A quick note and an Article

The article stays…as I think it’s very informative…I’m trying to not sound angry anymore so I took down the rest of what I said before the Article. I still am required to give proper credit though–

The following is a News week article…I have full written permission to post it here because it is not archived on the web (otherwise I would have had to provide just the link and not the whole article). Enjoy.

Education In Crisis–Is There A Solution?

Everywhere you turn it seems everyone is crying out about the deplorable situation of our education system. Politicians and civilians alike toss out the words “Education Reform” but have no real solution or strategy to reform it. Yet, many activists, politicians, and extremists have taken the matter into their own hands.

Quite frankly, the problem comes down to the battle between what’s better; private school or public school. It is apparent that public school have over emphasized standards and testing to the extreme while many private schools have gone to the other end of the spectrum by removing traditional elements of education completely. These schools have even gone as far as to eliminate grade levels and traditional worksheets and grading systems in favor of child and student led learning. Both extremes are dangerous to our society and both continue to add to the social and religious decay of our society.

Public school curriculum continues to tighten the freedom and creativity of both teacher and student. Public school leaders provide a very scripted and unchangeable curriculum that all but stifles free speech and does not allow for creativity to thrive in the minds of the students. It blocks teacher from being able to reach each child in a creative way that will spark a love of learning and allow the child to grasp it (I do acknowledge however that this isn’t the case in every situation).

School that have adopted other extremes, such as Caine Learning and identical programs, have an even larger problem. Supporters of such curriculum tend to be secularists with an agenda to remove the close-minded religious philosophies from the public view and replace it with “free-thinking” individuals who are above such ancient folklore collections such as the Bible. Now, I’m no religious person, but I certainly don’t think all religious people are close-minded whether Jew, Muslim, or Christian. But it is clear that programs such as Caine and atheist authors such as John Taylor Gatto are supporting movements that demoralize religion and the practice thereof.

These programs (Caine Learning) are designed to get people to think without relying on society and a “supreme being” for their guidance. Instead, it teaches and molds kids to think that they have the power within themselves to accomplish anything. In fact, Caine learning doesn’t do anything to fix the problem that it advocates against! Caine learning does nothing but produce a society of individuals–that is, a society where people are so consumed with themselves that they think the world revolves around them. And why shouldn’t they? Through out their educational career in Caine Learning, they are taught that education revolves around their interests and what someone else thinks shouldn’t matter to them.

Maybe I am being a tad bit unfair, but let’s look at some numbers shall we? In a recent study by an independent study group out of Harvard, it showed that schools who have built their model of education completely around Caine Learning and similar programs actually had a lower College/Career success rate than those kids who came out of traditional public and private school settings. One conclusion they came to was that these kids were not taught that certain things are expected of them. They were not taught that there are times when certain things are done in a certain order and that sometimes, it had to be done that way. These students also had little or no respect for College professors and instructors and little respect for those in power over them in the work place.

Furthermore, the study showed that over 70% of those who went through the “Caine” program had come to the conclusion that religion and Christianity were for closed, uncreative, minds. 65% percent of those were from Christian homes and had attended Christian institutions their whole lives. Interestingly enough, there are a growing number of Christian institutions adopting these policies.

There are an even bigger number of religious groups opposing these philosophies. Many private schools have shown some creative freedom in how they implement curriculum. Many have seen good parts of both traditional and Caine type learning and have incorporated projects and traditional worksheets and instruction in a well balanced and unbiased way. This same study showed the highest success rate of any program researched by the group were from schools that used this model. These school had many multi-grade classrooms but had never given up on teaching grade level instruction. Each grade level still learned their basics and were required to complete assignments based on these direct instruction periods. Periodically throughout the year, students attended field trips, listened to special speakers, and participated in individual and group projects to build on what they already learned.

Perhaps those behind traditional and Caine learning approaches to school could learn from the previous paragraph. There is a balance to everything. Caine claims over and over again that everyone learns differently yet does not account for those who actually learn best from direct instruction. Supporters of Caine make bold, inaccurate statements that ALL traditional models of education are bad and detrimental but fail to realize that Caine learning is nothing more than a bunch of theories and experiments. Parents who wish to try alternatives to public education should really be wary of schools that go to either extreme and try to find schools that have learned how to balance out all the different types of learning to really reach each child’s potential. Neither Caine nor traditional “Public” education does this.

-David Ryan, Former Contributor

The article speaks for its-self and thus, does not need a comment.

Many updates are coming including a fully functional website (don’t worry, the blog will still be here).

Have a great summer!
-Mr. Josh