The title of this book tells it all...Retarding
America: The Imprisonment of Potential. This study on juvenile
facilities finds that the most common denominator among all those incarcerated
is poor reading skills. ..not single family homes or any other socioeconomic
factor. Proficient readers perform well in school. This builds true
self-esteem which cannot be taught in a "course." Success in school
leads to success in life.
Reading is the most basic component of education.
Yet, reading instruction has fallen victim to Progressive Education which
replaced Traditional Education in the 1960s. With the social tumult of
the 60s the Department of Education was founded and peopled with educators
intent upon succeeding in bringing about a social revolution. As the
result social justice took a first while actual education took a back seat.
Unfortunately, as the result of using our schools as cultural laboratories,
those children this ideology intended to help have been those most harmed.
It has been about ten years since I "gave
up" trying to "fix" education in my hometown. The effort was sadly
defeating and depressing. I retreated to my garden and cried thinking of
all.those bright eager children I had taught who came to me in the 7th and 8th
grades unable to read regardless of the fact that their elementary records
showed As and Bs. Their schools had failed to teach the most basic
educational skill. I thought of all the children who would continue to fail who were bright, eager children
who deserved better than the destiny that
awaited them because of their poor basic skills. Why had this happened?
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Progressive Education found found acceptance in
the social turmoil of the late sixties. It was "kind." It was
"fun." It was "child-centered." All of this was a form of jargon of
the time which meant that it was condescending, assuming that the
black children in those classrooms were unable to achieve the same standard
as the white students in the class. The result was that black children
were more adversely affected than the white children who were also adversely
affected. Ten years ago 49% of 17 year old black males were
functionally illiterate and there was a 30% drop out rate. It is worse
now. (Those who "had a heart" for education were elected to our School
Board over those who had A Plan. Marva Collins succeeds in her inner
city Chicago schools because she sees potential excellence in every child
and takes "learning disabled," "hyperactive," "ADD", et. al. and actually
teaches them. Check
out her reading list.)
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I discovered that reading instruction was
political. Amazing! I thought that what my parents paid for in my
university classes was based on what empirical research shows works to teach
children well to read, write, compute, and understand the world around them
through history and science. No.
A man named Ken Goodman
wrote an article entitled "Reading, a Psycholinguistic Guessing Game" and a
whole "movement" evolved. Meetings to rival Jonathan Edwards religious
revivals brought newly "empowered" teachers out of their closets to hail the
"new" classroom in which the child would be "empowered" with the teacher
being the "guide on the side." They opted to follow the path of child
development expert, Rousseau. Rousseau's novel Emile relates
the tale of a boy whose tutor followed him around "teaching" as he was
asked. Eventually Emile was ready to read and of course at that point
his tutor stepped up. Rousseau is touted as a WL (Whole Language) hero
in Ken and Yetta Goodman's Whole Language Catalog, the bible of the WL
Movement. The fact that Rousseau's only credentials at being an expert
on child development was writing a book and siring five children he required
his mistress to leave at foundling homes is disregarded. Paulo Frere
is also one of the Goodmans' inspirations. This defrocked Jesuit
priest was famous in Nicaragua for being a "liberation theologian" and is
now highly regarded for his "liberation pedagogy." Michael Apple
another of the Goodman's favorite WL philosophers sees the alphabet as the
province of white children. Vygotsky another favorite sees schools as
cultural laboratories. Of course, all of this was to occur in a values
free environment, because religion has no place in a classroom.
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Teachers who had been instructed by those
professors in the colleges of education who had bought this philosophy of
education with a "born again" fervor formed a block and controlled the
dissemination of information. They were "inside", experts with
taxpayer dollars to promote their agenda.
Those who voiced concerns were "flat earthers" against progress, with no
money to fight the establishment that circled their wagons and resisted any
honest debate. These "experts" controlled/control the "grassroots"
efforts to "fix" the schools. Their solution? Always. More
money. Think happy thoughts and just believe. Unfortunately the think
system didn't work in the Music Man and it hasn't worked since the man that
"had a heart for education" got elected to the School Board in 1992.
But they'll repackage the program and pull a guilt trip on the public for
not being "supportive" and continue on with the same failure.
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I will relate one incident off the reading
topic that exemplifies how education can/has profited individuals in the education
establishment in my community. When I heard of block scheduling coming to the
high school our daughter would be attending, I researched the topic and
found a study by Dr. David Bateson done on a group of over 20,000 students
who had used the block scheduling method for about 20 years. His
conclusion: Block Scheduling is "detrimental to academic achievement."
We contacted the professor personally and got his study which we then
presented to our administration. The result was that at the parents meeting held
to present and perhaps adopt this "innovation" the information was withheld from the public. The
parents group revved up by cheerleaders (those supervisors who visited a school
that had just adopted block scheduling) approved the "innovation."
Eventually, the
academic supervisor used our children as the subject of her dissertation.
She went on to become Superintendent of another school district.
Another supervisor published articles enhancing his career in professional
journals. Glossy brochures were printed at taxpayer cost to promote
the agenda throughout the Southeast. Teachers who had used the method
only a couple of weeks became experts overnight and traveled to promote the
concept, leaving their own classrooms to substitute teachers. It is now universally accepted that block scheduling is
"detrimental to academic achievement." And my community, funded by my
tax dollars, is the "expert" that helped spread the contagion.
Saddened by the state of our schools and the lack
of openness in debate, I retreated to my garden, pulling weeds and planting
seeds that would actually show results. Today I see little green signs
popping up throughout my neighborhood promoting a new thrust toward improving
our schools. I cringe with every one I see remembering the demonization
that came with stepping up to offer programs that have proven effective.
I remember "friends" walking on the other side of the street so they would not
have to speak. I recall the letter to the editor that accused me of
being a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
And then I remember those children who motivated
me to get involved. My students (Black and White) with eager faces and
trusting eyes who wanted to learn, but could not read their 7th grade
textbooks.
I knew their future. I tried to do
something about it.
So sad. I understand this "new reform"
movement is more of the same Outcome Based Education I fought long ago,
repackaged with a brand spanking new name.
And so I write this article and add this
Education section to my website. With little hope that anything will change.
Sharman Burson Ramsey
