The Latest Doomed Pedagogical Fad: 21st-Century Skills

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401532_pf.html

Not specifically about math but dead on observations by Jay Mathews in the Washington Post.

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Peyton Wolcott (www.peytonwalcott.com) of Texas is right about schools in America being run by vendors. This is the most disgusting example of all--"No Vendor Left Behind" or "Partnership for 21st Century Skills." There is a need to expose Ken Kay, the founder of the Partnership.
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Charlie Hoff connects the "21st Century Skills Fad" to Federal Way Schools:

Are our Federal Way school board members living under a rock?

At a recent school board meeting, where there doesn’t seem to be any crisis over achievement, even when only one in seven Blacks can pass the 10th grade math test, the board decided to pass a “Resolution” imploring the Legislature to “increase” the state’s funding of education to a level required by the Constitution to be “ample” and to comply with the lawsuit that the district won, known as “Fair Funding” that costs another $ 850 million.

Perhaps the school board, by living under a rock, hasn’t heard that the state was at least $6 billion short of paying the current costs for the next biennium.

The “ample education” that educators seem to be talking about would cost somewhere between $2 and $4 billion to which they petitioned to add “Fair Funding” at a cost of $850 million. The board went on to suggest that “all school boards” should join them in demanding that the taxpayers and Legislature fund education at these levels. No mention was made of what the school districts would do with this money, or how this additional largess would improve the achievement of the children attending these enriched schools. I guess the Legislature and taxpayers are to buy a “pig in a poke.”

Board member Amye Bronson-Doherty then went on to say that “she wanted her children to get ‘21st Century Learning Skills,’ a new buzz word for the educators, instead of the skills of the 1970’s.” As a product of education of the 50’s and a teacher in the 60’s and 70’s, I can assure Amye that most of the kids I meet and tutor aren’t getting the “skills of the 50-70’s.

In fact I would like to suggest that they don’t have the skills of the 17th Century children. While it is conjecture I would like to suggest that many, if not most, of the children in the Federal Way School District would be hard pressed to do Arithmetic with the children on the Mayflower of 1620.

When I was a school administrator, in the late 60’s my responsibilities included attendance at the 13 Amish schools, origins in the late 18th Century, and one Mennonite school in our district. These schools, taught by “uncertified” young unmarried Amish women, were turning out, in one room school houses without lights or running water, kids who were better prepared to calculate a 20% discount than the public school students nearby. No fancy curriculum, no “collaboration,” no “projects,” no “coaches,” or any other recent development for “improving” education.

Why do I think this is true? In both the case of the Mayflower children and Amish children, the adults in their lives have made education a clear priority for their children. Children were, or are, not permitted to diminish the importance of acquiring the skills that are needed to be a responsible adult.

Parents and other members of both of these communities all share the belief that children must prepare themselves for responsible adulthood. The use of some pretty “negative,” by current standards, actions such as “shame” and the “dunking stool” make it pretty clear to children that their society expects, or demands, that they apply themselves to their education. There isn’t any “special education” among Amish children, and I don’t think that it was even thought about in the time of the Mayflower.

Director Tony Moore stated at the Board meeting that this financial crisis was also an “opportunity” for the district to improve the education of our children by adopting different ways of educating children. With 6 out of 7 of our Blacks and 3 out of 4 of our Hispanics not meeting the minimal standards that this state defines it would appear that a different approach is needed, instead of asking the Legislature for the “pig in a poke.” Director Moore also stated that he felt that we could not wait for the Legislature to act to start making changes in our system.

In the early 1900’s Robertson Davies, a noted author wrote, “Education is hard work, not 
play, and its rewards are a seriously informed, wide ranging attitude towards real life, and the beginning of a great adventure." I believe that both the Amish, and the Mayflower passengers would agree with this. In fact there are many adults today who would concur.

More recently “Larry the Cable Guy” is thought to have written, “Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.” I fear that this motto is held in high regard by a very significant portion of our youth, and is not countermanded by the adults in their lives.