DeAnneEducation Site Calls for “Teacher Liberation Front”
March 26th 2008 14:24
"An Open Letter to The Teachers of America" argues that the elite educators (people with PhD's) are mired in tired old ideologies; they won't change. Teachers should demand that schools do what is best for students and society generally.
(OPENPRESS) March 21, 2008 -- More power to teachers, that’s the radical cry from ed site Improve-Education.org.
A provocative new article urges teachers to remember that their first loyalty is to children and parents, not the elite educators who control the system.
Education writer Bruce Deitrick Price says: “More and more I think that if American education is to be rescued, teachers will have to do it. The bosses at the top tend to be slaves to ideology; they’re stuck in the past. Unfortunately, teachers often allow themselves to be co-opted and managed by these elite educators with their secret agenda. Here is a better paradigm: teachers should distance themselves from the education commissars, and focus on what is genuinely best for children.”
Price has just published a full statement of this thesis, with the title “Teacher Liberation Front” on Improve-Education.org. It’s a must-read for teachers who always suspected that they're caught up in a huge con, but don’t know how to escape.
Price explains the genesis of the article: “I just read an excellent new book, ‘The Great Reading Disaster,’ by two remarkable British teachers with more than 80 years of experience between them. These teachers analyze education in the UK during the past 50 years, and reach this ominous conclusion: ‘The real villains were not the victimized teachers who carried out the intellectual child abuse but the training establishments that brainwashed them into doing so.’”
Victimized teachers. Brainwashed teachers. Price wonders how many American teachers will recognize themselves in that quote? Indeed, how many teachers have always known that they were being manipulated and managed in a variety of ways, and sent forth to do the ideological bidding of their trainers?
By way of historical background, Price notes that John Dewey, our preeminent educator, laid out precisely this program a century ago: indoctrinate teachers at the ed schools, and then return them to towns everywhere to indoctrinate the young. The sinister trademark of Dewey’s schemes is that they would be implemented in secrecy, without the permission of teachers, students, or citizens. Educators would be unseen chess masters; teachers would be their pawns. Secrecy has led to arrogance and malfeasance. Truth is, more and more people are figuring out that our educational failures can’t all be accidental. Some of these disasters must be happening because the people at the top are grossly incompetent or actually subversive.
“Teachers still enjoy considerable prestige,” Price feels, “because most people sense that teachers, in addition to having good intentions, simply don’t possess the authority to do the damage that rogue educators have been capable of. This is a country with 50,000,000 functional illiterates. Think about that! How could this possibly happen in a country which spends more and more on education every year? This country also has more than a million dyslexics. How could that happen? Additionally, Americans are increasingly ignorant of even the most basic information. A recent government report concluded: our society and economic well-being are in jeopardy because the public schools are so bad! Who allows this to happen?”
So, Price concludes, it’s a good time for teachers to pull back from the smothering embrace of educators. Teachers should turn toward doing what is best for their own minds, their own souls. As the Carnegie Foundation stated: “Teachers must think for themselves if they are to help others think for themselves.”
Price recommends: “Teachers need to be liberated from their oppressors. We need to see some new political alignments. Teachers should join, at least in their hearts, a Teacher Liberation Front. Power to the teachers! Do you know what the most revolutionary thing a teacher can do is? Teach more! Teach kids to read, really read. That means no more Whole Word, Sight Words, Balanced Literacy and rest of that fakery. (Synthetic phonics, please.) Teach them to do math. That means no more TERC, Everyday Math, Connected Math and the rest of those impostors. (Saxon Math and Singapore Math actually do the job.) And teach lots and lots of facts and dates and information and theories and inventions and knowledge. Oh yes, lots and lots of knowledge. This will drive educators absolutely nuts.”
The new article closes with an epilogue headed: EDUCATOR LIBERATION FRONT. Here’s a part of what Price says: “I hope the old ideologues will get out of the way, and let younger, more humanitarian educators do what is best for students and society. When that happens, here are the questions you’ll hear around the faculty lounge: Why are we so invested in dumb anyway? What do we really have against facts and knowledge? Why are we always increasing illiteracy? Why are we so upset if children reach their potential? What’s the big deal about hating America all the time? Welcome to Educator Liberation Front.”
Teacher Liberation Front is #31 on Improve-Education.org. This site, Price adds, “seeks to be everyone’s command central for raising the education bar in this country. Please use the site; and please tell parents about the site. It’s now up to 50,000 intellectually stimulating words."
(OPENPRESS) March 21, 2008 -- More power to teachers, that’s the radical cry from ed site Improve-Education.org.
A provocative new article urges teachers to remember that their first loyalty is to children and parents, not the elite educators who control the system.
Education writer Bruce Deitrick Price says: “More and more I think that if American education is to be rescued, teachers will have to do it. The bosses at the top tend to be slaves to ideology; they’re stuck in the past. Unfortunately, teachers often allow themselves to be co-opted and managed by these elite educators with their secret agenda. Here is a better paradigm: teachers should distance themselves from the education commissars, and focus on what is genuinely best for children.”
Price has just published a full statement of this thesis, with the title “Teacher Liberation Front” on Improve-Education.org. It’s a must-read for teachers who always suspected that they're caught up in a huge con, but don’t know how to escape.
Price explains the genesis of the article: “I just read an excellent new book, ‘The Great Reading Disaster,’ by two remarkable British teachers with more than 80 years of experience between them. These teachers analyze education in the UK during the past 50 years, and reach this ominous conclusion: ‘The real villains were not the victimized teachers who carried out the intellectual child abuse but the training establishments that brainwashed them into doing so.’”
Victimized teachers. Brainwashed teachers. Price wonders how many American teachers will recognize themselves in that quote? Indeed, how many teachers have always known that they were being manipulated and managed in a variety of ways, and sent forth to do the ideological bidding of their trainers?
By way of historical background, Price notes that John Dewey, our preeminent educator, laid out precisely this program a century ago: indoctrinate teachers at the ed schools, and then return them to towns everywhere to indoctrinate the young. The sinister trademark of Dewey’s schemes is that they would be implemented in secrecy, without the permission of teachers, students, or citizens. Educators would be unseen chess masters; teachers would be their pawns. Secrecy has led to arrogance and malfeasance. Truth is, more and more people are figuring out that our educational failures can’t all be accidental. Some of these disasters must be happening because the people at the top are grossly incompetent or actually subversive.
“Teachers still enjoy considerable prestige,” Price feels, “because most people sense that teachers, in addition to having good intentions, simply don’t possess the authority to do the damage that rogue educators have been capable of. This is a country with 50,000,000 functional illiterates. Think about that! How could this possibly happen in a country which spends more and more on education every year? This country also has more than a million dyslexics. How could that happen? Additionally, Americans are increasingly ignorant of even the most basic information. A recent government report concluded: our society and economic well-being are in jeopardy because the public schools are so bad! Who allows this to happen?”
So, Price concludes, it’s a good time for teachers to pull back from the smothering embrace of educators. Teachers should turn toward doing what is best for their own minds, their own souls. As the Carnegie Foundation stated: “Teachers must think for themselves if they are to help others think for themselves.”
Price recommends: “Teachers need to be liberated from their oppressors. We need to see some new political alignments. Teachers should join, at least in their hearts, a Teacher Liberation Front. Power to the teachers! Do you know what the most revolutionary thing a teacher can do is? Teach more! Teach kids to read, really read. That means no more Whole Word, Sight Words, Balanced Literacy and rest of that fakery. (Synthetic phonics, please.) Teach them to do math. That means no more TERC, Everyday Math, Connected Math and the rest of those impostors. (Saxon Math and Singapore Math actually do the job.) And teach lots and lots of facts and dates and information and theories and inventions and knowledge. Oh yes, lots and lots of knowledge. This will drive educators absolutely nuts.”
The new article closes with an epilogue headed: EDUCATOR LIBERATION FRONT. Here’s a part of what Price says: “I hope the old ideologues will get out of the way, and let younger, more humanitarian educators do what is best for students and society. When that happens, here are the questions you’ll hear around the faculty lounge: Why are we so invested in dumb anyway? What do we really have against facts and knowledge? Why are we always increasing illiteracy? Why are we so upset if children reach their potential? What’s the big deal about hating America all the time? Welcome to Educator Liberation Front.”
Teacher Liberation Front is #31 on Improve-Education.org. This site, Price adds, “seeks to be everyone’s command central for raising the education bar in this country. Please use the site; and please tell parents about the site. It’s now up to 50,000 intellectually stimulating words."
| 51 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Subscribe to this blog
