Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal blasted reports Tuesday that teachers are being reprimanded for speaking out against Common Core standards on social media. A teacher in Rapides Parish, in Alexandria, La., was “written up” for writing a negative post on Facebook about the controversial standards, according to Town Talk.
Archives for October 8, 2014
What Is Direct Instruction?
Day 5: Skinner Horror Files Skinner Troubles with Direct Instruction/Mastery Learning The following blog post is an excerpt from Appendix XXV of my book the deliberate dumbing down of america. It is the second of a two-part alert series in the late 1990s that comprised this particular appendix. This is the best summary of what exactly […]
Why Constructivism and Direct Instruction will Damage Your Child’s Brain – Part 3
A Couple Loose Analogies Picture totalitarianism on one end of a scale and anarchy on the other. Both have issues but for different reasons. Totalitarianism is like Capital “D.I.” Direct Instruction where they attempt Prussian style education of forcing knowledge into heads. Here’s your task, repeat it. Constructivism is akin to anarchy. Anarchy always always […]
Who’s Who and What’s What
Day 4: Skinner Horror Files The Next Generations of Programmed Instruction This post is a history lesson taken directly out of my book the deliberate dumbing down of america, Appendix XXV. This appendix has two alerts that were sent out in the late 1990s that warned about how Skinner’s form of operant conditioning education (the original […]
Why Constructivism and Direct Instruction will Damage Your Child’s Brain – Part 2
In the Schools Today 2004 was my pivotal year. My oldest was in 3rd grade and I discovered that Alpine School District was no longer teaching the times tables or long division to children and hadn’t for at least 3 straight years. What in the world was happening? Alpine and several other districts had partnered […]
Hooking Children to Computers
Day 3: The Skinner Horror Files Programmed Instruction: An Introduction Exhibit 1 is from a 1971 textbook Psychology Applied to Teaching by Robert F. Biehler (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston). This photo illustrates the early use of Skinner’s PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION in the classroom using a “teaching machine” computer. In order to understand what has been happening in […]
Failure to pass US surveillance reform bill could still curtail NSA powers
If the Senate doesn’t pass the USA Freedom Act after the midterm elections, a key section of the Patriot Act could expire Two members of the US House of Representatives are warning that a failure to pass landmark surveillance reform will result in a far more drastic curtailment of US surveillance powers – one that […]