Ed Schools. The Primordial Soup of Fads, Fraud, and Folly
If It Quacks Like a Duck, It's Probably Baloney. A compilation of nutty notions that infect progressivist-doiminated schools of education and, through constant repetition, turn bright and well-meaning ed students into imbeciles.
Ed School Cults. Ed schools dominated by "progressives" have many of the features of cults. This helps to explain how these ed schools create and sustain a collective delusional thought world that is impervious to change in the face of scientific research and common sense.
Ed School Pageants. There is a continual round of conferences and workshops, revised mission statements, new courses, new degree programs, and well-crafted yearly reports that promise social justice and life-long learning for everyone. These are the most proficient activivities in progressive-dominated ed schools. They are the mask that hides the fact that their ed students graduate not knowing the logic of learning, how to evaluate curriculum materials such as textbooks, how to design instruction for all phases of learning (acquisition of new knowledge, generalization to new examples, fluent use of knowledge, integration of knowledge, and retention of knowledge), and exactly how to teach.
Constructivism. Constructivism is a "pedagogy" (theory of education) from which most "progressive" education fads and frauds derive: whole language, fuzzy math, discovery learning, teachers as "guides on the side," portfolio assessment. Constructivism is nonsense that fits well in a postmodern world where so many persons feel oppressed by such quaint notions as Truth, Evidence, Logic, Proof, Body of Knowledge, Wrong.
Brain-based (in contrast to liver-based) learning. Also, ice is cold. And you thought that the really important thing was to teach in a way that is consistent with the logical operations involved in learning. The human being compares and contrasts examples (e.g., of how to solve 2-digit multiplication problems); identifies the common steps; makes a generalization ("To solve this kind of problem, do steps 1-8.")'; and applies the generalized sequence to new examples. But you'd be wrong! You have to teach with the structure and processes of brain tissue in mind. Of course, you can't actually SEE your students' brains, and the only brains that have been studied are those of the rats Icky, Micky, Sticky, and Mel. But that's okay. Make all teachers change how they teach everything so that you can be a big shot. So stupid!
Learning styles. A concept about as robust as a wet sock. Come up with a lame idea and a set of tests and teaching materials, and the glands of the ever-eager-to-be-told-what-to-think start squirting, and in no time, the latest infection has spread across the county, and from state departments of public instruction down to teachers' lesson plans. With ed schools installing the bilge in the minds of their students. But describe exactly how the "learning mechanism" (Engelmann and Carnine. Theory of instruction, 1991) uses inductive reasoning to extract "ideas" (knowledge---concepts, rules, cognitive routines) from examples, and then uses deductive reasoning to apply knowledge to new examples, and no one cares. "Well, THAT doesn't make my glands squirt at ALL! Booorrrring." And the drum beat----dumb dumb see dumb-dumb---goes on and on and on.....
The Laziest People on Earth. University perfessers? Nooooooo.
Waking Dream. Another take on the notion that progressivist-dominated schools create and sustain a shared delusion system.
"We Don't CARE About Data." Project Follow Through was the largest and longest education evaluation ever. Over 100,000 children were involved. It turned out that Direct Instruction produced the highest achievement in reading, math, spelling, and the highest self-esteem--in contrast to the progressive education models pitted against DI. Result? Until states adopted accountability standards and No Child Left Behind became law (and results began to matter), DI was shunned, rejected, and demonized by the ed establishment. Why? In part because DI basically says, "Teaching kids well is not a big mystery. We already know exactly how to do it--efficiently and inexpensively." If the ed establishment bought that, they would be out of business in a week. All their fads and flapdoodle would be obvious to everyone.
Edubabble. You can't expect a field to produce effective curricula and teaching methods, and to conduct credible evaluations of itself, when its members speak as if they were demented. Can you?
Project Follow Through, and the Knaves, Rascals, and Eaters of Broken Meats. This epistle reveals the combination of duncitude, arrogance, and ideology that characterize the "mental" processes and bizarre decision-making of quacks in Edland. They go to great and perverse lengths to ensure that educationally correct (progressive) methods are used despite evidence that they do not work.
Reason, Madness, Flapdoodle. This paper reveals that the intellectual squalor that infests public education is NOT because ed perfessers read too little or are a bit biased in their thinking. No. The reason is that progressive educators--who dominate the field--are simply not real smart.
Talking Heads. How progressivist-dominated ed schools refuse to change.
Ed School Mission Statements. Stupid AND Nauseating.
The Halls of WakaWaka. The infantilization of ed students.
More From the Halls of WakaWaka.
Stupidity Innoculation. A letter to ed students
A Letter to Future School Admninistrators.
A letter to Ed Students. Another letter to ed students