DISCUSSION OF SCHOOL FAILURES & CONSTRUCTIVISM ON WHO RADIO "MICKELSON IN THE MORNING"
Jan
Mickelson has performed a valuable service to the people of Iowa by informing
them of the deficiencies of the public education system, when the news media
refused to do so, and the education establishment attacked him. Now that there
is finally general acknowledgement of a problem, Jan is once again performing a
valuable service to the people of Iowa by allowing guests to explain
the solutions proposed by educrats are on the wrong track because they are
really the source of the problem in the first place.
The following discussion contains 3 parts: I. The problem with Iowa education, II. How constructivism caused the problem, and III. What must be done about it.
I. THE PROBLEM WITH IOWA EDUCATION
A. The 70-year chart below shows a fall from grade level of about 1 year for Iowa K-8 students from about 1960 to the present . An additional year was lost from grades 9 to 12, for a total of 2 years of student achievement lost for the period--as admitted by Kathi Slaughter from the Dept. of Education.
B. Iowa students have fallen from 1st to 22nd in 4th grade reading
C. Students classified as Special Ed have IQs in the normal range (when Special Ed. is supposed to be for those 5% of students whose IQs fall outside the normal range due to a medical disability)
D. Kindergarten has failed to stem the decline, and now preschool is being promoted, but the countries out-educating us use neither
E. Costs per pupil are increasing increasing out of control while student achievement continues to fall, and other countries are out-educating us for considerably less cost per pupil
F. The costly “remedies” recommended by educators have all failed
II. CONSTRUCTIVISM CAUSED THE EDUCATION PROBLEM
A. In the late 1950s the math curriculum was changed to New Math
B. In the early 1960s phonics was dropped from the reading curriculum
C. In 1968 public education officially adopted constructivism – the infusion of cognitive psychology into education interpretation of data and teaching assumptions – which stupidly allowed the failures of New Math and Whole Language Reading to be blamed on individual students (and their parents) by pointing to social differences (a redirecting of the finger of blame) . Cognitive psychology is the absurd belief, now proven wrong by student achievement results shown on the 60 year chart etc., that the mind has a certain conceptual structure. This Cognitive psychology belief is similar to the once held belief the world was flat--but many educrats still cling to it and defend it with a multitude of flimsy excuses for its failures, as they continually demand more and more money for flawed education 'fixes'.
D. Cognitive psychology presupposes that responses are affected by a person’s point of view as well as by environment. Therefore, infusing it in education causes interpretation of data to reflect the results of our state education report, where those in poverty have lower achievement, or certain cultures (or subcultures) have lower achievement because their point of view differs from the dominant culture. The purpose of kindergarten and preschool is to “adjust” these points of view as early as possible so it is easier to train them in school rather than develop their minds. Unless educators can produce evidence that the IQs of these individuals with different points of view are outside the normal range of 95% of the human species, then a proper curriculum will produce results within their capacity to learn in the absence of teaching prejudice against them. The countries out-educating us use a curriculum that works with the mind, so they have no achievement gaps separated by poverty or subcultures. See Mind Development chart below which explains why employers and universities are dissatisfied with the skills of high school graduates, and why in the 1980s the military had to switch from text to comic book format for training and instruction manuals.
E. Kindergarten used to be optional but became mandatory in the 1980s in an attempt to stem the decline in student achievement; it didn’t work and now the focus is on preschool to homogenously socialize students into the dominant culture so they all think the same way – Hitler used to say that if he had control of children up to the age of 7, they were his for life.
F. Each phase of constructivism (smaller class size, kindergarten, addition of AEAs, higher teacher pay, focus on self esteem etc.) has added more failures and excuses for failure and demanded increased funding to experiment with remedies unrelated to the curriculum, thus significantly increasing costs .
G. As evidenced by the 70-year chart, all of the attempted remedies have failed because they did not address the source of the problem, which has nothing to do with social differences (as the countries out-educating us have proven) – the problem lies with curriculum
III III. THIS IS WHAT MUST BE DONE TO STOP CONSTRUCTIVISM
A. Stop providing funding for the constructivist cancer that is destroying education (would you put a known cancer on life support to allow it to live and grow until it destroys the entire body?)
B. Stop listening to and giving any credence to education excuses not dealing with curriculum (95% of the human species has an IQ capacity to learn within a normal range, and the rest of the world shows learning is not related to poverty or culture)
C. Insist that only students with tested IQs outside the normal range be labeled as Special Ed (as the original intent of the legislation intended )
D. Implement strategic planning – which colleges are beginning to do – because it ties the curriculum, teacher effectiveness, and valid testing in a quality controlled (no cheating) system -- to student achievement results
E. Set a cap on per-pupil spending – reviewed annually – commensurate with the countries out-educating U. S. students
F. Focus on curriculum that works with the brain during the time of its development to develop logic networks for better information processing and decision-making (as evidenced by the skills demanded by businesses and the results other countries are achieving)
G. Give the monopolistic public schools some strong competition by reallocating school funding to other school choices--for parents and students to make
70 YEAR CHARTS SHOWS EDUCATION COSTS ARE OUT OF CONTROL