Could we possibly all make an attempt to leave hyperbole, unproven
aspersions, and unhelpful insults aimed at those with whom you disagree out
of future posts to the best of our abilities? I know I've dabbled in that,
too, but it really just serves to cloud the discussions with unnecessary
emotionality and defensiveness.
Now that that's out of the way...
I think the idea that people learn in different ways is nearly self-evident,
an effective teaching practice, and has not been utilized as uniformly or
religiously as Mr. Swift and Atherton would have us believe. My mother is a
teacher in the St. Paul public school system, and uses these ideas to good
effect in the classroom. She is one of few teachers who subscribes to and
practices the theory, and (perhaps coincidentally) is one of the better
teachers in her school.
Pamela is not supporting the theory of multiple learning styles in order to
keep parents on the outside. When I read her post, I see it as an
expression of hope for a more personal teaching/learning paradigm. A fairly
dramatic shift from attempting to put round-children into square-hole
curricula towards flexibility of teaching methods.
We wouldn't necessarily add to bureaucracy by training teachers to be more
flexible to their students.
And as to "avoiding accountability through measurable means." When I read
this, I read "standardized testing." I have little faith in the efficacy of
testing, and disagree that we should make our decisions about schools based
solely or mostly on their data. Testing proves one thing beyond a doubt:
the student's ability to take that particular test. Unfortunately for this
system, there are plenty of intelligent students who grasp the content and
know how to learn who just don't test well. My sister is among them.
To expect a teacher to be fluent in one type of learning and familiar with
others is not some pie-in-the-sky notion, and not worth the pejorative cry
of "expertism." I think we could all agree that a math teacher should be
fluent in the mathematical type of learner, and that a music teacher should
be fluent in musical learning. But what of the art kid in the math class?
And the math kid in music? The metro Arts high has, I understand, come up
with fairly inventive and effective methods for teaching geometry to
students who do not learn mathematically. And the best sort of music
teacher knows how to discuss music in its mathematical components-beats,
steps, intervals-for the benefit of those who don't just "feel it."
One last point. Part of learning is teaching one's mind to be flexible. To
process information in different ways, to give oneself a toolkit of
different methods for solving intellectual problems. Kids need to learn at
least a basic proficiency in most if not all of the forms of learning to be
truly successful in and out of school. Should we expect less of their
teachers? And why does the suggestion that the system and curriculum meet
kids halfway meet with such resistance? It is, after all, easier to change
an object's velocity in a non-destructive way when one works to match it
than when one hits it at sixty miles per hour.
Robin Garwood
Marcy Holmes
P.S. Perhaps this breaks my own no-more-hyperbole rule, but I really
haven't read more uses of the word "liberal" as a harshly pejorative term
since the Reagan era than I have on this listserve over the past week.
Makes me wonder if this is the same
1. Keeping "expert consultants" in business.
2. Keeping parents on the defensive by creating the
illusion that the education of their children is a
highly scientific endeavor that is best left
unquestioned by amateurs.
3. Contributing to the increasingly cryptoclastic
bureaucracy that the schools have become.
4. Avoiding accountability through measurable means.
Personally, when confronted with such nonsense, I take
it that the speaker believes it is a miracle members
of the target audience manage to get their shoes on
the right foot every day.
TJSWIFT
Saint Paul
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