December 27th, 2014 at 7:06 pm
NEW ZEALAND INVESTIGATE MAGAZINES AMY BROOKE … DUMBED – DOWN EDUCATION … HOW IT HAPPENED …
Importance: High
Importance: High
THE ELEPHANT IN THE CLASSROOM …
… WHY YOUR TEENAGER REALLY CAN’T WRITE …
A lengthy … and essential read …
http://www.investigatemagazine.co.nz/Investigate/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/hers_dec14jan15.pdf … large … slow download …
… extract … concluding …
The Black American teacher Marva
Collins, achieving highly rewarding
academic results for her disadvantaged,
impoverished children, became famous
for successfully applying classical
education methods. Many of her pupils
had previously been formerly categorized
as learning-disabled.
Collins, achieving highly rewarding
academic results for her disadvantaged,
impoverished children, became famous
for successfully applying classical
education methods. Many of her pupils
had previously been formerly categorized
as learning-disabled.
Her constant argument was that it
was the new teaching standards and
methods which were, and are, the
problem – not the old ones. She once
wrote, “I have discovered few learning disabled
students in my three decades
of teaching. I have, however, discovered
many, many victims of teaching inabilities.”
was the new teaching standards and
methods which were, and are, the
problem – not the old ones. She once
wrote, “I have discovered few learning disabled
students in my three decades
of teaching. I have, however, discovered
many, many victims of teaching inabilities.”
She insisted that it was not the old
teaching theory that was to blame, but
the new theorizing. The consequences
today support her conclusions.
teaching theory that was to blame, but
the new theorizing. The consequences
today support her conclusions.
Far from our schools offering the
opportunity for academic excellence to
our children and now, even their children,
a whole world of genuine learning
has been and is being withheld
during those precious years when an
appetite to learn everything provides
an unparalleled opportunity to open
doors to other worlds – to the history
of the Western, the history of the world
itself, to discovery, to the key moments
and events which have brought us
today – and to the stories of those who
made and shaped us.
opportunity for academic excellence to
our children and now, even their children,
a whole world of genuine learning
has been and is being withheld
during those precious years when an
appetite to learn everything provides
an unparalleled opportunity to open
doors to other worlds – to the history
of the Western, the history of the world
itself, to discovery, to the key moments
and events which have brought us
today – and to the stories of those who
made and shaped us.
To begin to claim back what we have
lost will need the courage and persistence
of so-called ordinary parents,
refusing to comply with the politicized
agenda issuing from the ministry,
and it’s obviously largely ignorant and
politicized minister, who is apparently,
as usual, captured by its bureaucracy.
lost will need the courage and persistence
of so-called ordinary parents,
refusing to comply with the politicized
agenda issuing from the ministry,
and it’s obviously largely ignorant and
politicized minister, who is apparently,
as usual, captured by its bureaucracy.
Only determined, well-informed parents
are in a position to being able to refuse
being fobbed off, and to demand
genuine accountability from the schools.
are in a position to being able to refuse
being fobbed off, and to demand
genuine accountability from the schools.
The alternative? To do nothing?
Amy Brooke Information …
… THERE IS HOPE HOWEVER … ( we can console ourselves students are rarely as stupid as their indoctrinated and institutionalized teachers … entrepreneurs dodge them like the plague ) as there is a shift underway … both within New Zealand and internationally … to (in the broad sense) conservative values ( what works) …
The shift to conservative values … with the young too … | Hugh Pavletich| Scoop News
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1409/S00005/the-shift-to-conservative-values-with-the-young-too.htm
… noting within the above the words of the esteemed Hoover Institution economist Dr Thomas Sowell “We have spent the past few decades replacing what works, with what feels good.”
further on comments also on the article
further on comments also on the article
Don’t get me started on the garbage land-use Planning Schools in New Zealand !
… Distribute & discuss … thank you …
Hugh Pavletich
Co-author Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey
http://www.performanceurbanplanning.org/ & http://info.scoop.co.nz/Hugh_Pavletich
Christchurch
Shawn Herles (6,753 comments) says:
December 27th, 2014 at 7:15 pm
Co-author Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey
http://www.performanceurbanplanning.org/ & http://info.scoop.co.nz/Hugh_Pavletich
Christchurch
Shawn Herles (6,753 comments) says:
December 27th, 2014 at 7:15 pm
Thanks for the Rémi Brague links Lucia. Very interesting
The Impossibility of Secular Society was particularly good.
If you haven’t already read it, you may find this worthwhile.
Muddle-Heads and the Middle Ages:
There is very little in our modern life that is more muddle-headed than the view that most moderns have of the Middle Ages. For most moderns the Middle Ages are dismissed as being barbaric and violent, whereas, of course, our own enlightened and progressive times are, by comparison, civilized and peaceful. One thinks, for instance, of those modern ideologies, each of which traces its roots to the anti-mediaeval Enlightenment, which have blessed us with the Guillotine, the Gulag and the Gas Chamber, or perhaps we are reminded of the modern cult of hedonistic consumerism which systematically kills unborn babies in the name of “freedom.” Is it not it a relief to know that we have progressed beyond the barbarism of the Middle Ages to the glories of our enlightened present?
Thanks, Shawn.
Good stuff on misrepresentation on on the Middle Ages. I have a book by Regine Pernoud, Those Terrible Middle Ages: Debunking the Myths that goes into more detail, as only a book can.
I’ve always been fascinated with the Middle Ages, ever since I was a child, and so reading anything on them.
The article does get a bit muddled up at the end, it’s almost as if the writer is forcing a choice between today and the past. That’s not quite right, of course – I’d have to think more about what he’s trying to say to give a more accurate assessment.
Anyway, interesting, thank you!
Lucia, I went to your first link about secular society and the essay reminded me of those pseudo-profound speculative essays, particularly by continental intellectuals who liked to air their erudition, which used to impress me as a university student nearly 50 years ago, but I eventually saw as little more than evidence-free assertions linked by a few dodgy conceits.
The author ‘proves’ the argument through an etymological examination of ‘secular’ combined with very poorly supported assertions/insinuations about the time frames of theists and non-theists and, oh, isn’t it suggestive that an early secularist supported contraception? And all this in an entirely Euro-centric essay ignoring other societies. The author might or might not be right, but this essay proves nothing.
@ Kiwi Dave
The author ‘proves’ the argument through an etymological examination of ‘secular’ combined with very poorly supported assertions/insinuations about the time frames of theists and non-theists
What specifically did you consider “assertions/insinuations’?
And all this in an entirely Euro-centric essay ignoring other societies.
This is the standard Leftist assertion that to be Euro-centric is somehow bad. Euro-supremacy would certainly be bad, but it is perfectly natural for Europeans to take a European view, and it was Europe and the West that this article was about in the first place.
The author might or might not be right, but this essay proves nothing.
This is a contradiction. If he MAY be right (or wrong) then that does prove something.
Apart from that, the idea that philosophical reflections and essays have to “prove” anything is a highly dubious notion, usually predicated on a view of “proof” that is subjective and often little more than convenient word games.
So, as far as I can tell your objection is an assertion about assertions, the fact that it was from a European perspective, and that he may or may not be right.
Not a very convincing critique.
Shawn – Euro-centric isn’t bad in my opinion, just seriously incomplete in this context when unqualified assertions about secular society, which is not exclusive to Europe, are being made. As someone who considers himself very much a child of the European enlightenment, I’m highly Euro-centric myself, but it’s not the whole world.
Assertions/insinuations – e.g, the 100 year time-frame of secularists, the superficial comments on secular morality.
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