Chicago-izing America’s public schools
Arne Duncan. Barack Obama. The Annenberg challenge:
E.M. Zanotti connects the dots.
I’ll add one more dot: University of Chicago Everyday Math. It’s the favored curriculum of Arne Duncan’s schools. It’s the corruption of math education in America, as I’ve reported to you many times over the last year.
This crap math is a good proxy for the quality of the rest of the academic diet.
Arne + Obama + Annenberg + Everyday Math = Same old, same old.
***
Did anyone else watch the ed secretary announcement? Obama let Joe Biden out of his cage for a few minutes. Gritted his teeth the whole time as Biden rambled on about his relatives who worked as teachers.
Disappointingly, no gaffes from erratic Joe.
Just a matter of time…
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Ahhh, yes. Everyday Math. I was given that piece of crap curriculum to teach and I let it sit up on top of the shelf. For those that don’t know, it’s a “spiraling” program where concepts are not mastered before moving on to something else. There’s no rhyme or reason to the spiraling and they say “oh don’t worry, those skills will come back around!” I put that crap away and made my own curriculum and the administration never bothered me because my students made the highest Math scores in the school.
For those that do not know, all schools that are designated as Title I schools (those with a majority of “disadvantaged” students) must choose curricula that are “research-based”. Let me tell you, they ALL stink! Let’s connect the dots — liberal university created curricula that are supposedly “research-based” must be used in all schools where students are classified as “disadvantaged”. It’s no wonder that it will take a miracle to stop students from being indoctrinated in that liberal crap.
It is not necessary to actually know anything. As long as you have your self-esteem, you have everything.
Screw public schools, either home school or send them to private schools where the leftist, socialist agenda can’t poison your child’s mind.
The appointment of Arne Duncan further proves that instead of abandoning failed social experiments, the Obama administration is doubling-down and going national.
The basic definition of what it is to be democrat
That’s fine if you want them to grow up to be a congressman
If public schooling had to compete for money- like the big 3 auto manufacturers, they would be in the same boat- failing.
Competition is the only answer to improving our schools and the children they have let down for years.
It will get better if we’d just invest more money into our education system. I just know it! Who’s with me? Anybody got change for a fiver?
Gee, I wonder why our best jobs are going offshore? I guess if you need a bridge engineered so that it doesn’t fall down and kill people, then affirmative action and “Everyday Physics” just won’t do.
LGM approved schooling.
Just selecting Joe Biden as VP is a gaffe in itself. Don’t despair.
He was appointed because the Chicago school district is doing so well? This appointment is a joke.
She can guarentee a 50 percent drop out rate.
I do believe in Miracles, teachem!
An educated electorate is not the goal. A social strata of mush-minded sychophants is.
*sigh*
I’m an engineer. I learned math the “old fashioned way” and I think the “Everyday Math” concept is silly.
However, since I am engineer, I know the value of getting in SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) when dealing with things you have no clue about. So, I talked to my wife who is an educator and toils down in the trenches with these things. She likes it. She thinks it has advantages over the traditional methods.
While a lot of our problems exist due to government interference (Guess what, some children ARE going to be left behind. It’s the law of averages.) and union interference, how many problems exist because we’re not listening to the “troops on the ground?”
Just saying…
Arne spoke about enticing the best folks into teaching and giving teachers more resources. Nothing about accountability, or weeding out the bad teachers. No surprise, but if its not the child’s fault for failing, whose fault is it? If best teachers are indeed the most critical factor in education, what are we to do with the dunces?
Looked like WMAQ’s Mary Ann Ahern asking a question referencing Obama’s kids in private school. I predict we will see Obama taking questions less and less often as time goes on. The bloom is off the rose.
Now there is a unique qualification. Talk about cronyism. This is Chicago politics moving to DC.
BE VERY, VERY SCARED!
I live in northern Illinois, and it’s not a pretty sight.
Doesn’t Chicago have the highest drop out rate in the country ? Don’t they have test scores way below the national average ?
I guess if they dumb down the masses it makes it easier to assume control.
When I became an Illinois Math Teacher back in 1973, Eastern Illinois produced 200 math teacher every year. Now they produce a half dozen.
The reality is that MOST Math Teachers in Illinois know little or nothing about Math.
Great, the guys a failure, just like Ayers.
Barack Obama + William Ayers = Arne Duncan. Time to pack up the kids and head for the hills.
We don’t have to know anything, because our diversity is our strength, not our wisdom, intelligence, knowledge, or ability.
As an alumni of U of Chicago, the place that is credited as spawning such a horrible idea as “Everyday Math,” I feel I must apologize to the public at large. I must assure you that the *actual* U of C is not responsible for this abomination of educational philosophy. It comes out of a bunch of “community organizers” and the U of C lab school, as well as some former employees of our now-dissolved “education” department (the lab school is a K-12 school “associated” with the U of C and located on our campus; however, they are not actually part of the U of C any more than Hunter Academy is part of Hunter College. The lab school exists because the faculty at U of C would NEVER EVER send their children to the public schools in Kenwood and Hyde Park, never mind Ingleside, because they fear for their physical safety. I myself wouldn’t hang around the public schools in that area without having a SWAT squad for a protection escort; but that’s another story.
OK folks. Can we here a big YES for home schooling again please.
jd #24, our education system may be the reason our employers keep hiring foriegners. every employee ought to ask themselves why an employer would hire them. the only answer is that you the employee will make the employer money. if not, why hire that person, is it your deadhead brother in law? if you can’t make your employer money, you are superfluous. it’s a cruel world, but if you want welfare, go stand in line at the gubmint office.
OK folks. Can we
herehear a big YES for home schooling again please.OPPS. PUPLIC SCHOOL ENGLISH.
Yup, just what an already failing public school system needs is more input from the bogus Chicago method for teaching anything. I had to deal with the garbbage curriculum in the northern Chicago burbs. Stupid and inept doesn’t begin to describe what went on. Children were sent home with worksheets in math after having spent the day playing games in class instead of being taught anything. None of the teachers wanted to be perceived as being mean, so school mean playtime.
So maybe it is home schooling after all.
There it is. We are in our present state of affairs precisely because we allowed the left to execute their Marxist agenda within all our public institutions. (Who woulda thunk it? McCarthy was actually correct.)
Wage war on all the Bill Ayers Marxists until they are expunged from our society, and start with the schools. If they won’t reform, defund them.
Innismir, your wife does have a point. As a math teacher myself (South Chicago Suburbs) a public high school that made AYP this year, the cycling and repetition of concepts does have its merits. To add to that, it does need to be firmly rooted on a solid knowledge of the basics! Mmorizing the times tables, knowing how to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators, thoroughly understanding how percentage, fractions and decimals are all related is essential! Without it,kidsl flounder all through school.
I pulled my daughter from a public school because they refused to teach solid basics! My two previous daughters went through the same school with good old fashioned teachers, and they excel to this day. My youngest daughter, was put in with new hires and 1 very poor “experienced” teacher and she sank like a rock. Half a year in the Catholic school and she’s at grade level and accelerating!
As previous posts have said, you need good solid hard nosed teachers, and the kids need to know the basics 9 ways to Sunday. If they get that, they will do Ok ,nd better,at the higher levels of education.
That doesn’t happen in Chicago, unless you’re at the magnet schools.
I wouldn’t mind public schools being awful if they didn’t cost so damn much.
And vice versa.
I almost spewed my coffee this morning. The TV in the restaurant was tuned to CNBC and they were running a countdown clock to Obama’s press conference. On the lighter side called my folks who still live in Illinois and asked them if they got their bid in for the Senate seat before the Feds moved in. Dad said he didn’t but was thinking about breaking out the pitchfork and heading to Springfield
It’s not just the leftist schools.
Spend some time one of these days watching those daytime ‘educational’ or after school cartoons that your kids watch.
I happened to be watching one with my son a couple weeks ago..(I monitor these every once in awhile to prevent too much liberalism from becoming ingrained in my kids head’s)…and saw a beautiful moment on one of the show’s (Wow-wow Wubzy I think) where they were celebrating the accomplishments of the Kennedy’s, mainly Ted, and they kept mentioning John F. in every other sentence, I guess so people would think they had the same values and views.
I almost lost my fruitloops right there on the couch.
Needless to say, we changed the channel and watched the rest of Naruto.
The state of public education in our nation is disgraceful! Education needs to get back to basics. Money is not the problem except we pay way too much for administrators to shuffle papers. Getting parents involved is also important but in this day and age probably impossible/
YES!! Those of you with children and grandchildren, do everything you can to keep them out of the public school system. The propaganda coming out of those institutions will poison their minds and we may never get these kids back! It is just not worth the risk! If you can’t afford private school, or home schooling, be sure to talk to your kids every night and deprogram them, and also watch the homework carefully for any signs of indoctrination. Keep an open line with the school and use it often. Don’t let them get away with anything!
The coal miners teach math too? Wait’ll the boys down at Katie’s hear about this.
If you can afford it, for $99 a month, a happy tutor from India will tutor your kid in math as many hours as they want, using your computer with a cam and mic.
I’d have to Google for the link, but it was in a NY Times web article, and I provided a link for it in another thread on this blog months ago. If you have the money – worth every penny.
Seriously.
That is outrageously expensive.
Not mention there should not be a Federal Department of Education. As Billions of new dollars have poured into education in the last generation we have seen skill levels drop. When you have an assistant Superintendent of Schools-Chicago make the statement “We gots to get Quality Education to these childrens” -Houston-we have a problem.
I have had people with college degrees apply for a job-when you see their application you wonder how they got through high school. They can not figure cube/ton shipping rates. We have $21.50 an hour warehouse men who can. Old warehouse men.
Actually, if memory serves LGM writes pretty strongly AGAINST this kind of fuzzy math on his website.
Not taking his side in other matters here…..
Compared to the ignorance down at the local schoolhouse?
Ok, I admit, I’m price-skewed by the high cost of everything in Hawaii, but if the kid spent 2 hours a day, 5 times a week on line – that would be – huh, let’s see, 5 x 2 x 4 (usually) = 40, then – lgm, help me out here – $99/40 is oh crikey, a remainder….
that’s $2.48 an hour.
Obama’s high school is $16,675 per year. Is that around $12 an hour?
Actually I use to tutor math in Hawaii. I found that it should not take more than 1 hour a week to tutor a child. If they are spending more time than that then they are just not very good.
Yeah Punahou and all the private schools in Hawaii are expensive, but from my perspective you are paying $25 per hour.
Just one question, Mr. President-Elect: If this guy is good enough to be responsible for the entire country’s public school system, how come you never sent your daughters to one of his schools in Chicago?
Oh sorry, can’t hear you with all the crickets chirping.
I was a teacher who was told to use Everyday Math for my students – but I knew right away it wouldn’t work. We learned math the old fashioned way and my 4th graders did great on their state mandated tests. (not sure if that is saying much!)
When my 2nd grader went to a public school after we moved they were doing Everyday Math and she was completely confused! Let’s not mention the horrible leftist socialist ideas they were teaching her in social studies! We pulled her from class every single day for 2 weeks so she wouldn’t have to listen it. We finally pulled her out of school at semester, homeschooled last semester and sent her to a private school this year.
Trust me people – the schools are getting worse and getting more and more liberal and socialist. Even in conservative parts of the world like Oklahoma!
The only good news is that, the Federal Government is not given the responsibility of providing education. That is a power left to the states. If the states would get their heads out of a particular place, and actually learn a bit of civics, namely that the feds can’t tell you what to teach unless you want their money. They could then balance their budgets, and tell them and their mandates to shove off.
I watched! Did anybody else notice that Obama was calling on reporters from a list? He called Ahern without even knowing where she was in the room.
He had a list of reporters – I wonder if he had a list of questions?
Why do any of you people care? Aren’t all of you home schooled – from places like Idaho?
I went to public schools, graduated in the top 10% of my class, and then had to pay for several remedial classes to get into college. I graduated with a 3.9 (I *still* don’t get Philosophy….) so I am assuming that something is indeed wrong in the public school system.
I am very much against a Federal education system because I think it is absolutely impossible to think that Manhattan children will benefit from the same programs that Iowa children wold.
Bill Ayers understands that the path to Communist Revolution is through education. When Marxists say, “If we can’t have you, we’ll get your kids“, they aren’t talking about physically taking your kids, they are talking about mentally taking your kids, via public school brainwashing.
It is the “demoralization” process, which was already “overfulfilled” in 1985. It’s only gotten worse over the last 23 years (another generation).
Our economy has been destablized (phase 2), and brought to the point of crisis (phase 3), just in time to have influenced an election and bring a lifelong Marxist to the doorstep of the Presidency of the United States.
I believe with every fiber in my being that Obama wants to take the USA to phase 4: Communist Normalization.
But it’s not a done deal just yet. Obama is not a natural born citizen, due to the undisputed fact that both he and his father were British subjects at the time of his birth.
Every member of Congress has sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Every member of Congress should be requiring Obama to prove that he qualifies as a “natural born citizen”. Of course, most won’t. But it only takes one member in each house to challenge the vote.
And if Congress does certify the vote, then that may be the point at which the Supreme Court steps in. The SCOTUS has denied stays of elections, but they have not denied certiorari in ANY of the three cases that are now PENDING at the court.
Yes, Senator Joe McCarthy was right. There are Marxists at very high levels of all three branches of our government.
Ok, point taken, but I would have needed 10 hours a week.
I think the correct pronunciation of “everyday math” is “maf”.
Steve Diamond, who has done extensive work on the CAC, Ayers, and all the attendant controversies is characterizing this as a loss for Ayer-esque education policy.
http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/12/obama-disappoints-family-friend-ayers.html
I’m not jumping to conclusions.
Nope, but understand efficiency is not a priority in India, so they would see no reason to teach you quicker
when i went to catholic school in the height of the baby boom, sister mary vicious controlled a class of 35 to 40 kids from 8a.m to 3p.m. with no trouble at all. we had no attention deficit disorder, because a pointer across your head focussed your attention. we likewise had no hyperactive disorders, because you were given an hour broken up into a morning and afternoon recess of 15 minutes and a noon recess of 1/2 hour and we played tag, dodgeball, and a game we called monster tag, where 1 guy was it, and everyone he touched was a helper, but only he could tag you out. so soon you had 10 – 15 guys fighting to hold onto the remaining non tagged players, while the guy who was it ran around and tagged these captives. lots of damaged clothes and bloody bodies, but the more hyperactive you were, the longer you generally lasted, and thus dispensed that boyish energy.
Why would we care if someone who was rabidly pro-abortion became Secretary of Health and Human Services? Aren’t all of us from a state with bans on partial birth abortion and has in place parental consent and mandatory ultrasound laws?
Why would we care if someone who was rabidly anti-gun became the head of the ATF? Aren’t all of us from a state with open carry laws and shall issue conceal carry laws?
Seriously, is that you all you got? Because if you are the beacon for liberal intelligence I’ll start taking bets on where you went to public school. First bet is North Korea. Second is Cuba. Third is Chicago since you seem to fit in with the fuzzy math crowd.
Even lgm (I can’t believe I’m defending lgm even in the slightest) for all his deranged moonbat beliefs espouses to teach real math on his website and speaks out against fuzzy math.
Chicago Public Schools have been absolutely awful, and now this tragedy gets to be inflicted on the rest of the nation. Blech.
Duncan is a segregationist.
He created separate high schools for gays in Chicago.