From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Thu Aug 29 2002 - 00:32:41 MDT
Mike writes
> Lee Corbin wrote:
> > Yes, but imagine you're a teacher in a school, even where you have
> > a free hand with the curriculum. Unless you're teaching a bright
> > and gifted class, good luck. I predict that you'll find their
> > enthusiasm and interest almost impossible to arouse towards anything
> > you find worthwhile.
>
> I dunno. I can't really say since I don't think I was ever given
> anything interesting to learn in school. I also differ with your idea of
> 'a bright and gifted class'. I was in a gifted program in 7th grade and
> it didn't seem all that different. (except that the 1st quarter of PE
> was formation marching).
Yes, the content taught in gifted classes isn't much different,
but I think that the attitudes of the children are a lot different,
and that makes all the difference. All kids are smart enough to
go with their strengths, their fortes, and by 4th grade a lot of
them have learned that they're not very good at academics. I've
thought that if we could put 30 very competitive but slightly
dumber robots in every class with one real student, that kid
could then acquire a lifetime love of learning.
Consider these quotes from Gatto:
>
> <<David learns to read at age four; Rachel, at age nine: In normal
> development, when both are 13, you can't tell which one learned first
> —the five-year spread means nothing at all. But in school I label Rachel
> "learning disabled" and slow David down a bit, too. For a paycheck, I
> adjust David to depend on me to tell him when to go and stop. He won’t
> outgrow that dependency. I identify Rachel as discount merchandise,
> "special education" fodder. She’ll be locked in her place forever.
And I claim that Rachel would have found out the truth sooner
or later---that next to David, she's an idiot. I didn't learn
that next to some people I'm an idiot until I got to college,
but it looks like she'd learn that sooner. David will probably
have to try getting a doctorate in computer science at MIT
before he finds that he's an idiot compared to some people.
> In 30 years of teaching kids rich and poor I almost never met a learning
> disabled child; hardly ever met a gifted and talented one either. Like
> all school categories, these are sacred myths, created by human
> imagination. They derive from questionable values we never examine
> because they preserve the temple of schooling.>>
> ----http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prologue3.htm
This is so crazy, I don't know where to start. IN 30 years
Gatto never or hardly ever met a gifted kid? Just *where*
did he teach?? In any middle class school district in
California, you'll find at least 1% of the kids who'll just
knock your socks off. I.e., dozens and dozens. And that's
in *one* year.
> I can't find the reference, but somewhere on his site Gatto mentions
> getting inner-city kids excited about *tax forms*. While perhaps as
> libertarians we find the idea of getting excited about tax forms to be
> somewhat disgusting, I think Gatto's intention was to get the kids to
> learn about something that would be real in their own lives. Perhaps
> they had seen a parent struggling over tax forms and figured they might
> help.
>
> I seriously have the idea that kids could be motivated by having them
> teach. Or even prepare curriculum. Just teach two courses: web front-end
> and web back-end. Maybe a third course in personal financial management.
> Make every other subject support these courses. I'm quite serious: get
> the kids involved from the first day of first grade into creating
> curriculum for next year's class. And put it on a web site. Teach 'em
> html even before they can read.
The best thing to do for all those kids is something like you say.
But the reason that it will work is not what you think. The
reason that it will work is that it's *new* and the kids know it.
But five years from now, the kids coming in will hardly be
excited about it. With them... I don't know... I just have
no idea how to keep the truth from them, namely that most of
them aren't very smart.
Lee
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