Norfolk, Va.--Most people agree that public schools are not as good as they should be.
“There are two possible explanations,” argues education activist Bruce Deitrick Price. “Either the Education Establishment is not qualified to do its job; or these people deliberately set low standards. Shouldn’t we demand more?”
The answer, according to Price, is that ordinary citizens need to be better informed and more involved. We really need a citizen uprising.
“The elite educators,” Price says, “are more interested in social engineering than in education, They’re not likely to fix a crisis they created. Here’s a suggestion: let’s replace them or ignore them.”
So, people might ask, what is the next step?? Simple. Learn more about the main problems, then work to correct them in your local schools.
“Our elite educators,” Price says, “are clever at concocting gnarly little sophistries. But I’ve gotten pretty good at explaining them. I have 150 articles on the net, and 30 videos on YouTube. Give me five minutes and I’ll make you an expert on your favorite education gimmick.”
1) READING: For 70 years the Education Establishment has pushed a flawed method for teaching children to read. The method is known as Whole Word, Sight Words, Dolch Words, et al. “As a consequence of Whole Word,” Price believes, “we now have 50 milion functional illiterates. That’s the crime of the century.” For a short article explaining the defects in Whole Word, see
“Let’s Rescue Reading: Here’s The Plan.” For a short graphic video on YouTube, check out “
Kindergarten Sight Words: Not A Good Idea.” (More titles will show up on the right side of the YouTube page.)
2) ARITHMETIC: The next biggest problem is the teaching of math. The Education Establishment prefers expensive, often incoherent programs collectively known as Reform Math or New New Math. The common denominators are that young children don’t learn the basics; instead they are thoroughly confused by bits and pieces of advanced stuff. (Price’s impression is that private schools and homeschooling parents won’t touch Reform Math, which tells you everything you need to know.) For a good introductory article, see "
36: The Assault On Math."
BAD FADS: Otherwise, education in public schools is a grab bag of gimmicks that are supposed to enhance education but, at the end of the year, end up sabotaging education. Some of the better-known gimmicks are Constructivism, Cooperative Learning, Self-Esteem, Multiculturalism, No Memorization, and several dozen more. For a general indictment of all these fads, see “38: Saving Public Schools.” Learn more about Constructivism by visiting “34: The Con In Constructivism.”
Price has been writing about education for 25 years. He is the founder of Improve-Education.org. His fifth book is: “THE EDUCATION ENIGMA -- What Happened To American Education.”
“The biggest problem we have,” Price argues, “is misinformation. The top educators have overrun the countryside with sophistries and scams. My job is to deconstruct these things, to point out that the emperor has no clothes, so forget about that guy. Focus on the realities in your own community and fix those.”
