On Dec 1, GMBrady@aol.com asked for comments on a letter. =20
In part it goes:
Editor, Atlantic Monthly:
I'm in complete agreement with Paul Gagnon's vision of the ends of
a liberal education. I don't, however, agree with his plan for =
achieving
those ends.
Yes, we hardly scratch the surface of student potential. Yes,
just about every part of the educational establishment shares
responsibility for the sad state of education. And yes, we should start
school reform "by first deciding what every child should learn . . ."=20
It's when Gagnon begins to be specific about what he thinks the
young should know that we part company. He wants representatives from
mathematics and science, history, geography, and the other traditional
disciplines to get their acts together and do well what they're now =
doing
poorly--decide what's worth teaching. National education standards =
would
then be keyed to the content these representatives selected.....
*** end of quote of Marion's msg ***
I agree with your concerns Marion. It left me (on first reading) asking =
what you'd suggest instead. Would it help to not so much criticise as =
to ask "is there some truth in this additional proposal?"? So, it may =
help the letter if you could summarise what you believe the education =
curriculum should be structured around. The editor may then want to see =
a shorter letter (I don't know the magazine) to accentuate the positive, =
eliminate (nearly) the negative etc. =20
I've been saving the odd note on this topic, and the following notes =
were helpful. I presume there's some way of going back through the =
archives, I've left my intro notes on another machine.
Ben Budiman & Jim Michmerhuizen's exchange on Curriculum Proposal =
LO3505. Talks about five disciplines of Music, Books, Chess (or Go), =
Sport and Arts.
Walter Derzko & Eric Bohlman's notes on Curriculum Development Ideas =
LO3670 and Lost Opportunity Costs, LO3814 & LO3822. Talks about the =
importance of teaching thinking, and also going forward to basics.
There is also a 1992 book by Edward de Bono called "Teach Your Child How =
to Think". Amongst other things, he emphasises the need to teach =
thinking skills, and also the traps in only using critical thinking to =
the total exclusion of creative thinking. He pushes the CoRT teaching =
program, which I have not seen. =20
I note that as part of your note you state:
{And yes, we should start school reform "by first deciding what every =
child should learn . . }
Perhaps we should first tempt them to learn and show them how? Perhaps =
then we can guide the "what"....
As a postscript, how do others cope with keeping track of this rich vein =
of ideas? I find myself saving selected contributions on my hard disk =
under various topics (usually the subject line of the first note of a =
thread). This allows me to search the files for key words etc. I sense =
though that over time this will become unwieldly. Ideas?
-- John Godfrey & Miranda Beale jgodfrey@werple.net.au Macedon, Victoria, Australia 61-54-263025