Comments on: Class and the Classroom http://anne.teachesme.com/2004/10/07/class-and-the-classroom/ Comments, reflections and occasional brainstorms Sat, 19 May 2012 10:39:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.4-bleeding By: Mark McConkie http://anne.teachesme.com/2004/10/07/class-and-the-classroom/#comment-157 Mark McConkie Mon, 11 Oct 2004 19:01:59 +0000 http://anne.teachesme.com/2004/10/07/class-and-the-classroom/#comment-157 <a></a>This article seems to make NCLB very misguided. To be honest, I don't know all the details about it, only what you hear in general: that schools are held to relatively high achievement standards, that they can lose federal funding if they fail to meet those standards, and that they are supposed to use research based methods of instruction. I also know that it is criticized as being an unfunded mandate, which is curious since I understand that Bush increased the education budget by something like 40 Billion dollars. I'd like to know why it exists in the face of such opposition. Someone in the educational community and not just government must be in favor of it! But that is not why I'm responding. I thought the article was very insightful and enjoyed this comment in particular: "In human affairs where multiple causation is typical, causes are not disproved by exceptions." The authors point is very well-taken. Addressing our educational problems requires a much more systemic approach than to only set goals and require scientfically validated methods of instruction, because children are affected by so many external factors. Even though some will rise above the social or economic standing, the average child will still struggle. This article seems to make NCLB very misguided. To be honest, I don’t know all the details about it, only what you hear in general: that schools are held to relatively high achievement standards, that they can lose federal funding if they fail to meet those standards, and that they are supposed to use research based methods of instruction. I also know that it is criticized as being an unfunded mandate, which is curious since I understand that Bush increased the education budget by something like 40 Billion dollars. I’d like to know why it exists in the face of such opposition. Someone in the educational community and not just government must be in favor of it!

But that is not why I’m responding. I thought the article was very insightful and enjoyed this comment in particular: “In human affairs where multiple causation is typical, causes are not disproved by exceptions.” The authors point is very well-taken. Addressing our educational problems requires a much more systemic approach than to only set goals and require scientfically validated methods of instruction, because children are affected by so many external factors. Even though some will rise above the social or economic standing, the average child will still struggle.

]]> By: Murat http://anne.teachesme.com/2004/10/07/class-and-the-classroom/#comment-156 Murat Sun, 10 Oct 2004 08:24:30 +0000 http://anne.teachesme.com/2004/10/07/class-and-the-classroom/#comment-156 <a></a>Before I started reading your post, I was reading the article „learning and conversation‰ by Baker, Jensen and Kolb (2002). They made several interesting points on the importance of conversation in learning. Specifically, they pointed out the importance of family conversation. I would like to quote couple sentences in relation to Richard Rothstein‚s article: „To be deprived of good conversation can be devastating. While Nobel laureates and large proportion of other successful people come from families that talked around the dinner table, many children today have no one to talk with and often no dinner table‰ (p.5). Baker A. C., Kolb D. A. & Jensen P. J. (2002). Learning and conversation. In Ann C. Baker, David A. Kolb, Patricia J. Jensen (Eds.), Coversational Learning. Westport: Quorum Books. Before I started reading your post, I was reading the article „learning and conversation‰ by Baker, Jensen and Kolb (2002). They made several interesting points on the importance of conversation in learning. Specifically, they pointed out the importance of family conversation. I would like to quote couple sentences in relation to Richard Rothstein‚s article:

„To be deprived of good conversation can be devastating. While Nobel laureates and large proportion of other successful people come from families that talked around the dinner table, many children today have no one to talk with and often no dinner table‰ (p.5).

Baker A. C., Kolb D. A. & Jensen P. J. (2002). Learning and conversation. In Ann C. Baker, David A. Kolb, Patricia J. Jensen (Eds.), Coversational Learning. Westport: Quorum Books.

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