Joe asks what he can do, what can any of us do about the state of
education. He refers to my comment that we are all to some extent a cause
of the problem.
For me it would be wonderful to have a dialog about how to make faster
progress. I know many people have ideas, but my experience has been --
over and over -- that when everyone talks about their ideas, the final
outcome will be that there is no consensus, and there is no action plan.
If, on the other hand, we begin by talking about what we perceive -- give
feedback to each other on what we perceive -- that over sufficient time we
can build a group point of view about how to approach the problem.
Mind you, I have never done this in a virtual setting, but I have done it
many times, as have many of you probably, in physical settings.
I can tell you an interesting story which will illustrate this. Uri
Treisman (Mathematician) told me of a school in California that through a
process of dialog, developed an very effective process for teaching high
school math to minorities. The process they went through was a classic
learning process with dialog and self-reflection. They proved to
themselves through objective measures that their method worked, so they
set out to share it with neighboring schools.
What they failed to realize was that the process of learning -- their
learning, not the kids' -- was crucial to the effectiveness of their
implementation. When they went to the neighboring school, they explained
the approach in a lecture/mechanical fashion, and said, in essence, "don't
worry about the concepts, just do it." Of course, the neighboring school
could not 'just do it' without comprehending the conceptual framework, and
they could not execute the same program. The learning process was crucial
to the implementation. I think everyone has to go through their personal
learning process, preferably with good friends, to understand how they
might choose to have an impact.
Let me start the process of putting out facts and perceptions, and see if
others want to join in. For example,
Test scores among American white males are virtually unchanged or have
risen slightly in the last 20-30 years. Test scores of women and
minorities have also remained virtually unchanged or risen somewhat. The
combined average has dropped because more women and minorities take the
standardized tests.
White males used to constitute nearly 100% of the professional classes,
and even in the 50's they were probably 70%. By 2010 (prox) white males
will constitute less than 20% of graduating high school seniors. Even if
half of them chose to go into the professions, there would not be enough
of them to fill the openings. Graduating high school seniors will be
largely non-white or women or both. These are the ones with the lower
scores.
The standardized tests may not be measuring relevant parameters. However,
there are no recognized tests (widely accepted) that do measure a)
knowledge, b) thinking, c) synthesizing, d) communicating.
Money spent on education is difficult to compare with other countries, but
in general, American expenditures are not out of line with other western
countries.
American class sizes are not as big as they are in Japan or China, school
systems whose students do well on International tests.
Students in Japan and China are taught to collaborate with their school
mates. Students in the US are taught to compete.
Parents in Japan and China put a much higher priority on education than
American parents. In Amercan communities that put a high emphasis on
education -- white middle and upper class -- kids do better in school.
First generation Chinese and Japanese kids in the US do better than their
American peers in the exact same classes.
Students spend more time in class in these other countries.
I welcome others' observations, contradictory, complementary, or
enriching. This could be a lot of fun.
-- Rol Fessenden LL Bean 76234.3636@compuserve.com