A commentary from the late 1990s:
– “The out–of–touch educational establishment has given us a set of Language Arts (English) Standards that make the universally condemned history standards look acceptable by comparison.”
Curriculum Trends
The following two opposing quotes exemplifies the debate in curriculum today. Is school about the teaching of information or is it about creating the model “child of the future?”
“What the revolution has been in curriculum is that we no longer are teaching facts to children…” — Shirley McCune, then Senior Director, Mid-continent Educational Laboratory, speaking at the Governors’s conference in 1989. This quote was transcribed from the conference video. McCune was the Federal Liason, learning and teaching for Washington State until 2008, and played a key role in WASL and curriculum development.
“When will ‘progressive’ educators admit that you can’t learn history, geography, science, etc. in an atmosphere where children are expected to ‘construct’ their own knowledge in little groups and teachers are forbidden to engage in ‘direct instruction’?” –Andrew Wolf, Editor and Publisher, The Riverdale Review, Bronx Press Newsgroup
Imagine an outline for the teaching of American history in which George Washington makes only a fleeting appearance and is never described as our first president.
Revisionist history was already happening in the 1990s. This essay is a shapshot of what was happening over a decade ago.
– “Take a good, hard look at the textbooks your children are bringing home. You may find that the history is not how you remember it.”
May 5, 2001
Caitlin Kirby’s only in Grade 4, but already she has hit the math wall. Sometimes she lays her head down on her math homework and cries. “I´m stupid!” she tells her mother Tressa.
Tressa doesn’t understand Caitlin’s homework either. What she does know is that her daughter hasn´t grasped the fundamentals of arithmetic……..
Wall Street Journal article on “fuzzy math”. June 11, 1997
What’s happened to math? Education Reform article, December 1997
This video was produced by the parent group “Where’s the Math” and features MJ McDermott, Q-13 TV Weather Forecaster. January 15, 2007