Warriors Against the Core, make no mistake, I am not a fan of MORE student-led education as a solution to the problems in American education. I believe that teachers make much more difference in education than the CCSS Machine has reduced them to.
Student-led school makes as much sense as putting them in charge of making dinner when they’re 6 months old.
Teachers are NOT meant to be relegated to merely being a warm body in a room. That’s totally NOT why these ladies and gentlemen became interested in education, it’s not why they went to college, or became massively in debt to earn those teaching degrees.
Warriors, evidence has proven that the target of the CCSS Machine’s design on modern classrooms is ‘more student, less teacher’. It certainly gains momentum with guru-like quotes similar to the one you see in the screen shot. (“Less Us, More Them”)
We have teachers for a purpose. It isn’t to baby-sit, it isn’t to watch his/her students glued to a computer. It’s to lead them! It’s to lead them well. It’s to show other humans how to not only gain information, but to help shape them. Reducing a teacher’s role to what ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) is, is flat out criminal.
Telling a teacher that due to Common Core (or whatever label is slapped on it) he/she MUST do this or that is wrong.
Warriors, I’m sure you seen a shift in teaching responsibilities before ESSA’s passage. I know I have.
In fact, I recently shared with you the definitions about learning in the ESSA Era. It’s where teacher AND student are considered in the same context! While this might be okay in some educational settings, an across-the-board, one-way-to-educate-everyone is a landmine waiting to be stepped upon!
Modern day education reform has re-assigned the control in the classroom. What is going to happen when things go awry? We’ve seen time and time again how the CCSS Machine has turned both teachers and students into guinea pigs, will be let them experiment even more in 2017-18’s school year?!
By putting the kids in charge of education, it shifts the burden of responsibility. It changes ‘accountability’. It can set them up to fall flat on their faces. It also will cause a much more conducive platform for the Delphi move of a nanny state school and its control.
Another dangerous mindset we can connect to the CCSS Machine’s urging of having kids as teachers, is the rhetoric connected to education: ‘Let ’em fail, it’ll teach ’em better than I can.’ “Failing means grit; grit is good for them, especially when they are young.” This type of thinking and actions are quite frankly, hard-hearted!
‘Rigor and grit’ do not speak to a student who is scared, who has NO earthly idea what is expected of them, or when they are having a bad day. A computer cannot hug a student or give a ‘high five’ a child. Likewise, setting them up to fail on purpose is mean-spirited.
It’s like tying their shoe strings together and then laughing when they fall. Or, the CCSS Machine’s passive-aggressive style of ‘Is that the best you can do? You should try harder!’
Warriors, I’m not suggesting to baby every student at every age, but certainly, we must have guidance and leadership that is centered on how to educate in many different ways.
See how this may translate in a picture version, below:
Source to Mosston and Ashworth’s Spectrum can be found here. I’d like to point out that they very clearly state that ‘variety’ is the spice in teaching.
CCSS Machine’s idea of ‘teaching’ with variety is there is almost NONE! Has this changed since ESSA? Not much!
This is what ‘rigor’ is designed for. It’s failing us every day, in every State, and at every age level.
A visual for ESSA ‘teaching’:
The Source to see the ‘hamster wheel’ for yourselves is here.
After all, if we’re being honest, thanks to ESSA, WIOA, HEA, federal and state legislation, and the CCSS Machine, computers and digital have BECOME the TEACHERS!
So Who Was Seymour Papert?
If you looked at the featured screen shot (‘less us/more them’), you probably saw the name “Seymour Papert”.
Seymour was considered a great ‘technology-before-its-time’ kind of professor.
Seymour was teaching/leading at MIT (which by the way is a huge CCSS Machine member). He was credited with predicting kids and computers as the learning method of the future way before most folks. (*Note: the “21st Century Learning” page provided at the bottom of the highlighted link is broken. However, I was able to find this, instead. Warriors, you should ‘love’ the global learning/leadership tag.)
Back in 1995, C-Span broadcast an Education and Technology hearing. Seymour Papert was a witness. The entire video is over 2 hours, but I urge you to listen. Note who was attending the hearing, who was speaking then. Listen to the tones about the excitement for this advance in education. Source
After MIT, Seymour landed in Maine. This article (2000) reveals how his ‘technology education’ activism can be tied to (then) Gov. Angus King. King is now a Senator for Maine. Is King supportive of more technology in the classrooms? (In the 2000 article, you’ll see how he wanted a computer given to every 7th grader.) In 2017, is his support still there? Absolutely! (*Many State leaders are convinced a computer for every student is a marker of successful education.)
Do these leaders understand (completely) what this is REALLY doing to our teachers? I do not believe they do.
In 2015, (then) President Obama signed the “Computer Science for All” Initiative. Seymour was said to be a ‘father of CS (Computer Science)’ in this resource:
Seymour died in 2016. His MIT obituary is lionizing, to say the least. I only include this because the Professor’s work proves his thinking about children and the way they learn was altered in Switzerland by a philosopher and psychologist Jean Piaget. Seymour was credited with leading the revolution for technology in 3 distinct areas: a) children, b) AI (artificial intelligence, which is also replacing teachers), and c) education via technology.
(*Note: Piaget was a co-director for UNESCO as well as an honorary Harvard doctorate recipient. As you know, both Harvard and UNESCO are CCSS Machine members.) PBS’s “A Science Odyssey” ended their Piaget article with this quote:
| “Piaget is widely recognized as the greatest developmental psychologist of the century. His ideas have been refined and added to, but they remain the foundation of child psychology.” |
Seymour’s “Legacy” Lives On:
So, we’ve seen a distinct shift in education, Warriors. We’ve seen a distinct disrespect for teachers in our nation. While switching our students ‘on’ to computer learning, putting them in charge of said learning, we’re actually turning them ‘off’ to adults and the leadership they can provide.
We’re also seeing the adult’s authority (in appropriate measures and settings) become less and less. Why? All the ‘self-direction’. History has proven (and will continue to) how far a person gets when the education they thought they worked hard for wasn’t ‘real education’ at all.
Technology is a poor substitute for human interaction.
So, how is Seymour’s ‘legacy’ about kids and computers living on? A couple of ways:
STEM and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math; Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Math). We also can find Seymour-ish leaders, like the ones at Vision, Education, and Media (VEM)
Warriors, as we know, STEM is a farce as part of education. No, STEM is more about a trained workforce. So is STEAM. The evidence has been given countless times here on my blog. (*Note: the highlighted link is only one such set of documented facts.)
KQED published a short article explaining Seymour’s beliefs about ‘child’s play’ earlier this year.
Warriors, the highlighted “Computer Science for All” link also will show you how Seymour’s ‘legacy’ is living on and will continue to be seen in the 2017-18 school year.
Closing:
Earlier this year, I shared with you how the global AI (Artificial Intelligence) was taking over American education. It certainly will render human teachers as ‘obsolete’, thanks to federal law.
So, how is it surviving beyond the law? Followers of the UNESCO global ed push, most certainly. Fans of Seymour and the others like him, will also carry technology on.
However, also look to groups like the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers). They, my fellow Warriors, are a huge root into why our teachers are in the plight they’re in AND our students are learning less and less, every day in every State.
Lastly, ‘personalized learning’ is a huge educratic term for justifying the shift from teacher-central learning to ‘self-directed’. Every day, every State, my Warrior friends.
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