If you go to the website for the Common Core Curriculum (CCC) you find a lot of paragraphs to read. You might give it a try. You probably will not read for long. The long quotations I have given in other posts may seem boring and pointless. That is an accurate observation. It is part of the strategy of elites whether they be politicians, lawyers or educators. You see the same thing on computer when you install new software. They act like your are going to read all those long legal articles before you accept and sign your life away. You probably should but you probably don’t. If you make a statement simple and honest you will be a failure because you will be rejected. If you cloud it in jargon and legalese, you put them to sleep before your slip the knife in.
If people understood what educators really mean they would reject what they advocate. Nonsense is a quality that has saturated the souls of educators. They are well meaning people who believe in the wisdom of the state, the goodness in human nature and unicorns.
Recently our principal walked into my class with a man I had never seen before. He was introduced as the new head of Human Resources. Okay. Why is the principal interrupting my class with the guy in charge of hiring people? Are they considering me for Superintendent of Schools? We made idle chat about what the students were doing and what “strategies” I was using. I make up my own worksheets to try to develop reading comprehension. In case you don’t know it, just because a kid can read the words doesn’t mean they can tell you what it says. I try to force them to engage the text with their brain on.
Now it gets ridiculous. The head of Human Resources then preceded to give me instruction on the latest strategies, proven by studies, in teaching children to read. His “new” strategy was the same strategy that the educators have been pushing since I started teaching 25 years ago. They keep changing the words and coming up with new jargon but it is the same concept. Get them into groups and let them teach each other. His idea was that if I would get them in groups they could discuss the meanings of words and come to an in-depth understanding.
I told him that I was a dinosaur and believed that the only way you can learn to read is by reading. It is like trying to become a weight lifter. It isn’t enough to sit in a circle and admire the weights. You can’t have a group lift them together. It doesn’t matter what the consensus is on the shape of the dumbbell. Sooner or later you need to pick up the weight and start pumping iron. Abs of steel are not the product of group work.
He was not impressed. It was to simple and direct.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.