I now believe that aliens exist. And I believe that these shriveled-looking, green/gray, big-eyed, long-fingered creatures are a more advanced life form than we are. So, how do I know this? Read on….
I have been in the education field for 10 years. Many of my colleagues have been there much longer than I have and have seen many more changes than I. Generally, they say, the pendulum seems to swing back and forth, with this year’s “new idea” being something that they saw 15 or 20 years ago.
Progress is a given. Well, I guess it is usually progress. Let’s say that change is a given. We see our world speeding toward ever more technology. We have smartphones, smart TVs, computers that recognize our fingerprints and our voices, and technology that does everything for us—and therefore must be smarter than we are.
There have been many changes in education lately. Many. Now, I went to school quite a while ago. And while I live and teach in California, I was educated in Massachusetts. I feel that I got a good education. I think we might call the educations we got back then “classical educations,” which was a good thing—back then. We knew things: facts, formulas. We could recite the Gettysburg Address and maybe a poem or two. We read classics. We were graded on our handwriting. And our spelling. And our grammar. And we knew about the explorers and the parts of the United States Government.
Enough reminiscing….let’s talk about what is happening now. Please note that I am not commenting on whether or not I like what is happening. I think some of the changes are good. Perhaps what I dislike most is what is being dropped, not what is being added. And, contrary to the intention, which is to make curriculum more rigorous, I think it is actually being dumbed down. And I guess, why not? Computers will be doing almost everything for us. So, our job is only to create the technology that can do these things for us. Who needs the Gettysburg Address?
So, let’s see…what is changing in the schools?
1. Cursive is out. Although seven or eight states have voted to keep it in the curriculum, cursive writing is not mentioned in the new standards. It is not a “21st century skill.” And where it is left in the curriculum, it is taught in elementary school for a year or two, and then left. Cursive really needs to be practiced. SO? Well, research indicates that the process of cursive writing is good for brain development—better than either printing or typing. Cursive is also faster than printing, should your computer (God forbid) run out of steam or crash. Cursive is also a beautiful art. Back in the day, we learned printing, typing, and cursive. Now, students apparently cannot handle all three. Dumbing down?
2. Memorization is out. Math teachers agree that it is crucial for students to memorize the multiplication tables, although there has been talk of getting rid of that skill too. We have calculators! Forget memorizing any poems or historical documents—or the spelling of words. Facts? Who needs them? The standards concentrate on critical thinking. I personally think you need some background information to think critically, not to mention the writing and speaking skills (that seem to be currently lacking) to express those thoughts. SO: I hope that my surgeon has memorized which bone is which, and which medications are for which diseases, and what other medications they interact with. I hope my dentist knows which tooth is which. I don’t want to watch a Shakespearean play in which the characters have trouble memorizing their lines. I don’t want to see a lawyer who hasn’t memorized some aspects of the law. And it is nice to be able to recite a famous poem or quote—just to feel educated. I asked my students to memorize something. Many of them were overwhelmed. They didn’t even bother to try. Dumbing down?
3. Grammar is out. Diagramming sentences? Too difficult and who needs it, anyway? Parts of speech? Phooey! The standards say that students should know how to write using complex sentences and that they should know how to use clauses and correct punctuation. However, it doesn’t really say how and when they should learn any of these things. At least in the grade I teach. SO: People who actually grew up diagramming sentences know their grammar. Today’s students don’t. Both colleges and companies complain that writing well is a huge issue. I taught a group of accountants who said that about 90 percent of their jobs consist of writing! Diagramming sentences? Spelling correctly? Too difficult. Dumbing down.
4. STEM. This acronym stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. No, there is no A for art, and the E doesn’t stand for English. This is the push in education today because this is where the jobs are: creating technology that can do the other stuff for us. SO: All the great ideas in the world are meaningless if you can’t express them understandably in writing and speaking. Besides, someone has to know spelling and grammar to program all these technological devices that are going to do it all for us. Writing? Too difficult. Dumbing down.
5. The SAT is being changed. In 2006 the Scholastic Aptitude Test, generally a requirement for applying to colleges and thought to be a predictor of college success, added a writing test to the math and English language bubble sections. Now, it is 2014 and the writing section is being “optional.” The scoring of the test is back to 1600 (800 for math and 800 for verbal) and the writing, if done, will be graded separately. Why is the writing not required? Who knows? I guess we don’t need writing. Bubbling is so much easier. This is a bit unusual because in the public schools K-12, bubbling is being removed in favor of short answers and essays on the standardized tests. Of course, a computer is going to score these essays. How? Who knows? In some of this writing, spelling and grammar won’t count, anyway. In addition, guessing on the SAT used to be penalized. No more. Guess all those bubbles and you might just get a good score—perhaps the answer is always C, after all! Oh, and the vocabulary is being simplified….no more of those big words you never use. Actually, I see those words used all the times in books. Oh, what’s a book? Dumbed down.
Oddly enough, I also read yesterday that the ACT, another college entrance exam, is becoming more popular than the SAT, which strikes me as odd, since two weeks ago I read that the ACT was being discontinued.
Now what does this all have to do with aliens? I thought you would never ask!
Look at the picture of the alien:
Gigantic eyes: We will be needing those eyes to stare at the computer screen all day doing our 21st century jobs, which will consist of developing newer and better technology to do everything else for us, giving us time to continue creating new technology. These big eyes will not get eyestrain from staring at a screen all day.
Long fingers: We don’t need them to write, so we don’t need five of them, with fingers that can grasp a pencil. These long fingers fit well around a mouse and can really work a keyboard!
Big head: I am not sure it is a big head so much as a small and shrunken body. Muscle wasting from no activity. Sitting in a chair all day in front of a screen won’t do much for your physique. You won’t really need anything more than eyes and fingers, anyway.
Greenish/gray color: Sun? What sun? You’d look greenish gray if you never got outside in the sun either! Your shrunken legs and body wouldn’t have the strength to get you outside, anyway. And there’s always Facebook if you need to see your friends.
So…that is the alien in your future!
The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite. —Thomas Sowel
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SO, GET AWAY FROM THE SCREEN AFTER 2-HOUR WATCHING IT AND RELAX.
Will do!
Love it
Thanks!
I wholeheartedly agree. And guess what, I believe the disease is worldwide. We keep teaching and using cursive writing here, but that’s about it. The problem is we need to be more and more qualified, even for the simplest job. Except that when one can’t, one can’t. So we need to find the few things some can be good at in order to give them a diploma. Dumbing down? Most certainly. And on the other side, life becomes more complicated. In the not so old days, you pressed a button to take a picture, nowadays, you need to master all the options in the menu in order to take a good picture. To place a phone call, you dialled! Now…
Who are the people who decide? Aren’t they educated? Do they regret being educated? They should know that if you ignore the past, history, you’re bound to live it again. We learn from our past. Erasing the past makes us weak and vulnerable.
I could go on and on but I think it’s hopeless. We are so few aware of the risks. I keep trying, encouraging my students to read, learn and be curious. Knowledge is fun, knowledge is freedom.
As usual, good job, Arlene, thanks.
Thans,Agnes!Appreciate your wise words!
1. Cursive is a great exercise to develop small muscle skills and coordination. It may not have much use in the 21st century, but there are tons and tons of historic materials that would become meaningless without the skill to READ cursive. As for me, I was lousy at cursive — even with my dear dad forcing me to practice and practice. My cursive was completely ruined by the 4 years of drafting (another dead end skill) I took in high school. In drafting class, all “lettering” was done as ‘hand lettered” writing. My actual handwriting then evolved into a strange mix of sort-a cursive and sort-a lettering. Strangely, I eventually shared a secretary with a boss whose handwriting was nearly the same as mine (much the confusion of the secretary). Admittedly, these days I type nearly everything longer than a ‘to do” list or a grocery list.
2. Memorization is vital to daily life. While it is certainly true that most facts can be checked by a quick Google Search, you do, often, need some idea of what you’re looking for. I attended a Lutheran-run school, grades 1-8, and by 3rd grade we were required to memorize a bible verse each day. (Longer, more difficult ones on weekends.) We also had to memorize things like the Gettysburg Address and other historical things (including dates, places, and names). Some fifty years after graduating from high school, I still use the multiplication table almost daily. (Each trip to the grocery store usually provides opportunities to compare prices and products and their sizes.)
3. I never much appreciated diagraming sentences, a practice that was introduced in either 3rd or 4th grade at my school. However, understanding how words operate in various combinations is essential to creating meaning. One example of German vs. English grammar makes the point: In German (literal translation): Throw the cow over the fence some hay. — In English the German grammar results in a nonsense description. English grammar: Throw some hay over the fence for the Cow. WIthout an understanding of grammar, you can’t know which sentence is correct nor would you ever be certain what someone else meant if they used backward grammar for a concept. As for the 21st century, it’s important to note that programming LANGUAGES have grammar and syntax to follow. So, if someone hopes for a career in the science and technology area, they’ll likely need to know something about programming — and with no experience in grammar, the may not be able to parse meaning out of programming source code.
4. STEM is very important. Too many schools focus on skills that are not relevant to living life or getting a future job. However, to be effective at STEM fields, one needs a basic skill set that includes the ability to coherently communicate about their work. Most scientists must publish their research findings and they need to be able to express how they arrived at the results they’re reporting. Schools also seem to focus too much on getting graduates (at the primary and secondary levels) into college. Meanwhile, they ignore “the trades.” Large numbers of college graduates work at jobs that do not need college-level workers — or can’t find “real” jobs, so they work as a barista in a coffee shop. At the same time, thousands of jobs remain unfilled for plumbers, welders, mechanics, and so on, because there is no effort to give students the base skill sets that would qualify them for apprentice level positions in those fields that involve working with their hands.
5. I saw the article about the SAT being changed. I have mixed feelings on this one. The SAT was supposed to show that a student was ready for college level work by having the learning tools ready for taking on more intellectually challenging tasks. These days, large numbers of students arrive at college without the necessary writing or math skills. (Remedial courses abound.) In part, I can understand this, as my high school converted to “new math” when I entered 10th grade. I graduated with only the barest grasp of algebra — but a 6-week summer session at the local college, taught using traditional methods (drill and memorize) made me sufficiently conversant to handle the college level courses I had to take for my major.
The SAT is problematical. Short essay writing was added a few years ago — meanwhile, it’s widely acknowledged that a significant portion of high school graduates are unable to write a coherent essay. So, is it really worth the time and effort to write these little essays — without time or resources to research the topic (can’t really have Google available during a test). And once written, a human evaluator will have to assign a score — can that truly be maintained in an objective way? And is it practical to hire evaluators for this short term job? I suspect that the whole essay thing turned out to be nothing but a hassle — and in the end would not provide real value to the college student selection process.
SAT vs. ACT. This is one of those competitive situations. SAT has been predominant for very long time — but it may be time for a competitor to challenge the status quo. In the end, competition will be better for both students and testing companies. I note that SAT is now offering online “help” to assist in training students at the skills necessary to take the test. This has upset the third party SAT training courses that are not supposed to make any difference — but have shown that they do improve test-taker’s scores.
Dumbed down? Yes, indeed, much of the totality of the education system, from Kindergarten through university final exams have been dumbed down. Grade inflation is rampant at all levels. Comparing curricula from today’s schools to those of 50 and 100 years ago would show a massive “dumbing down” across the board. Indeed, when my father was in the California legislature, hearings were held about the lowered standards, and the poor results of the school system (at a time when California schools were considered (on average) to be in the top ten in the U.S. In committee hearings, he was showing off McGuffey readers and comparing them to “Dick and Jane” — the then current standard early reading materials. I guess it’s only gotten worse. (And yes, Dad brought those McGuffey readers home — and I read ’em. They were a lot more interesting than “See Jane run.”)
Pete – Your eloquent and knowledgable comments are always appreciated!