Saturday, March 25, 2006

Reading, writing and arithmetic. That’s all.

To meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind, schools are “narrowing the curriculum” to focus on the basics. From the NY Times: “Schools cut back subjects to push reading and math

Thousands of schools across the nation are responding to the reading and math testing requirements laid out in No Child Left Behind, President Bush's signature education law, by reducing class time spent on other subjects and, for some low-proficiency students, eliminating it.

Schools from Vermont to California are increasing — in some cases tripling — the class time that low-proficiency students spend on reading and math, mainly because the federal law, signed in 2002, requires annual exams only in those subjects and punishes schools that fall short of rising benchmarks.

The changes appear to principally affect schools and students who test below grade level.
Gentlemen, start your metaphors!

"Only two subjects? What a sadness," said Thomas Sobol, an education professor at Columbia Teachers College and a former New York State education commissioner. "That's like a violin student who's only permitted to play scales, nothing else, day after day, scales, scales, scales. They'd lose their zest for music."

"When you only have so many hours per day and you're behind in some area that's being hammered on, you have to work on that," said Henry Lind, the [Cuero, TX] schools superintendent. "It's like basketball. If you can't make layups, then you've got to work on layups."
I’d rather have a violin player who can make layups than a basketball star who has lost interest in playing the violin.

4 comments:

Brian said...

Something tells me all the "classes" cut out had titles like "Social Justice in the Feminsist Era," "President Bush: Is he Hitler? Or just Ivan the Terrible?" "Sex with 10 year olds: Is the ACLU right to defend pedophiles, or are they REALLY right?"

Anonymous said...

Something tells me that a few other crackpot classes like "Art" and "Science" and "Social Studies" might have gotten the axe. And something about that reply tells me "Clueless" isn't just a movie title. There are also many liberals who also foolishly support No Child Left Behind.

No Child Left Behind has proven that when you legislate to the lowest common denominator, you'll "achieve" the lowest common success.

Synova said...

Depending on what actually happens... If the whole class does nothing but Math and Reading, then that is terrible. But if a child struggling with Math and Reading *learns* Math and Reading, that child can learn anything else he or she wants to know, because those are the tools. If they don't learn them, they are handicapped in all other areas.

There's no reason that those two subjects have to be a grind. If time isn't taken by other things and those students are getting extra time and attention, those subjects can be taught through a variety of games or activities... even very physical activities for children who can't sit well.

As for the metaphores.... Math isn't scales. Math is violin.

Or rather... Violin is to scales as Math is to addends.

Anonymous said...

Building on synova's remarks...
Certainly there's a way to incorport science into the day's math lessons, eh? Certainly there's a way to incorporate lots of subjects in Reading, no? More garbage from the NYT. How the hell can someone learn about art, science, history, etc. without mastering reading? And science cannot be mastered without knowing math.
I am also of the mind that if the "entire" school day is spent on "two" subject, most of it is for doing homework - stuff the kids don't seem to be doing.