"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Learning standards and real life.


Sent to the Baltimore Sun, Nov 6

Arnold Packer is right: "The Common Core won't help the common man," (Nov. 5). As Packer points out, the math standards are skewed to the college path. So are the English Language Arts standards: Susan Ohanian has remarked that they seem to be made for English majors. 

John Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, spoke to this problem in 1961:"The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."

Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California

source: John Gardner, 1961. Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too? WW Norton. Reprinted, 1995.
original article: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-11-05/news/bs-ed-education-policy-20131105_1_math-standards-the-common-core-basic-math-s

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