Loved it. I am a secondary school teacher at Spain. Our politicians keep pushing these devastating methods, and the worst the kids perform through the years, the deeper they go with this dogmas.
Same in England. Families are willing to move house to get closer to good performer schools. Yet the low performer sticks with their believes and dogmas. Theories over reality and results. Good luck to the west.
My sister left teaching after one year after she was chastised for going over wrong answers after a test...this was years ago. She was told there was no time for review.
In Germany thats a very common thing actually, especially when the testresult wasnt that good. (we also do very often surprise tests, i remember it very well. Monday morning, first lesseon and all the teachers said was: "Everything from the table except a pen and one sheet of paper. We do non annnounced test." its mandatory to ask the kids why question 3 was so hard and why only 7% answered it right, Thats the only way to improve things. imo
I was 7 years old, attended Catholic school, phonics was taught. Weekly trips to library. Top of our classes year one. No bilingual Ed around then. Get rid of it.
My sister, an Episcopal a public school teacher who won a national award for math, she taught kindergarten, sent her children to a Catholic elementary school.
@@bostongirlsandy Bilingual education is not necessary. I suspect its counterproductive really. I have a coworker who immigrated to the US with his family when he was about 13 from Croatia. Didn't speak a word of English. As you might expect in the mid-80s there was no bilingual education given to him, or any of the other students from Europe or Asia that were in his class because good luck finding a teacher who speaks English and Croatian, Vietnamese, Polish, Romanian, etc. In his English language class there were many kids whose first language was Spanish and because of it being the most common non-English language they did receive bilingual education. End of the year which students do you think had the better grasp of English? Those who had Spanish to fall back on when comprehension was challenging, or those who had no choice but to learn English?
You clearly don't know what you're talking about. For foreigners who don't speak English, they need to learn English translations in their native tongues before they become fluent in English. After they are fluent, they can then pursue higher education.
@dorvinion You're wrong. Foreigners, regardless of age and origin, need to learn English in their native tongues to master translations first until they become fluent in English. This is how language learning is supposed to be done. That's how it's done here in Boston Public Schools and Berlitz.
I remember phonics in 2nd grade and how much I hated sitting there making noises to match the words I was seeing. Without Phonics, I could never have won my blue ribbon in spelling, and I would have had to struggle through every book making it a painful chore, rather than the rich delight those who can read possess. I also knew that if I could do it, so could almost anybody.
Because of phonics, I went on to learn Spanish, French, Indonesian, some Farsi and a little Yiddish. Why any other language instruction is used, I'll never understand
It's obvious. Since went liberal in the 1970s, we have regressed yet we are spending more per pupil. Yet we continue in the same path year after year in the face of failure. Because of the power of the teacher's unions.
Thank-you for your content. I've taken up a lot of teaching in the last year and Thomas Sowell is one of the most trustworthy and intelligent voices I want to hear from about education
@@jameswilliamjohnson Amen! I spent way too many hours at K-12 volunteering and ‘such’. (Also says something about my children! LOL) It ultimately paid off but it was tough. Well worth it!!
This hits too close to home. I'm a public school teacher teaching math. Our curriculum and all the supplied learning materials are designed by very smart individuals only for the very smart learners. The ideals of our educational system is far too detached from what is actually happening in the ground. So I embraced reality, went back to basics, had relatively great results, but got condemned incompetent because the way I did it is seen as old-fashioned traditional teaching.
because the way I did it is seen as old-fashioned traditional teaching. I'm sure "old fashioned tradicional" is their nice way of saying, you were teaching too much like the white folk ways of teaching. Can't have that.
The approach that divides students into small groups to "instruct" themselves, with teachers hanging around only to answer an occasional question, also teaches kids to distrust and disrespect adults.
You missed the point. Mindless rejection of self teaching is dogma. It's about doing what works regardless of what. There's schools that get results with self teaching by ignoring dogma and doing what works like the "Wonder" School, a Socratic-based education system in Wichita, Kansas. They focus on the value of learner-driven education in a fight against the origins of the American school system as a means to create obedient factory workers. The results speak for themselves.
Just as we have moved to “evidence based” approach to research in and practice of medicine-we should take the same stringent approach to education. This means not relying on dogma of intellectuals/thinkers in the leadership positions of school districts but should be focused on identifying whatever methods being used in successful school are being used and adapting them-and then studying the results and judging them by student performance. It has to be outcome based and driven by hard data.
Very few true educators and teachers-at-heart run public schools and education departments. Sadly, most public schools, in the U.S. and in Latin America (the regions I'm familiar with), are run by bureaucrats, union leaders, and intellectual weirdos with their own personal agendas. These people have little or no skin in the game, beyond securing their jobs and controlling the resources that flow through the educational system. Lots of these bureaucrats send their own children to private or charter schools; they don't dare to feed their own offspring with the garbage they feed the kids of others.
BRAVO! ..to you Mr. Sowell, and Patreon, and every successful and CARING educator cited. What a wonderful, Parent & Educator enlightening and inspiring essay.
The French Quebecois government always tries to keep the poor English children down and claim to have a right to this because it helps to preserve the Quebecois culture. Long story short, both French and English people in general are suffering, as a result, to this day.
Absolutely true. I taught Physics ,. I had one year, not the lifetimes of Galileo, Newton and Faraday. I taught hard until the last four weeks and did the group discovery stuff after the students had some background to draw from.
I’m 42 and terror that I would feel being sent to my dads place of work for misbehaving would be enough. I like the idea as someone that didn’t excel in English, I was put in the regular classes and continued to struggle as half the time the teachers were busy disciplining the trouble makers and didn’t learn much in class. The other advanced classes I bearly needed to do any studying as class was enough.
The teachers who used the "conventional" methods - failed. The teachers who succeeded - used unconventional methods. And the people upstairs - condemned the successful teachers for using unconventional methods.
It's such a shame how political the educational system has become. They want to push CRT, yet half their students can't read or write! It's a damn shame.
the only job of a teacher is to teach the student to find the answer to any question they have on their own. The rest is consequential. Basics are just that, basic. Only one way to learn the basics. The basic way.
The public school systems obviously don't have any intention of teaching the basics. They'd rather tell them to hate each other and make pretty posters about it. 🙄
One more argument (if any are needed) AGAINST compulsory attendance laws (a captive audience) and tax funding (separating funding from results). Separating school and state, anybody?
Even though Finland has a public school system, it has a very free market trait: it's very decentralized (extremely decentralized). Schools there are leaded by towns or very small regions. As such they choose the school principal for example, who has a lot of freedom to organize as he chooses. Some schools will want to specialize in chess education or more musical education, and they will compete for attracting the maximum amount of students as they can. The more students, the more money they receive from governtment. Also, in Finland there's some national test _i think_ to become a teacher, but schools have a LOT of freedom to pick the teachers they want. To be a teacher there is a very competitive and continuous-formation process, they are tested a lot. A system that awards and reinforces good teachers will tend to succeed, a good teacher can make the difference. The interesting thing here is that Public systems tend to be Centralized, and Finland is the _rara abyss_ where the opposite happens: A public system with the incentive of a capitalist system (decentralization and competition) 😉.
If you go to one public school in Finland it's exactly the same as being in any other public school. They make sure regardless of where you live do you have access to the same quality education.
Finlands success is based on having excellent teachers. They are recruited from top students and their motivations are examened before entering teachers college. Teachers have very high status in society in few non teachers would dare to questioning how teachers do their job, which is one reasons why teachers job are so popular. Of course there are progressives in Finland working on destroying the worlds best school system
I have thought for 35 years. 80% of my time is spent in compliance and other BS. 20% preparing and teaching. If we would let our highly qualified teachers do what they know is right - what they know works- and then leave them alone, we will win!
I went to the highschool that was failing until the current principal came. I didn't know how bad the conditions were just a few years before I enrolled. By that time everything was taken seriously. If I was bullied there, I know the bullies would face consequences, unlike my bullies did in my elementary school. The rules were strict, but reasonable. No wasting time with dress code, unlike so many other schools. We just knew that we were to walk on the right side of the hallways, be quiet during the class and not to play in the labs. Our results were quite good. Most of us went to college. And also, the principal behind the school's success had problems with the higher-ups who wanted to replace him with someone more inclined with the vision the minister of education had. Year after I graduated, the highschool was proclaimed to be the best one in the country. I wonder why.
Also. It’s not just the educating elites at colleges and certification boards. Often times these dogmas are dictated by legislators who have absolutely no experience or training in education.
The Educational system is a massive money machine, coupled with political agenda, Top down education by design to conform.Controll the education system and you have political controll.
As always thank you for the clarity and information. We need all Americans to help the country with effort to make well being for all of us. Knowledge and ability that society needs does not happen automatically, takes hard work as this video shows. I am ok but worry about the grandchild's society.
Do you know about the Basic School, also called Benjamin Franklin School, in Mesa Arizona. In the early 1980's it became a Charter School before anyone had coined the label, Charter School.
@Douglas Farshtey Not necessarily. Teachers already spend long hours differentiating their instruction to better "engage" unruly kids. I, as a teacher, would rather have involved parents contacting me at 7pm than deal with a sh*tshow from only 8-4.
I struggled with spelling in the 1960s due to me being poor Scottish,teachers said spell it how you say it🤷not to bad at spelling today once I learned proper English.but am sure I have a touch of dyslexia as mental mathematics is hard for me,maybe some blks are the same or do they test for this?may I add could not read very well either,maybe if one can read their spelling and Grammer improves as well.i speed read now ,spelling I get by😀
I have no issue with students learning other languages. I think it's great. Studied French myself for 6 years and loved it(although I learned more in 6 months at college by interacting with a friend and his Parisian ami, but that's besides the point). I have a big issue with regular classes being taught in another language. What is the point of living in another country if you're not going to speak the local dialect? I know if I moved to Mexico, I would be learning Spanish ASAP, and wouldn't dare impose MY standards on the native population. If the kids can't speak English at all? Simple.. that's all you're studying until you can keep up. Period. It's amazing how fast humans can adjust when compelled to for their own benefit. The greatest folly we have made in our society is adjusting too far to alleviate stress on children, instead of challenging them to embrace it and become a more understanding, capable, thicker skinned human who can interact with others through the constant compromise that makes our societies possible. In other words.. stop coddling our kids..
Counterpoint - language immersion programs are amazing. The rule though has to be that the language in the immersion program is not student's first language. Putting a Spanish speaking child into a Spanish immersion program will not benefit the child. One of my co-workers who immigrated with his parents from Croatia to the US basically had an 'English immersion' program when he entered US schools at around 5th grade. He spoke only Croatian and was put in a special class with other students whose first language was not English. The students whose first language was Spanish had a crutch. Whenever Spanish speaking students were confused about something in English the teachers would switch to Spanish which slowed their progress. The students whose first language was Croatian, Romanian, Russian, Polish, etc had no choice but to learn to read, write, and speak English. End of the school year almost every non-Spanish speaking student was more effective in speaking English than the students whose first language was Spanish.
Being taught a good curriculum and being able to weed out disruptive students is a good start to a successful education. Ultimately it comes down to freeing students from the shackles of government indoctrination centers known as public schools. School funding should be split up among parents using a voucher system that allows parents to enroll their children at their school of choice. Failing schools will ultimately be run out of business. Successful schools will work hard because competition is around the corner.
The question that doesn't seem to be answered - were the results of schools within the lower 3rd percentile actually failing, or was that the intention?
When will people make the connection between "it's illegal to teach slaves to read" and "let's destroy the education system for black kids, and then all kids" If you can't read, it's dramatically harder to learn anything.
No human student can be taught. The student may only be presented the subject or behavior in such a manner and environment that the student may learn the subject or behavior. Dang, it's exactly how domestic animals are taught. The method requires compassion and understanding of the student's background and earlier education as some of the earlier education may need to be corrected for forward progress. Education is not science.
Nothing like a dogmatic "expert" to insist the masses follow their theories exactly with no regard to what the results prove. The falacy of top down direction.
that's why the USA needs to be dismantled and separated into tribes, races, and nation-states or city-states where local needs, methods, and goals can be implemented and achieved according to the wishes and requirements of the citizens living there.....their desires would presumably be quite distinct and unique from other races and groups living 1500 miles away in different environments, climates, and with different resources and opportunities.....................the USA functions under a "One Size Fits All" cultural model welded in place by the constitution where any differences among social customs and mores are said to be 'unconstitutional' and vigorously suppressed using very harsh methods.
I would rather have my kids learn through. Interactive software which is unbiased politically and very rigorous and Stem based. Everyone knows a great teacher, but on average they are pretty mediocre in the U.S. why should everyone take exactly 12 years to earn a high school diploma? Software would give everyone the same high quality exposure to education. Of course, everyone will not have the same outcome due to, varying intelligence, work effort, etc.
Oh how I long for old fashioned teaching and discipline. My son would benefit greatly. But these teachers are really really bad and cannot even be bothered to give memos to student that are grammatically correct. Setting an example is no longer important in education and yes a lot of talk and theory but it is me who is ftrying to fill huge gaps in his education. And these teachers are fragile and get upset when, once in a while, I email them how I see these things. But then they will say that my tone is not good. I am like my tone? It is about the substance in my email and you obviously do no want to get into that. My education was better, and I got mine in an ex colony country where schools had no big funds no fancy buildings etc. But they actually taught. My sona generation later in a rich EU country gets a great school building, plenty of impressive material stuff. Just no real education. Sowell should have been a global dictator.
Why does Thomas Sowell keep implying phonics is better than the whole-language approach? I understand how people can think phonics works for consistent languages such as Spanish or Finnish or Croatian (though I do not think it does), but I fail to see how it could possibly work for English.
It's not perfect but compared to the newer methods used by public schools it's the Gold Standard. Since they dropped phonics EVERY group's test scores dropped whether they're native english speakers or not.
