Quotes are taken from a message written by Dan to Charles on
07/28/96...  
DT>That's too bad.  It would seem to me that such programs that discourage 
DT>the teaching of phonics and spelling are the ones mis-guided.  The 
DT>material I have read (as recently as 1990 in my Master's program 
DT>textbook) and workshops within the last several years paint a different 
DT>picture.  Skills are not emphasized, but they are not eliminated either.
 
From my readings and the limited experience I've had with the program in 
our district (as local union president I've represented teachers being 
pushed into a whole language program they were not ready to accept), it 
appears to me that YOURS is the unusual experience.  But then again, my 
exposure is limited.
At any rate, my posting of this response is largely due to my own 
experience with educational fads that are not soundly based in research. 
 As I came through the college system in the 60's, I learned all of the 
newest "modern math" techniques invented.  Alphabet soup, we called it, 
because each "plan" came from a different university and had a different 
acronym, but all of them espoused the view that we ought to forego 
skills and make math fun.  I have referred to it as the "whole math" 
approach in an article I once wrote for our local union newsletter.
At any rate, we produced a generation of kids who had a great "feel" for 
math, but they couldn't add 2 and 2.  Districts got so paranoid that we 
abandoned that nonsense completely in the late 1970's as another wave of 
"back to basics" hit the school community across the nation.  We even 
gave up on some of the good stuff to come out of the 60's version of the 
new math (NCTM is re-hatching the thing all over again - and again, from 
what I've seen, it is "feel good math" without any firm foundation in 
research).
We're never going to learn until we accept the fact that educating kids 
IS a science and we ought do only those things that work, as verified by 
sound, repeatable research.
At least that's how I see it all.
Chuck
Chuck Beams
Fidonet - 1:2608/70
cbeams@future.dreamscape.com
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* UniQWK #5290* A man is known by the company he avoids.
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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