Experiments in Education

So the school pairs up kids living in poverty with kids in wealthy families, and they do what?

They go to a big park in the Bronx together and take part in a garden project there. They talk about issues like gun violence and race relations.

They have a whole lifetime ahead of them to talk about such issues. But poor kids, especially, have just one time, during their school years, to equip their minds with math, science and other solid skills that will give them a shot at a better life.

To squander their time on rap sessions and navel-gazing is unconscionable.

Educrats are constantly boo-hooing about needing more time, more money, and more shiny new educational gizmos, and yet they have the time and money to use children to perform social experiments? I know the term I use to refer to people who use children for their own gratification, and it ain’t “Mister”.

The Government school problem has lots of problems, only one of which is seen here. The experts have determined that students need a specific amount of time to accomplish their goals and have legally mandated 180-185 school days to achieve it. Then the experts create curricula to fit that template. Then the experts decide that days will be set aside for field trips, field days, and experiments like this one. Imagine the frustration of the teacher who loses 5-10% of their precious time for instruction because of this.

Oh Ron, you don’t know half the problem. This year I lost more than a month of instructional time just doing testing.

Principal Eric Sheninger wrote a terrific article on HuffPo Education about how reform has become ridiculous, and uses this incident as an example-

A Long Island school has canceled its traditional end-of-year kindergarten show — saying the children can’t afford to take time off from getting themselves “college and career” ready. “The reason for eliminating the Kindergarten show is simple,” reads a letter sent by the principal at Harley Avenue Primary School in Elwood, Suffolk County, to parents last week. “We are responsible for preparing children for college and career with valuable lifelong skills and know that we can best do that by having them become strong readers, writers, coworkers and problem solvers.”

In his opinion, “current education reform has absolutely nothing to do with authentic learning, success, and student achievement. It has become a financial pipeline to line the coffers of anyone associated with Common Core, standardized testing conglomerates, and test prep.”

I agree. What we know about child development and learning has very little to do with the methodologies currently employed by our education system. Ergo, there must be some other agenda.

But Susan, it’s all research based.