l:\doc\web\2000\08\flurteac.txt I pity the poor teachers with these new new math textbooks that require teachers 2 hours for prep time for a 1 hour math lesson, not counting time to make copies since there is only one massive 16 volume "textbook" per classroom. -----Original Message----- From: JANN FLURY (by way of JimmyKilpatrick ) [mailto:jflury@idirect.com] Sent: Monday, August 14, 2000 5:23 PM To: Recipient list suppressed Subject: EVOLUTION OR MUTATION? August 14, 2000 PERSPECTIVE by JANN FLURY 905-571-4811 EVOLUTION OR MUTATION? To a large extent, society is a composite reflection of the upbringing and education that the generations making up the community have received. The important contribution a good teacher makes to this product cannot be overstated; next to the family­ particularly the mother­ the teacher remains the most influential person during a child's formative years. Over recent decades, however, the education overlords have revised the aim of education and the role of teachers. Until about fifty years ago, public education trundled along at a respectable pace and produced some splendid results. One only has to look at all the technical achievements of the 20th Century to gauge the effectiveness of public education during that era. One must wonder why teaching and learning needed changing? Why has education evolved into what it is today? In those good old days the teacher was the key player in the education process. Overworked and underpaid he/she was expected to labour tirelessly and conscientiously and lead an exemplary life both in and out of school. Any breach of trust was sure to invoke the wrath of the community and resulted in dismissal. During that era, teachers often taught several subjects to various grades and class sizes. Remediation was unheard of; still, by the end of the year, over ninety percent of students passed a promotion test and made it to the next grade. In those days, teaching was a respected profession, admired by parents as well as students. The teacher was perceived as a pillar of society and often went on to other important callings in public life. Successful teaching was made possible through the use of fixed, sequential curriculums, taught from matching standardized textbooks. Students all learned the same way, covered the same material, practiced the same exercises, and were assigned the same homework. There was no need for preparation time, searching out new resource materials, awkward scheduling, and all students were routinely tested on the curriculum covered. The key to successful teaching and learning was hard work, integrity, and good discipline. Discipline was sustainable because the teacher gained the students' confidence, cooperation, and respect by setting a good example and providing sound leadership. Many of the sweeping changes introduced since the 1950's have been detrimental to both teaching and learning and were implemented without good reason. Today, teachers feel that they are no longer the key players or in control, that they have been relegated to the role of messenger, and that they get blamed for all teaching and learning problems. Society's perception of the public school teacher has also changed. It is now debated whether teaching is a profession or a unionized career job. Today, the teacher has union security with good pay and enviable benefits, but the social status is gone. No longer looked up to, admired, and rarely respected, the teacher is now considered by many as part of the problem, instead of the solution to the problem. Public education has become more complicated, not through necessity but because the educrats wanted to make it so. Teaching has been made more difficult, time consuming, and less effective; while, learning and overall student performance has been reduced at all levels. Unquestionably, the destruction of our functional education system has been willfully engineered. The plot to deliberately dumb down our youth has been described by more than one author, and it only remains a matter of conjecture as to who all is culpable. Without a doubt, it will turn out to become the scandal of the century. When teachers are arraigned before the court of public opinion and questioned about poor student performance, they offer a litany of excuses­ why it is beyond their scope to deliver the education for which they contracted. Although the excuses are concocted and delivered mostly by union spokespersons, it reflects badly on the profession as a whole, and individual teachers must bear some responsibility. Through an unwillingness to accept responsibility and accountability on behalf of their profession, teachers and their unions have damaged their collective credibility and have made a mockery of an honourable profession. This has led to an unflattering public image. Consequently, public school teachers today suffer from lack of conviction. They feel maligned, denigrated, and victimized, which has led to low morale, unrest, and general job dissatisfaction. Here in Ontario, they blame Premier Harris for all their woes; elsewhere, they find some other convenient scapegoat. Strangely, none recall or seem willing to admit that their malcontentedness has been building over decades, that it has become a problem right across North America, and that their real problems have been instigated by their unions and the education hierarchy, not necessarily the politicians. Over the last 50 years, an academic elitist group that controls public education from behind the scenes has been changing every aspect of teaching and learning to accommodate their own scheming, willful ways. Public education is supposed to be an organized way for our children to learn factual knowledge. Effective teaching and learning during more rational times evolved around the fundamental premise that all children can learn the basics in an allotted time frame, and that all children are naturally eager to learn and enjoy competition when they first start school. That is human nature­ a fact of life that remains a constant; still, the educrats have set out to change all that. Educrats, for nefarious reasons, have seen fit to change the whole teaching and learning process. Schools have become conditioning factories; teachers, facilitators; and students, explorers of self and society. Students are no longer taught how to think, but what to think. They are subtly "herded" into making group decisions through consensus­ a process leading to conditioned politically-correct thinking. Conventional learning of essential knowledge has suffered greatly under this new regime called Outcome Based Education. It has caused confusion and frustration for teachers and students alike. Most newly elected governments try to reform the education system. However, unwisely, they hand the reform task to the very educrats that brought public education to its knees in the first place. The educrats go through the motions, but reform nothing. Public education remains stuck­ teachers are asked to push; parents are asked to help; and the bureaucrats spin the wheels, driving education ever deeper into the bureaucratic quagmire. Our public education system has not EVOLVED into what it is today; today's model of education is a MUTATION­ a disfigured monster­ deliberately created and rendered useless by the academic elitists that pull the strings from behind the scenes. Teachers would do well to muster their collective might to fight the true villain in this Goals 2000 education travesty instead of blaming public opinion and politicians for their fading fortune. JANN FLURY 905-571-4811 Jann Flury Phone 1-905-571-4811 Fax 1-905-571-4881 This article(s) posted on: EducationNews.org http://www.EducationNews.org