i:\doc\web\99\07\billb.txt wa-ed-deform@egroups.com, education-consumers@lists.dundee.net Boston Globe: bad sci textbooks (Forward From arthurhu@halcyon.com) From: William Beaty Reply-To: William Beaty To: Arthur Hu cc: wa-math-sci@esd113.wednet.edu Subject: Re: Boston Globe: bad sci textbooks Comment - this fellow appears to be attacking both traditional text book education, and "standard based" reform, I suppose it's some good with some bad. Check out the web site. On Wed, 19 May 1999, Arthur Hu wrote: > Are you taking a position for or against traditional education vs. > "standards based reform"? I'm not a teacher, so as an outsider to the education community I might notice things which others miss, but also obviously posess a viewpoint based on a lack of experience in teaching or in school politics. Then again, I can say anything I want without jepordizing any teaching career. :) >From what I've seen of "standards based" anything, it is the CAUSE of educational troubles, not a cure. It falls under the philosophy of "Worship of the Single Right Answer," where students are empty vessels waiting to be filled, where there's just one perfect method for teaching, and a single perfect textbook is possible (and all we need do is to collect enough experts into a committee, and they will create these perfect books, curricula, and tests for us.) Yeah, right. If we want to live in a stripped-down lifeless world of memorized-answers, multiple-choice testing, and meaningless "Important Facts" which lack all the usual rich interconnectedness, then perhaps the products of expert committees can aid us. But if teaching is an art, if every question has multiple levels and a huge variety of answers, and if learning is a poorly-understood process wherein students CREATE new knowledge almost from scratch, then I think we should look upon standardized curricula as a sort of creeping Evil which is the very opposite of learning, and which threatens to suck all the joyful and hyper-complex variety from the world. > Some of the new textbooks initiaves produce truly horrible > "reform" books, or do you favor NTCM and NSF funded projects? I would prefer that the mistakes in textbooks NOT be corrected. They are a symptom of a major disease. If some group was to go through the more widely-used textbooks and remove all of the typical errors, this would be like putting make-up on skin cancer: it hides the disease by removing the symptoms, and makes it impossible to convince anyone that the patient is dying. And if all the embarassing flaws in state-wide math tests are noted and fixed, this would just make it harder for anyone to get rid of the damned things later on. With this textbook-errors stuff, I fear that by taking pot-shots at the "enemy," I might only succeed in helping them strengthen their defenses. However... I intend my "misconceptions" website to be subversive. With luck, my stuff might convince some students (and perhaps a few teachers) that their textbooks are NOT the perfected words of the experts delivered from On High. As a student, I always found it *very* empowering to discover the flaws in adult authority. Now that I'm a former child, I thought I'd lend a hand to all the ones who still haven't fought free of the forces which suppress their thinking and destroy their self-esteem. If I show people where the imperfections lie, perhaps I can help them to wake up, defend themselves, and maybe grab the reins. ------ >From a teachers' perspective, if our textbooks are horribly flawed, how can students be properly taught? Perhaps by using all of the non-traditional techniques which have worked in the past! Emulating all those heretical educators who use no textbooks at all would be a good first step. For a very useful perspective on contemporary education, see: Top Ten Mistakes in Education http://www.ils.nwu.edu/~e_for_e/nodes/NODE-283-pg.html from Inst. for Learning Sciences at Northwestern U., http://www.ils.nwu.edu/~e_for_e/ ------------ Misconceptions taught by K-6 Science Textbooks http://www.amasci.com/miscon/miscon.html A great place: The John Holt Bookstore http://www.holtgws.com/holtbkst.htm ((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))))) William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website billb@eskimo.com http://www.amasci.com EE/programmer/sci-exhibits science projects, tesla, weird science Seattle, WA 206-781-3320 freenrg-L taoshum-L vortex-L webhead-L