Education: January 2019 Archives
6 Big Problems with Latest "Social Emotional Learning" Report | The National Pulse
"The Commission expects that SEL programs and curriculum will fill the cavernous social emotional void for the millions of children growing up in fatherless homes.
"The statistics are overwhelming that children -- especially boys -- from fatherless homes have more SEL problems. Examples include:
- Significantly higher juvenile crime rates
- A 279 percent increased likelihood of carrying a gun
- Externalizing behavior problems as early as one year of age
"Conversely, Dr. William Jeynes of the University of California at Santa Barbara, after reviewing data on 20,000 high school students, found that minority students coming from two-parent families with high religiosity had no achievement gap with their white peers and outscored other students in their same racial groups. This is orders of magnitude better than the results (or lack thereof) from more than 50 years and over $2 trillion dollars of federal education spending and interference."
Homeschooling Northern Michigan | Features | Northern Express
The Northern Michigan Partnership: Homeschoolers get elective courses, fellowship; school district gets funding and users for its surplus facilities.
"Every Wednesday throughout the school year, families involved in the Partnership convene at the old Interlochen Community School for a day of elective courses. The classes are taught by a mix of licensed teachers and homeschool parents with skills, knowledge, or specialties in specific areas. The available electives cover a wide range of subjects, from foreign languages, art, and music to robotics and computer programming.
"According to Rose Zivkovich, one of the administrators for the Partnership, the program actually pre-dated any school district involvement. A homeschool parent herself, Zivkovich launched the program that would become the Northern Michigan Partnership in fall 2016, as a way to open up new opportunities for her kids....
"The program Zivkovich created was modest: a regular meetup up of several families at the Grand Traverse Commons. A few parents would take on instructor roles and teach electives relevant to their backgrounds, and other parents would pay these instructor-parents for the service. But Zivkovich says that the program quickly became challenging to coordinate, and that it was simply too expensive for most parents to pay other parents to teach their kids.
"...TCAPS had closed Interlochen Community School the previous spring and was weighing whether to keep the building for other educational uses or sell it. When the district decided to pursue a homeschool partnership, a TCAPS representative reached out to Zivkovich and her group to see if they would be interested in working together.
"The Northern Michigan Partnership was born. Through the program, K-12 homeschool students can enroll in up to four elective courses every semester. The program enables TCAPS to collect state funding for students that opt to participate. In turn, all courses offered through the Northern Michigan Partnership are free for families. The only limitation is that the program is not legally allowed to offer core curriculum courses -- so no math, language arts, science, social studies, or the like."
The article notes that Michigan is one of the best states for homeschool freedom, and they discuss the varying motivations and homeschooling approaches taken by some of the parents involved in the partnership.
Talala Gazette (Talala, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 8, 1909 Page: 6 of 8
The controversy over teaching reading by whole-word methods vs. phonics has been around for a very long time. From an item about the State Textbook Commission, and an Oklahoma County Teachers' Association condemning their choices: "The 'word' method of reading, it is claimed, has developed an alarming number of poor spellers among the school children."
More Than a Technical Debate | National Review
David Klinghoffer writes, regarding evolution vs. intelligent design:
"Here's what is missing: serious public debate. Telling scientists to 'slug it out' in professional journals and not try to persuade others is like asking a free-market advocate to persuade his Marxist colleagues before he dares offer his case to the public. What makes Kevin [Williamson] think entrenched Darwinists are willing even to listen to scientific challenges? Kevin is saying that critics of Darwin should allow themselves to be abused -- by non-scientists like Kevin D. Williamson -- and just take it. Why is Williamson such an (entertaining) scourge of experts in other fields, yet eager to accept and amplify the prejudices of Darwinists?
"There's no 'conspiracy' here. Scientists are as subject to careerism, groupthink, and status anxiety as anyone else. The hypothesis of purpose in nature is too important to leave to the 'experts' alone. We needn't be impressed by pseudo-Menckenesque put-downs."
The Tragic Decline of Music Literacy (and Quality) | Intellectual Takeout
"The results of the study revealed that timbral variety went down over time, meaning songs are becoming more homogeneous. Translation: most pop music now sounds the same. Timbral quality peaked in the 60's and has since dropped steadily with less diversity of instruments and recording techniques. Today's pop music is largely the same with a combination of keyboard, drum machine and computer software greatly diminishing the creativity and originality. Pitch has also decreased, with the number of chords and different melodies declining. Pitch content has also decreased, with the number of chords and different melodies declining as musicians today are less adventurous in moving from one chord or note to another, opting for well-trod paths by their predecessors. Loudness was found to have increased by about one decibel every eight years. Music loudness has been manipulated by the use of compression. Compression boosts the volume of the quietest parts of the song so they match the loudest parts, reducing dynamic range. With everything now loud, it gives music a muddled sound, as everything has less punch and vibrancy due to compression.
"In an interview, Billy Joel was asked what has made him a standout. He responded his ability to read and compose music made him unique in the music industry, which as he explained, was troubling for the industry when being musically literate makes you stand out. An astonishing amount of today's popular music is written by two people: Lukasz Gottwald of the United States and Max Martin from Sweden, who are both responsible for dozens of songs in the top 100 charts.... With only two people writing much of what we hear, is it any wonder music sounds the same, using the same hooks, riffs and electric drum effects?...
"The truth: Elective class periods have been usurped by standardized test prep. Administrators focus primarily on protecting their positions and the school's status by concentrating curricula on passing the tests, rather than by helping teachers be freed up from micromanaging mandates so those same teachers can teach again in their classrooms, making test prep classes unnecessary.
"What can be done? First, musical literacy should be taught in our nation's school systems. In addition, parents should encourage their children to play an instrument because it has been proven to help in brain synapse connections, learning discipline, work ethic, and working within a team. While contact sports like football are proven brain damagers, music participation is a brain enhancer."
Greek to Me, by Mary Norris | The New Yorker
"On returning to New York, I registered for an elementary class in ancient Greek at Columbia University and blithely submitted the bill to the [New Yorker] magazine's new executive editor, Tony Gibbs. To my disbelief, he turned me down, saying that ancient Greek was not relevant to my job. After a year in collating, I had moved to the copy desk, and so I started a dossier of sorts, keeping a list of words from the Greek that cropped up in The New Yorker, everything from 'pi' to 'ophthalmologist,' which is often misspelled with a 'p' instead of a 'ph.' John McPhee was then in his geology period, and from his work I learned the word 'autochthonous' (autós, 'self,' plus chthón, 'earth'), which means something like 'self-generated from the earth' and contains a tricky consonant cluster in the transliteration of chi (χ) and theta (θ). To reinforce my petition, Eleanor Gould, whose cool intelligence made her something of an oracle to the editors, wrote a letter to Gibbs stating that her own knowledge of the language might not be current enough to save us from 'ignorant mistakes.' I showed the document to my friend John Bennet, an editor, who said, 'You're using a cannon to shoot a flea.' Tony Gibbs was persuaded.
