negative effects of the current system - low self-esteem, ignorance about how to learn, and a mind trained not to want to do so. ***************
(snip) *************** So far, one of the great quotations I've found is:"It used to puzzle me that the students who made the most mistakes and got the worst marks were so often the first ones to hand in their papers. I used to say, 'If you finish early, take time to check your work, do some problems again.' Typical teacher's advice; I might as well have told them to flap their arms and fly. When the paper was in, the tension was ended. Their fate was in the lap of the gods. They might still worry about flunking the paper, but it was a fatalistic kind of worry.... Worrying about whether you did the right thing, while painful enough, is less painful than worrying about the right thing to do." (74-75) ***************
(snip) *************** The main message of the book is 'trust your children' - they are natural learners, and you are not going to have to force education down their throats. In fact, the less you do the better. ***************
(snip) *************** In a similar vein, Holt also suggests that children be left alone to examine things, and given as much time as possible to get to grips with a task or challenge before receiving any instruction on it. He writes this with regard to maths and science experiments, but I think the principle could be widely applied. ***************
I do NOT blame teachers for this system. They are just as much victims of the system as are the students. The corporations, the politicians, the idiot academics, and nowadays the right-wing religious fanatics have so politicized education that it is difficult to imagine how meaningful education can be salvaged from the morass that we have today.
I have two children and they, for the most part, taught themselves. My daughter is working on her second degree after her first job was "outsourced", and my son is a computer guru who's knowledge about computer systems and the internet goes way beyond my expertise learned from twenty years of professional programming mainframes, minicomputers, and microcomputers in several computer languages and applications.
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