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Why Schools Fail —Bruce Goldberg

Goldberg weighs in with a Libertarian view, a sort of power market Alfie Kohn. He blasts reading and math practices, rips E. D. Hirsch. Goldberg emphasizes making schools more interesting for students. This book implies that education is a choice between entertaining drivel and boring drivel. The author sides with entertaining drivel. Goldberg cites Gilda Radner’s autobiography as an example of what schools should emphasize. Radner’s autobiography may be one of the best celebrity bios ever, but if reading celebrity biographies is what is important, why have schools? Judging from the new bookshelf at most public libraries, citizens spend plenty of free time reading celebrity bios. That accomplishment is almost no accomplishment. Limiting life to the habitually interesting, initially interesting and popularly interesting, reduces the purposefulness and fulfillment that comes from attacking important challenges wholeheartedly. Improved entertainment will not accomplish much. Thoughtful kids will merely become more jaded.

I am waiting for a book that emphasizes making important things fascinating rather than pretending the popular or the fascinating are important. The pursuits of the entertaining, the popular and the pedantic have overwhelmed considerations for the pursuit of the good. A teacher is acting in more than a fiduciary role for a student’s current enjoyment. They are acting in a fiduciary role for their present character and their future character. Not recommended.

Social Programs That Work

The major education related essay in here is argues for implementing Success for All, an elementary reading program. A bunch of authors in Phi Delta Kappan argue that Success for All does not work as well as it should. It is not the best choice. Many teachers dislike it and oppose it. It has poor curriculum materials. It is mediocre for students in older

age groups. It does not have a good plan for students in middle and high school, failing to build on early gains. It is billed as a complete literacy program, but it is only a partial program. It works best when combined with other literacy programs. It is overwrought and inflexible. It decreases student reading interest, though probably not for long.

Supporting research may have poor controls and may ignore other factors that are responsible for improvements. Even if the program itself were responsible for improvements, the gains are not large enough. Bigger changes are needed.

Success for All does have some good points though which include: increased structure, more time spent reading, homogenous grouping, increased tutoring, regular assessment and reduced class sizes in primary grades.

Some studies suggest that the most important factor for academic achievement in general is teacher quality. Other important factors include an emphasis on reading, good materials and “curriculum alignment.”

Beyond the Classroom by L. Steinberg

The authors make the good point that the widespread belief that success depends more on inherited brain power than efforts is bad, but much of Beyond the Classroom makes nurture assumptions that fail to account for biological and other factors. School reform should focus on the classroom. It is where the most gain for the effort will come. Trying to reform schools by fixing most of society is at best quixotic. In fact, focusing on the classroom would do more to improve society than the other way around. Unspecific, impractical and unhelpful recommendations. Not recommended.

The Schools We Need: And Why We Don’t Have Them by E.D. Hirsch, Junior

317p (H) 1996

Passionate polemicizing is Hirsch’s specialty. Unfortunately, his argument is weak. Hirsch denounces false dichotomies while promoting them. Some of this smacks of scientism—let the scientists decide what schools should be like. He uses reasoning against reasoning. Hirsch’s cultural education builds good Jeopardy contestants and bad humans while

progressive education builds bad Jeopardy contestants and bad humans.

Here is an intriguing thought experiment: Instead of teaching the E.D. Hirsch vision or the Howard Gardner vision, what would you get if you took a student and taught him Hirsch things and Gardner things? You would get a person who can name every state capital, who can solve path integrals and who can recite lots of vague ideas with confidence, but has no idea what they mean or whether they are accurate, a person who has little understanding of morality, reasoning, psychology and human beings, a person who does not know the difference between cant and Kant. In short, you would have me circa ten years ago. If you want to be as bad as I was, go ahead and stuff yourself and your children full of trivia or bland rhetoric or both.

Hirsch maintains that lots of cultural knowledge (read: trivial knowledge) is crucial for future development and job success. I am skeptical. The economy is not based on Win Ben Stein’s Money. The vocational opportunities in the world of trivia are less than booming. The goal is to accomplish good, not expertise on every trivial issue. If job success depends on relationships emphasizing trivial cultural knowledge—knowing that President William Taft was obese, for example—that knowledge is a zero-sum or negative sum game, knowing trivia only improves your position compared to someone else. Schools should not be in the business of pursuing success in zero-sum games. They should be in the business of increasing overall value. I have never seen anyone get fired because they did not know who Neville Chamberlain was or for any other cultural knowledge reason.

Maybe constant bombardment with trivial knowledge causes cynical attitudes toward knowledge. Maybe it causes bad habits of immersion in trivial knowledge. Not recommended.

Research on Educational Innovations by Arthur K. Ellis and Jeffrey T. Fouts

(H) 1997

The authors offer a general overview of whole language learning, brain research, learning styles, effective schools movement, outcomes based education, mastery learning, cooperative learning, thinking skills programs and interdisciplinary curriculum and the authors’ conclusions about each. Concise and helpful for learning a little about educational theories and jargon, even if the research stinks.

Safe Schools, Safe Students: A Guide to Violence Prevention Strategies by Drug Strategies

1998 (H) 56p

Rates 84 violence prevention programs. Ten were rated A. Covers school policies, physical and environmental factors within schools. Not surprisingly, programs emphasizing scare tactics and self-esteem first stink. Recommended.

Making the Grade: A Guide to School Drug Prevention Programs by Drug Strategies

Evaluates 50 drug prevention curricula. Normative education is important. This contains some nurture assumptions. Worth browsing.

How to Succeed in School without Really Learning: The Credentials Race In American Education by David F. Labaree

As someone once said (Don’t ask me who. My memory stinks.), most education interest groups have one of two positions on issues: Indifference or holy war. This book will probably produce similar reactions. Worth browsing.

323p (H) 1997

The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons from a Small School in Harlem by Deborah Meier

190p (H) 1995

Smaller schools and a call for more neoprogressive education dominate the arguments offered by Deborah Meier. Power of Their Ideas is almost entirely anecdotal. The successes are probably a tribute to the energy and creativity of the author rather than breakthrough methods. Mere mortals will have trouble replicating her successes. There is some research out there, however, to suggest that smaller schools are more beneficial, especially I am inclined to assume at the elementary and middle school levels.

The author makes some arguments for seeking more practical schooling—especially practical math, but then boasts, “I once figured out that there are more jobs in New York City for people with advance musical or artistic skills than for those with advanced calculus [mostly scientists and engineers I presume]. Art and music may have greater utilities of various types than calculus, but one of them is not career utility. The number of artists in New York does not make art a better career choice than engineering any more than the greater numbers of textile workers makes textile work a better career choice than orthopedics. The underemployment rate for advanced artists and musicians is probably well over 90 percent, while the underemployment rate for those in careers that require advanced calculus is probably less than five percent. Further, the numbers of artistic jobs are more fixed than advance calculus related jobs.

Unlike the author, I do not think that advanced musical and artistic classes lead to greater habit of citizenship than calculus. The Hollywood culture indicates otherwise. Unless the author takes citizenship to mean token, publicized efforts or marketing nihilism or relentlessly distracting individuals from important tasks in life or both. The edifying claims of artistes are wishfully and grossly exaggerated. Designing a pump for a water treatment plants wouldn’t be considered an act of citizenship, but designing one more piece of postmodern detritus sure would. Even schlocksters such as Aaron Spelling think they are entertainment “altruists.” He thinks his shows prevents suicides if it were not for the wonders provided by his shows. Life would be unbearable without Beverly Hills 90210. Life without Beverly Hills 90210 would simply be

Art and music may have greater utilities of various types than calculus, but one of them may not be career utility.

The total number of jobs in a field is not the same as the probability of finding a job in that field. The underemployment rate for those with advanced artistic skills is probably several times that of those with advance calculus skills.

Standards for Our Schools by Judy Codding and Marc Tucker

This work argues that we should replace shopping mall schools with Bob’s Algebra, Protractor and Compass Incorporated (Okay, slight straw person). After seeing the books out there, students need statistics and probability much more than they need algebra. High wrong standards are little improvement over low wrong standards, not to mention the importance of proper enforcement. And what is the primary reason for having higher standards? To improve percentile comparisons? Bzzzz. Try again. Not recommended.

The Learning Gap: Why Our Schools Are Failing and What We Can Learn from Japanese and Chinese Education by Harold W. Stevenson and James W. Stigler

Tries to dispel myths about education at the two Asian powers. This is heresy, but did it occur to anyone that Chinese and Japanese schools stink even worse, especially Chinese schools in the moral education department. Not recommended.

Greater Expectations by William Damon

Damon argues for “higher” standards because challenges are needed for the development of humans. Children should enjoy striving and they should not be treated as mental weaklings who need to be protected from ideas. This work needs stronger recommendations and less education jargon. Damon’s standards are neither high enough nor good enough. Not recommended.

Annual Editions Education by Fred Schultz, editor

(H) latest edition

A digest of popular media articles on education. Worth skimming.

Setting the Record Straight: Responses to Misconceptions About Public Education in the United States by Gerald W. Bracey 215p (H) 1997

When the author says responses, he is not joking. This is a giant argument stopper in a condescending Simon says format.

If you’re looking for rhetoric to bludgeon with, this is the book. It is not effective at demythologizing. The moral reasoning is horrid: Simon says two plus two is five. Simon says some issues can’t be reasoned about because they’re value issues. All together now. Not recommended.

215pp. (H) 1997

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto

A globular cluster of forgone conclusions with some page numbers thrown in to add variety. Schools, community, passivity, unintended lessons and the badness of school bells are covered here. Not recommended.

1992 (H) 104p

—Book review articles by J.T. Fournier

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