tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post7493654245706631366..comments2024-03-29T04:06:37.402-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Time to Bury Common Core MathStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-11676408233528543032014-08-27T08:50:53.370-07:002014-08-27T08:50:53.370-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04393805016546142562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-16179514086070775742014-08-26T21:18:26.455-07:002014-08-26T21:18:26.455-07:00This is true, and only someone like Bill Gates -- ...This is true, and only someone like Bill Gates -- who said time and again that he just needed to surround himself with the smartest people, and he would succeed -- could believe it. And he still believes it. Yet complex math is, well, complex. That's why it's called "complex math." When you think of yourself as a gifted savant, you'll continue to believe it. That's what Gates, along with his Foundation, surrogates and minions, are advocating.<br /><br />This is similar what happened to reading and language when the smart people in American education went headlong into the quasi-religious belief in "whole language" as the basis of learning how to read. After long-term success using phonics, the progressive educrats came up with whole language as a better way. Whole language is a complex approach to literacy. It is the combination of research from disparate fields of study in child learning, emphasizing meaning and strategy instruction. Sound familiar to the philosophy behind Common Core math? It led to the "Reading Wars" of the 1980s and 1990s, with plenty of collateral damage in its wake. It failed under the weight of totalitarian, bureaucratized ideology, leaving two generations of child literacy in its wake. When you want to talk about professional groupthink in the face of devastating failure (and convincing yourself it's best to continue), look no further than whole language instruction.<br /><br />The thing I am most disappointed about is that Michelle Rhee is caught up in this Common Core mess, acting as an advocate for all the wonders the program has in store for all of us. It's enough to make you cynical about think tanks, foundations, and non-profit "thought leaders." There's something amazing about what the New York City public schools achieved in the first half of the 20th century. We would be wise to look to their philosophy, methods and standards, and do so quickly, before we lose yet another generation to educrats and further reckless academic experimentation. <br /><br />TipAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com