The Unaddressed Problem The Unaddressed Problem

Marion Brady

Race To The Top:Race To The Top:

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"For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, clean, and wrong."                                                          --H. L. Mencken

National standards for education are certain to have unintended consequences.  This presentation is intended to encourage discussion of one of those consequences.

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members of Congress,members of Congress, state governors,state governors, the conservative Business the conservative Business

Roundtable,Roundtable, the liberal Center for American the liberal Center for American

Progress,Progress, most of the general public—most of the general public—

—thinks there should be national standards and tests for math, history, science, and other school subjects.

Almost everyone—Almost everyone—

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About the only people opposed to subject-matter standards and tests are experienced educators.

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• Suffering from “the soft bigotry of low expectations”?

• Resisting being held accountable?• Locked into union agendas?• Afraid of change?

Why are experienced educators opposed to national standards?

Are they:

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Educators (at least the thoughtful ones) don’t oppose standards. They oppose poor standards. Neither do they oppose tests. They oppose poor tests.

No, no, no, and no.No, no, no, and no.

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And thoughtful educators know that standards keyed to school subjects, and standardized tests keyed to those standards, are inherently poor.

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The subjects that make up what’s usually called “the core curriculum” were adopted in 1893. It’s not unreasonable to ask if a 19th Century curriculum is equal to 21st Century challenges.

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What, exactly, is the job the What, exactly, is the job the curriculum is supposed to curriculum is supposed to DODO? ?

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It’s supposed to help learners It’s supposed to help learners make more sensemake more sense – more – more sense of life, of themselves, sense of life, of themselves, each other, the world.each other, the world.

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It’s the quality of their sense making that determines how successful learners are likely to be in building life, liberty, and happiness.

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Is the curriculum doing a good job of improving the young’s sense-making ability?

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You decide.You decide.

Try a reality check. Try a reality check.

Ask yourself how well the Ask yourself how well the core curriculum prepared core curriculum prepared you to make sense of, you to make sense of, say, buying a pair of say, buying a pair of socks.socks.

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We want a pair of socks. Those available have been knitted in a third world country.

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Power to run the knitting machines is supplied by burning fossil fuels.

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Burning fossil fuels contributes to global warming.

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Global warming alters weather patterns.

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Altered weather patterns trigger environmental catastrophes.

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Environmental catastrophes destroy infrastructure.

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Money spent for infrastructure replacement isn’t available for health care.

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Declines in the quality of health care affect mortality rates.

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Mortality is a matter of life and death.

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Buying socks, then, is a matter of life and death.

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Buying a pair of socks is simple. Ordinary. Routine.

But making sense of it (which is what education is supposed to help us do) turns out to require, at the very least, some understanding of marketing, physics, chemistry, meteorology, economics, engineering, psychology, sociology, political science, anthropology…

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…andand it requires an understanding of the relationships between these fields of knowledge.

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Making sense of experience requires the seamless weaving together of knowledge. Much present schooling doesn’t do that. It:

(a) fails to link together what’s taught (or links it superficially), and

(b) ignores a lot of real-world knowledge that sense-making requires.

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““The division into subjects and periods The division into subjects and periods encourages a segmented rather than an encourages a segmented rather than an integrated view of knowledge. Consequently, integrated view of knowledge. Consequently, what students are asked to relate to in what students are asked to relate to in schooling becomes increasingly artificial, cut off schooling becomes increasingly artificial, cut off from the human experiences subject matter is from the human experiences subject matter is supposed to reflect.” supposed to reflect.”

John Goodlad, A Place Called School, McGraw-Hill, 1984, p.266

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“From a very early age, we are taught to break apart problems, to fragment the world. This apparently makes complex tasks and subjects more manageable, but we pay a hidden, enormous price. We can no longer see the consequences of our actions; we lose our intrinsic sense of connection to a larger whole.”

Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline, Currency Doubleday 1990, p.3

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““We do not believe that the road to a coherent We do not believe that the road to a coherent education can be constructed from a set of education can be constructed from a set of required subjects or academic disciplines.” required subjects or academic disciplines.”

Project On Redefining the Meaning and Purpose of Baccalaureate Degrees, 1985

Think “jigsaw Think “jigsaw puzzle.” It’s the wholepuzzle.” It’s the whole—the picture on the —the picture on the lid of the box—that lid of the box—that makes sense of the makes sense of the individual pieces.individual pieces.

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The 1893 curriculum… The 1893 curriculum… …fails to help learners grasp the holistic, systemically integrated nature of knowledge.

(As might be expected from a curriculum designed in another era, it suffers from a laundry list of other problems.)

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Here’s the Here’s the goodgood news: news:

Problems with the fragmented nature of the Problems with the fragmented nature of the 1893 curriculum can be solved. The 1893 curriculum can be solved. The curricular potential of World War II-developed curricular potential of World War II-developed systems theory hasn’t begun to be explored. systems theory hasn’t begun to be explored. Neither have recent insights into how the Neither have recent insights into how the brain organizes knowledge.*brain organizes knowledge.*

*See end of *See end of presentation.presentation.

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Here’s the Here’s the badbad news: news:

Failure to help learners understand the integrated, mutually supportive nature of school subjects is only one of many, many problems with the traditional curriculum.

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This is why thoughtful, experienced educators oppose subject-matter-based national standards.

Standards that freeze in place a curriculum—even a very good one (which the present one is not)—make significant innovation impossible.

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To encourage dialog, this presentation is offered free of charge, and may be used, duplicated and distributed in its original form without permission of the authors. Excerpts must follow fair use rules, with proper credits.

*An example of a curriculum free of the problems summarized earlier can be accessed at:

http://www.marionbrady.com

It’s available without cost.

Copyright © 2009 by Marion Brady and Howard Brady.

Marion Brady4285 North Indian River DriveCocoa, Florida 32927Email: mbrady22@cfl.rr.com