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A smart, fast, fun thriller for most readers.#AI, #artificial intelligence, #computers, #coding, #Turing test , #machine intelligence, #Elon Musk, #intrigue    #suspense

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Memo to K-12: Teach kids to read in FIRST GRADE or get out of education. That’s the “Marva Collins Challenge”

Truth is, we have tens of millions of people who could claim to read in some sense. But they can't reach the important threshold that so many of us take for granted: reading for pleasure.

Lucy Calkins has been the queen of reading for the last 25 years. Her bad prescriptions were merely echoing the bad prescriptions of Professors Frank Smith and Ken Goodman, and before them the literacy pretenders who introduced Whole Word in the 1930s.

Here’s what all the false prophets taught: English is read by memorizing thousands of sight-words. As that is hugely difficult for most children, they should follow other clues: use context; consider initial letters; guess; skip ahead, consider picture clues. This nonsense almost guarantees illiteracy. 

Balanced Literacy is now jargon for try-anything-maybe-you’ll-get-lucky.

During most of the time Lucy was preaching her fake theory, I was writing articles saying hey, this is obviously bad theory. I enjoy thinking I made a small contribution to her ideas being rejected by Columbia University and Teachers College. 

(Here's some background: "Episode 118: Reading Rescued" -- https://letsfixeducation.buzzsprout.com/1792553/13712120-episode-118-reading-rescued-thanks-to-lucy-calkins-oct-4-2023 )

The knowledge was always there for anybody who cared to listen. Rudolf Flesch wrote his famous book in 1955 explaining that sight-words are the reason Why Johnny Can't Read.

More recently, Marva Collins, who operated her own school in Chicago, stated: Most children can learn to read in first grade!

My message to the slackers of education: if you can't do what Marva did, you should retire.

English is a phonetic language and must be taught with phonetics, i.e. phonics. It's a vast language with nearly 1,000,000 words but only someone with a photographic memory can memorize even 500 sight-words. Literacy rates have dropped continuously since the imposition of sight-words. That’s all you need to know to reject sight-words.

Here is Marva Collins in her book Marva Collins’ Way: “Children as young as 3-1/2 to 4 years of age, are admitted to my school at the beginning of every school year in September.

I guarantee that they will all be reading by Christmas, three months later. That has been the results since I started my school in 1975.”

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Here's where we are now. If you search the terms balanced literacy, science of reading and similar, you will find a shocking array of conflicting opinions about how to teach reading. I doubt there has ever been such chaos in the Education Establishment.

I suspect one of the things the professors learned from almost a century of promoting bad ideas is that you don't need to win every argument, or enforce every opinion. You only need to inject a bad habit or two in every student. They will be damaged and literacy will continue to decline. I believe that is the goal.

So all the confusion is not necessarily a weakness. People don't realize where each kid is being damaged the most. So a lot of bad instruction will continue in plain sight.

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If you are hoping that sight-words do work, see this video. Only seven minutes and you'll know the horror.

“How Dolch Words Cause Illiteracy and Dyslexia”

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CODA: We need to get the whole country involved at a little higher level.  That's how we get the reform we need. See Episode 118 on Let's Fix Education

 .https://www.buzzsprout.com/1792553/episodes/13791258

#sightwords  #phonics   #illiteracy   #communism       #agitprop #dyslexia   #knowledge   #teachers  #literature  #books  #academicsuccess #dumbingdown  #ignorance    #K12  #literary #dolchwords

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My work in education boiled down to a few words.

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Photo at right shows saccades, the places where your eyes touch down, so to speak. This shows how the eyes grapple with any unknown object – a house, art, a face, or a sight-word. Each saccade takes a bit of time. Add up each of those movements and you might be talking about four seconds or six seconds or eight seconds to recognize an unfamiliar face.

 If the brain needs that long to read a word, you will have very slow reading indeed. With phonics, the eyes hit on each syllable, a relatively much faster operation. Saccades explain why we have had a crisis in reading for 75 years. This insight is explained here: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/06/massive_k12_reading_failure_explained.html

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https://www.rightsidenews.com/life-and-science/health-and-education/the-legend-of-john-saxon-math-warrior/

The Legend of John Saxon, Math Warrior

Warning, this article contains superlatives and extreme statements. How should we teach the young? I believe everyone should be passionate about the answers. The country’s fate depends on it.

Over the years I often heard the name John Saxon but knew for sure only that his books were popular among homeschoolers. I was under the impression that he wrote his books for them. Not true. He wrote his books for every kid stuck in a classroom.

I’ve just finished “John Saxon’s Story: a genius of common sense in math education,” an excellent biography by Nakonia Hayes. It is a smart, judicious book with 340 pages. It is not a potboiler, not really a page-turner. But it tells the life story of a totally remarkable man. I think it’s correct to say that John Saxon is the greatest American educator of the last hundred years. He is unique in our history. If you want to understand the wreck that is American public education, read this book. If you are a teacher or parent hoping to defeat the treachery in the school system, read this book.·

John Saxon–almost by accident, in a second career following 27 distinguished years in the Air Force–became a millionaire as writer and publisher. His books and his methods were that good.

Oh, how the Education Establishment hated him for this. If the playing field had been level, I assure you Saxon would have been a billionaire. He would be to education and publishing what Steve Jobs is to computer.

Read article-

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https://www.rightsidenews.com/life-and-science/health-and-education/the-legend-of-john-saxon-math-warrior/

The Legend of John Saxon, Math Warrior

Warning, this article contains superlatives and extreme statements. How should we teach the young? I believe everyone should be passionate about the answers. The country’s fate depends on it.

Over the years I often heard the name John Saxon but knew for sure only that his books were popular among homeschoolers. I was under the impression that he wrote his books for them. Not true. He wrote his books for every kid stuck in a classroom.

I’ve just finished “John Saxon’s Story: a genius of common sense in math education,” an excellent biography by Nakonia Hayes. It is a smart, judicious book with 340 pages. It is not a potboiler, not really a page-turner. But it tells the life story of a totally remarkable man. I think it’s correct to say that John Saxon is the greatest American educator of the last hundred years. He is unique in our history. If you want to understand the wreck that is American public education, read this book. If you are a teacher or parent hoping to defeat the treachery in the school system, read this book.·

John Saxon–almost by accident, in a second career following 27 distinguished years in the Air Force–became a millionaire as writer and publisher. His books and his methods were that good.

Oh, how the Education Establishment hated him for this. If the playing field had been level, I assure you Saxon would have been a billionaire. He would be to education and publishing what Steve Jobs is to computer.

Read article-

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WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY: the case for Phonics in a few minutes

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K-12 Has Sad Parallels with Venezuela

Socialism destroys-- countries such as Venezuela and institutions such as American public education. Authorities are so obsessed with gaining and keeping control that they hardly have any concern left over for what were once the official goals. 

Article explains what happened to Venezuela (not accidentally but on purpose) and what happened to our public schools (not accidentally but on purpose). The problem is Socialists. In simple terms, they tend to be control freaks. If they are in control of your life, they are happy because they think that’s the way the world should be. 

If you are running your own life, they are very unhappy because you have shut them out of their proper activity.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/07/k12_parallels_with_venezuela.html

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Here's how we save the public schools. Two ways--

1) Students, you can fight back. You should fight back.

 Students, take responsibility for your own education. Never assume that your school has your best interests at heart. There are a lot of big things going on, ideologically and politically, that are not primarily concerned with you. But there are libraries everywhere. There are bookstores everywhere. The Internet surrounds us with a million sources of information. You don't have to put up with a mediocre education. The following article expands on those basic points. Please pass it on any students you know:

http://www.examiner.com/article/memo-to-public-school-students-fight-back?cid=db_articles

2) Public school teachers should take a stand….

 Equally important, teachers should assume responsibility for their schools. Teachers should feel more loyalty to students and parents than to the Education Establishment. The following article explains that point:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Public-School-Teachers-Should-Take-a-Stand&id=8201189

The point is, the people in charge are not doing a good job. So it's up to everyone else to get involved. Especially parents, students, teachers, community leaders, and so on.

 The counter-culture, 30 of 40 years ago, always said: "Fight the power. Fight the system." Those injunctions have never been more appropriate than in our conflict with the Education Establishment. 

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Another discussion in my newspaper about how much teachers are paid. Apparently, it's never enough.

 I think this debate about how much teachers are paid is a distraction, and probably a con. I knocked off a response on the newspaper's website, which pretty well says everything I've got to say so here it is:

---

LOOK AT WHAT THE REAL GOALS ARE

Submitted by Bruce D Price, Va. Beach, VA on Thu, 12/26/2013 at 3:06 pm.

Here is another way of looking at it. You could pay all the teachers $200,000 per year, and you would still have the same mediocre results as long as you have this same failed theories and methods infecting the schools.

The public assumes that people in education are automatically interested in education. Not true! The people at the very top, the ones I call the Education Establishment, are far more interested in social engineering. (They are socialists, and have been since the time of John Dewey.)

They don't care if kids know where Virginia is on a map. The goal is that all kids should be more or less the same, and have the same politically correct opinions about everything.

Our Education Establishment has two tricks: one, use any excuse to eliminate as much academic content as possible; two, teach what content is left in an incoherent and irrational way. You see this throughout public education. They devised Whole Word precisely because children don't learn to read this way. They devised New Math and Reform Math precisely because kids won't learn arithmetic. They push Constructivism precisely because it keeps kids from learning general knowledge. ETC.

I tell the Virginian- Pilot, the Chamber of Commerce, WHRO, and everybody else that they have a duty to explain these things. If the powers that be won't do it, then please use twitter to check on my new articles: @educatt

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The Legend of John Saxon, Math Warrior

Warning, this article contains superlatives and extreme statements. How should we teach the young? I believe everyone should be passionate about the answers. The country’s fate depends on it.

Over the years I often heard the name John Saxon but knew for sure only that his books were popular among homeschoolers. I was under the impression that he wrote his books for them. Not true. He wrote his books for every kid stuck in a classroom.

I've just finished “John Saxon’s Story: a genius of common sense in math education,” an excellent biography by Nakonia Hayes. It is a smart, judicious book with 340 pages. It is not a potboiler, not really a page-turner. But it tells the life story of a totally remarkable man. I think it’s correct to say that John Saxon is the greatest American educator of the last hundred years. He is unique in our history. If you want to understand the wreck that is American public education, read this book. If you are a teacher or parent hoping to defeat the treachery in the school system, read this book.·

John Saxon--almost by accident, in a second career following 27 distinguished years in the Air Force--became a millionaire as writer and publisher. His books and his methods were that good.

Oh, how the Education Establishment hated him for this. If the playing field had been level, I assure you Saxon would have been a billionaire. He would be to education and publishing what Steve Jobs is to computer.

Read article-

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Jay Leno should be acknowledged as this country's greatest educator. Improve-Education.org has twice declared him "Educator of the Year."

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Education Establishment Prefers To Teach Ignorance

(SUMMARY: Despite massive spending, the US has mediocre schools. Why? More crucially, why does the public put up with the dumbing-down that these schools exhibit? With examples from Jay Leno--see video above.)

--------------------------------------------------

The Washington Post recently reported: “SAT reading scores for graduating high school seniors this year reached the lowest point in nearly four decades.” 

As reading goes, so goes education generally.

Let me sum this up: Americans get dumber ever year in every subject. People do not know even the simple stuff. You don’t need SAT scores to tell you this. Every time Jay Leno goes Jaywalking, he chronicles our steady decline.

See 35 examples below, collected from the many startling and hilarious videos on YouTube.

Bottom line, when you read in the media that our top-level educators are deeply concerned with Learning, Achievement, Higher-Level Thinking, Critical Thinking, Cognitive Skills, and other high-sounding phrases, the proper reaction is: Bull. These people are good at only one thing; making sure their students are not well informed. Given the choice between teaching something and teaching nothing, our Education Establishment has a perverse love for nothing.

Here is my conclusion: Americans don't know very much for the obvious reason that public schools refuse to teach very much. Yes, they refuse. When you look at the Jaywalking videos and assess the sort of EASY, low-level knowledge that people do not know, you can reach only one conclusion: our Education Establishment is hostile to education as this term was once understood? That hostility is killing us. Take care of the basic skills and basic knowledge, and everything else will fall into place. Unfortunately, our Education Establishment has spent decades building a fact-free school. Kids are kept busy all day but they are not expected to learn a lot.)

As you read the following typical examples, note two fascinating aspects. First, many people haven’t learned much. Second, they will confidently throw out any little facts they do know. When was the Civil War? How about 1932? Educated people know what they don't know; these people do not. Apparently, they've been trained to GUESS at everything. Reading, math, history, geography--there are no solid facts, only a mush one reaches into, hoping to get lucky. But don't blame these people. Blame bad public schools created by an ideology-driven Education Establishment.”

“Who was president during the First World War?”

“Eisenhower.”

“When did Columbus discover America?”

“1842”

“What separates your inner ear from your outer ear?”

“Your brain.”

“The seven land masses on Earth are called what?”

“A lake?”

“People who live in Appalachia are from what country?”

“Sweden.”

“Who did we get our independence from?”

“Thomas Jefferson.”

“When was the Depression?”

“Late 1800s.”

“Guantanamo Bay is in what country?”

“I wanna say Asia.”

“How many stars on the flag?”

“32.”

“Where is the Alamo?”

“London?”

“Who was the first First Lady?”

“Carol?”

“Blessed are the meek for they shall...?”

“Eat.”

“How long ago did Jesus live?”

“Two hundred and fifty million years.”

“How many justices on the Supreme Court?” 

A young attorney: “Twelve...Nine?...Twelve?”

“Who were Lewis and Clark?”

“Superman and...?”

“How about Bush 41?”

“Is it a drink?”

“When was Pearl Harbor?”

“It was...like 1967...The Chinese people invaded America.”

“Who said ‘Give me liberty or give me death’?”

“Bonaparte.”

“Whose face is on the one dollar bill?”

“Somebody famous.”

“Who warned that the British were coming?”

“The Confederates.”

“What two animals are the symbols of the stock market?”

“The snake and the mouse.”

“Who elects Congress?”

“The President.”

“What country did we fight in the American Revolutionary War?”

“France.”

“Who was Neil Armstrong?”

“The first American to walk on the moon.”

“How long ago was Jesus born?”

“I’d say four hundred years.”

“In what month do we vote for presidents?”

“October?...September?”

“Who wrote our national anthem?”

A history teacher: “Somebody B. Scott.” 

“If you’re Parisian, what nationality are you?”

“You live in Peru.”

“What year was Independence Day?” 

“July 4th, 1864.”

“Where do they speak Gaelic?”

“San Francisco.”

“Egypt is located on what continent?”

“South America.”

“What two sides fought in the American Civil War?”

“Germany.”

“What is the name of our national anthem?” 

“I pledge allegiance to the flag...”

“Who landed at Plymouth Rock?”

“The Mayflower, the Pinto and the Santa Maria.”

Thomas Jefferson said we can be free or ignorant, not both. So we are plainly in a perilous state. I think it’s easy to see that our Education Establishment has been very ingenious at coming up with techniques for watering-down and dumbing-down. The part I can’t figure out is why do Americans put up with this malfeasance? Why doesn’t the Republican Party make education a BIG issue? Why doesn’t every local election turn on who will improve the schools? Why don’t military and business leaders put loud and relentless pressure on the schools to do a better job? Why doesn’t every newspaper in the country raise a ruckus about dumb schools? (Newspapers need readers. Where is it written that newspapers have to conspire in their own destruction?) Why aren’t people yelling: we’re mad as hell and we won’t take it anymore? Meanwhile, the Education Establishment goes blandly on, playing undertaker to American civilization. If these people were as good at teaching as they are at non-teaching, we would have a new Golden Age.

(For a quick statement of the problems, see “56: Top 10 Worst Ideas in Education” on Improve-Education.org.) 

.

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Ed World...Better ed. Better schools. Better world.

The theme of all my writing about education is that our public schools could be much better. The stats, studies and anecdotes are relentlessly depressing. Our Education Establishment seems to be on drugs.

 Here's where the discussion gets interesting. Why can't the people in charge of public education do a better job? They read in the morning papers that they are doing a lousy job; but they just keep right on doing a lousy job.

So, they're hopelessly incompetent? They're perpetually subversive? Or they are lost in ivory tower abstractions?

Problem is, I don't see any improvement. I don't see any signs that these people are willing to learn from their mistakes. So what are we going to do?

Ideally, all the top people get tired of doing a bad job and quit. Bill Gates gives everyone a golden parachute. Hurray. And we bring in fresh new talent that really believes in knowledge-based education.

If the elite educators won't quit, seems to me the best plan (this is what I'm trying to do) is to explain to people why the schools are bad. Namely, they are full of flawed ideas and counterproductive methods. Now, once people understand this and they can look at a method and say, what nonsense, then we'll see progress.

I have more than 60 articles on my main site (Improve-Education.org), and another 200 articles on other sites. At this point, if someone Googles Bruce Price and any ed topics of interest, a page of articles will probably come up. (I'm trying to spread a wide net, which is how I ended up writing a test-post here.)

I should explain that I don't write about vouchers, charter schools and political issues. My forte is explaining why sight-words don't work, what constructivism is, etc. Figuring out sophistries is a hobby.

That's what our Education Establishment does best-- they design dense and difficult sophistries. It might sound silly to you but I really did puzzle over "constructivism" almost a year before I could finally figure out what this neologism means. It ain't pretty.