finally, somebody else says it, too...

[acroyear]

Reading Across the Board:

In order not to leave your child behind, we have to leave your child behind in social studies, science and foreign languages.

I'll [...] focus my attention on something more subtle and pervasively destructive about our education system: the idea that reading is a subject, rather than a skill. This misguided notion leads educators to pull students out of social studies and into a class called reading. Reading shouldn't be a class (at least not past third or fourth grade). It's what you do in your classes.

Good social studies teachers help kids understand what they're reading. That involves helping them find the main idea, identify the support points and understand the background context. These are all critical reading and thinking skills.

I would add to that the loss of science classes and skills being detrimental to mathematics, and by extension, to reading skills.

The "word problem" is the finest expression of reading comprehension, and science is the ultimate word problem, the word problem whose subject is reality itself.  Reading the words, understanding what they're saying to be able to translate them into a mathematical problem, then solving the problem.

Along the way, we could do better with teaching at a younger age other real-life skills that involve extensive reading, comprehension, translation into mathematics, and finally application: doing one's taxes.

Of course, I also firmly believe (and have written before) that we should do better to teach propaganda recognition and baloney detection sooner and more thoroughly.  Even I have been caught at giving the "strawman" before, often when writing more from emotion than analysis (thanks, Rob).

He goes on:

[...] we make our teachers get a degree in a subject called education. Which is funny because they don't end up teaching education to our children. They teach them literature, history, science, math. Our system creates a lot of teachers who are passionate about school but not about the subjects they teach. This isn't just a bias, it's mandated by most states.

Take me, for example. I am a professional writer, I have a master's degree in English and I taught writing at the college level for seven years. But no public school in my state would hire me as an English teacher, because I don't have a degree in education. Instead, they're hiring English teachers who spent a lot of time learning to break essays down into grids and identify topic sentences and then teach writing as if it happened that way.

No wonder so many students write so poorly.

Granted, there's more to education than simply knowing the subject.  Being able to write a test that is fair and comprehensive is important, as it being able to judge homework quantities, having the time and inclination to grade it all, being able to single out students doing poorly without embarrassing them (unless their poor work is intentional), maintaining classroom discipline (is self-defense a requirement now?), and of course, having a good lawyer around when you get hit by the bias or harrasment lawsuit in today's "I'm the victim, feed me" culture.

Ok, there was a little sarcasm in that last paragraph.  :)

Comments

[cozit.livejournal.com]

Actually, he's quite wrong about the schools not interested in hiring him... as long as he's willing to take the education classes needed to certify him ... which he can do *while* teaching.

Some subjects are short teachers, especially at HS level, and some Middle... in fact a former neighbor has been an English teacher in this county (and you *know* how picky HoCo can be) for the last few years... but only certified for the last one or two.

I know that in the school I work at, Reading comes first, then Math when it comes to *most* remedial work. However, reading is worked into Social Studies, Math, Science, English and *all* of the "related arts" classes (yes that includes PE and Home Ec). Math doesn't show up quite as often. There is also often a good deal of overlap with the kids who need reading and math intervention.

But yeah, there are some teachers out there who do need to get a bit more passionate about their subjects. Sometimes it's more a matter of sharing that doesn't happen... the best teachers share something about themselves with their students, even if not everything... at a minimum a "why" they like learning, and what they love about what they actually teach. Unfortunately, many find it hard to share even that much.

*g* And most folks would be very happy to know that I'll *never* teach writing (well, maybe 3-5th as *part* of Language Arts)... or 1st/2nd grade... if I can help it. I do not want to risk scarring any other budding writers with my writing "issues".

Sigh... and sometimes dealing with the parents and what they pile on the kids is one of the hardest parts of all. (current pet peeve, mostly aimed at two sets of parents and one kid from each of those families... I don't know the other kids)

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

depends on the area specifically. some regions have such a glut of teacher applicants, and practice some disgusting levels of age discrimination, that they'll take any "education major" fresh out of school over someone with experience "in the field" yet needing to finish certifications (with the night school requirements they may not have the time nor money for).

my mom gave up trying to get into Fairfax when we first got here. after 2 years as a sub, she instead went into private schools where she's been ever since.

and in it all, the systems continue to *miss* the opportunity to teach what's really there. they teach phys-ed as rules, regulations, and "skills" (meaning every nerd with no arm strength gets a C 'cause at least they can regurgitate the rules...no, I'm not bitter). when they *really* could be using the sports to teach the mathematics of averages and statistics in the kids' own performances. These kids *talk* stats all the time - ask any kid to rate their baseball, football, basketball, or nascar heroes and they'll have no problems spouting out the numbers as if they were the baseball cards themselves. So expound on that: use the PE class to help them understand what it *means* by running the same numbers on their own performances.

such little things, such a change when a wholistic view is used rather than "the subject".

[cozit.livejournal.com]

They do give out generic stats... but run on a computer... at least in our school, to show overall fitness, and where things could be improved or are going great. And one of the units I've seen done has involved sports stats (at least with some of the kids), just not of the students in school.

Unfortunately, that's yet another thing that the math teachers are expected to tie in, but does tend to get ignored, except in an occasional project... or to get the idea of something across... I've used baseball batting averages and horse racing times for percents and decimals for example. (On the bright side, the use of fractions, division and multiplication does come up in cooking... at least for a few of those lessons... and there are specific reading skills that I've seen called for on some of the worksheets/homework that have been done for PE.... likewise, a number of the other teachers will try to tie in other subjects with their own when they can. Varies a bit teacher to teacher.

Nope, far from perfect, but at least there are still many who *try*... even if we're also stuck with some that don't (and if you think teachers are bad, some of the "bad sub stories" that I've heard have been rather... awful... funny sometimes, but generally awful)